Mount the Air

Adrian McNally wrote the music, and the first verse is based on the traditional song "I'll Mount the Air on Swallow's Wings" (Roud 578), collected from Mrs. Crawford of West Milton by the Hammonds between 1905 and 1908 and printed in A Dorset Book of Folk Songs (1958); other words are by McNally and Becky Unthank. Becky found a snippet in the library at Cecil Sharp House, which McNally used, per an interview we could only see as a search summary; KLOF Mag likewise says she found it in a book. The album track runs 10:34, and The Skinny mentions a shorter radio edit for the single.

Drowned in Sound called it an epic title track with an aching trumpet refrain and a bass that hints at John Martyn, and KLOF Mag's Simon Holland called it one of the most profoundly beautiful things I have ever had the privilege of hearing, praising Tom Arthurs's trumpet solo. Setlist.fm lists it as their most-played song, 91 plays. At the Glasshouse in Gateshead on January 30, 2026, marking the album's tenth anniversary with Royal Northern Sinfonia, it closed the first set with clog dancing and a Lizzie Jones trumpet solo, and a reprise was an encore. We found no covers or samples, and do not know which version our upload carries.