Denis Shepherd’s award-winning The Morning Roll Song can really divide audiences.
But then, it’s supposed to.
“About six years ago, I was talking to a friend about morning rolls when I realised that they mean different things depending on where you come from,” Denis says of the song, which won the song writing prize at the 2016 Aberdeen Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland competition.
“And that’s why I wrote the song. Some people think a morning roll is a soft roll whereas some people think it’s a buttery.”
The song lays bare the regional differences in Aberdeen and the Shire when it comes to naming our breakfast bakes.
Even better, it highlights the potential for comedic confusion when lining up at the bakery.
This is, of course, right up the street of Me and My Buttery, so we invited Denis in to the Press & Journal office to sing his hilarious song to a delighted audience.
Check out the video below to see Denis’s exclusive performance.
Watch Denis sing The Morning Roll song here
The song, which won Denis the first of three Aberdeen song writing prizes, is not the 70-year-old’s only one about food.
He also sings a song about porridge as well as one on fried eggs.
It is, however, his most popular, and is frequently requested when Denis is out on Aberdeen’s traditional Scottish music circuit.
Denis, who lives in Aberdeen but is originally from upper Donside, attributes the song’s popularity to one thing: “It’s because it’s funny, with all these different names.”
And though the song isn’t specifically about butteries, that’s how people remember it.
Says Denis: “They all say to me, ‘I like that song about the rowies!'”
Conversation