cd ah002 £11.99 (£10.20 excl VAT)The Fife Traditional Singing Weekend brings traditional singers together in an informal setting to give song enthusiasts a chance to meet and hear some of the finest exponents of the art. The event has now (as at summer 2005) been running for three years and this album includes 20 songs from 16 singers recorded live at the May 2003 and May 2004 events.
The album opens with a superb rendition of the famous north east song The Bonnie Lass o Fyvie sung Gordon Easton and joined by a room full of singers raising the roof in chorus. Some of the ancient ballads are sung: Sir Patric Spens by Duncan Willimason and The Bonnie Hoose o Airlie by Stanley Robertson. Other guests include Sheila Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart and, from Ireland, Roisin White. Full details on songs and singers can be accessed from the Track List below.
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Track List:
1: The Bonnie Lass o Fyvie - Gordon Easton
2: For Greenland We Are Bound - Jock Duncan
3: Down the Moor - Roisin White
4: Ye Canna Pit It on tae Sandy - Ron Bissett
5: Sir Patrick Spens - Duncan Williamson
6: Maids When You’re Young - Sheila Stewart
7: The Bonnie Hoose o Airlie - Stanley Robertson
8: The Lover’s Ghost - Alison McMorland & Kirsty Potts
9: The Muckin o Geordie’s Byre - Geordie Murison
10: The Plooman Laddies - Elizabeth Stewart & Alison McMorland
11: Bonnie Bessie Logan - Gordon Easton
12: Jock Hawk’s Adventures - Arthur Watson with Pete Shepheard & Tom Spiers
13: The Moorlough Shore - Roisin White
14: Muckle Friday Fair - Jim Taylor
15: Sae Will We Yet - Jock Duncan
16: Dae Ye Mind on Lang Lang Syne - Maggie Macrae
17: The Bonnie Hind - Norman Stewart
18: Twa Recruiting Sergeants - Geordie Murison
19: The Jolly Beggar - Elizabeth Stewart & Tom McKean
20: The Parting Glass - Sheila Stewart
The Singers
Ron Bissett: Ron was born in Kincardineshire and came south with his family when his father came as head shepherd first to Goddens near Kilspindie in Perthshire and then to Kippo at Kingsbarns. Ron took his first job at Letham in 1950 - driving a pair of horse and living in the bothy. A well known local bothy ballad singer
, Ron now lives in Falkland. He was a member of the Fife Yokels that competed in the Bothy Nichts programme on Grampian TV in the 1960s and leads a concert party for local events in Fife. Here he sings the well-known humorous Willie Kemp song, Ye Canna Pit it on tae Sandy (Track 4).
Jock Duncan: Now living in Pitlochry, Jock was brought up in the ballad-rich farming country around New Deer and Fyvie in Aberdeenshire where he developed his love of traditional ballads and songs. Fiddle, melodeon and bothy ballads were the staple diet at regular farm kitchen gatherings. He has won numerous traditional singing and bothy ballad competitions and is acknowledged as one of the foremost traditional singers and is a mine of knowledge of songs and ballads and of a farming way of life now long past. Jock sings two songs on the CD: a whaling song, For Greenland we are Bound and a fine celebratory song, Sae Will We Yet.
Gordon Easton: For many years, Gordon has farmed a small croft at Wellhead of Tyrie near Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire. He was brought up with songs and music in the family, he plays fiddle and jews harp and has a great store of traditional songs and ballads. He is also a master at rural crafts including rope making and was a horse ploughman in his younger days. A past winner of Bothy Ballad Championships at Elgin and Strichen, he has also been a guest at TMSA festivals in Auchtermuchty and Keith. Here he sings a rousing version of The Bonnie Lass o Fyvie along with Bonnie Bessie Logan.
Tom McKean: Tom is a folklorist working at present at the Elphinstone Institute in Aberdeen preparing the massive archive of cylinder recordings of songs and ballads made by an American collector James Carpenter in northeast Scotland in the 1930s. Tom presented a workshop (May 2004) with Gordon Easton and here he joins his good friend Elizabeth Stewart in the ballad The Jolly Beggar.
