I got an email today from Andrew Eaton-Lewis, who performs as Seafieldroad and also as one half of Swimmer One. Ironically, for someone who until recently was a journalist for the Scotsman, he was the very first person I interviewed for this blog.

Having released a rather fine album as Seafieldroad back in 2010 (read the review here), he’s due to release his next album The Winter of 88 this October. Between now and then there’s quite a few things happening in Scotland which will see people’s eyes on this fair country, not least the Commonwealth Games and the Scottish Independence referendum.

In his email, he spoke of how his stance on how he was going to vote in the referendum has changed, and his surprise that not many people were writing songs about it.

So Andrew did! It’s taken from his forthcoming album and it’s entitled ‘This Road Won’t Build Itself.’

You can read the lyrics below, it’s the last two verses that particularly resonate with this writer:

My wife and I are way off the map
We’re building a country completely from scratch
We won’t get to live there, we’re sad about that
But it will be better than anything we had
when we were kids

And everyone round here is building it too
They’ve got tools to work with, they know what to do
They just need the courage to see it through
And not be ground down by the lies and abuse
when we were kids

This road won’t build itself
Pick up your spade, pick up your axe
There’s hope on the horizon
But only if we walk there

This road won’t build itself
Pick up your spade, pick up your axe
Put houses up along the way
A place to keep our children safe

They’ll tell you you don’t need to
This road’s already built
Your houses are right here
Put down your spade, put down your axe

But look at the fear on their faces
The grey hairs and the bruises
Their houses are collapsing
And they’re still painting over the cracks