Alison McMorland & Kirsty Potts: Alison has been researching the Fetterangus Stewarts for a book she is writing and has spent many hours with Elizabeth Stewart in the last few years. Her interview with Elizabeth during the 2004 weekend worked spectacularly well when the audience were spellbound by Elizabeth’s reminiscences and songs. Alison joins Elizabeth in singing The Plooman Laddies and Alison and her daughter Kirsty sing Johnnie he Promised to Marry Me or The Lover’s Ghost.
Maggie Macrae: From Darvel in Ayrshire, Maggie has been a singer and traditional song enthusiast for many years. She is organiser of the Kilmarnock Folk Club and Festival and the Girvan Folk Festival. She plays accordion in her own Tattie Howkers Ceilidh Band. Here she sings the local Ayrshire song Dae Ye Mind on Lang Lang Syne.
Geordie Murison: Geordie is an equipment contractor from Mill of Craigiecat near Stonehaven. He is an enthusiast for traditional songs and bothy ballads with a fine repertoire largely gleaned from singers in his area around Stonehaven and beyond. Here Geordie sings the famous bothy ballad, The Muckin o Geordie’s Byre.
Stanley Robertson: Master storyteller, ballad singer and piper, Stanley was brought up in the traditions of his extended family many of whom were musicians and singers. Stanley has strong traveller roots - his father’s sister was Jeannie Robertson, the renowned Aberdeen ballad singer, and Lizzie Higgins, her daughter, was his cousin. Stanley has written several books of traditional tales and reminiscences of traveller life and his time in the fish trade. He is currently the keyworker for the Heritage Lottery Funded Oral and Cultural Traditions of Scottish Travellers Project at the Elphinstone Institute in Aberdeen. Here Stanley sings the powerful Perthshire ballad The Bonnie Hoose o Airlie.
Elizabeth Stewart: Elizabeth is recognised as one of Scotland’s foremost ballad singers. She has been singing the traditional songs and ballads of the northeast since childhood, learning her art from her family, especially her aunt Lucy Stewart of Fetterangus who became internationally known through her recordings made by the distinguished American collector Kenneth Goldstein around 1960. Elizabeth is also a gifted player of traditional music on the piano and, like her mother Jean, led her own Scottish country dance band. Here she sings her aunt Lucy’s The Plooman Laddies along with Alison McMorland and The Jolly Beggar along with Tom McKean.
Norman Stewart: One of many talented participants at the weekend, Norman Stewart has been around the folk scene for over 30 years. Brought up in the west highlands but now living in the borders, he has a song repertoire in Scots and Gaelic, is a fine guitarist and has played in a number of well-known groups. Here he sings a rare and interesting old ballad The Bonnie Hind.
Sheila Stewart: Sheila’s passionate and distinctive style of singing has long been recognised as an outstanding presence in the Scottish tradition. She inherited her rich repertoire of song, ballad and story traditions through her Blairgowrie family the Stewarts of Blair - ballad singing mother Belle and piper and storytelling father Alex. It was during the 1950s when the family had their own berry farm that Belle composed her famous song The Berryfields of Blair. Here Sheila sings a unique version of Maids When You’re Young inherited from the singing of a great friend, singer, piper and storyteller the late Willie McPhee and a farewell song The Parting Glass.
Jim Taylor: Jim was brought up on a farm in the neighbourhood of Garlogie in Aberdeenshire. He is a nephew of the late Tam Reid of Cullerlie, the famous Bothy Ballad King, so it is not surprising that Jim has a large repertoire of bothy ballads. He is a favourite singer in the northeast and a popular compere at the local village ceilidhs. Jim was another audience member captured on tape at an informal singaround, here singing Muckle Friday Fair.
Arthur Watson with Pete Shepheard and Tom Spiuers: Arthur, Pete and Tom have been enthusiasts for traditional song for many years and sing together as Shepheard, Spiers & Watson. They founded The East of Scotland Traditional Song Group in 2003 specifically to run the Fife Traditional Singing Weekend which (as at summer 2005) has now run for three years. This CD is the product of recordings made at the 2003 and 2004 events. Here Arthur leads in singing Jock Hawk's Adventures accompanied by Pete on melodeon and Tom on fiddle.
Roisin White: Roisin White is from Armagh and is a fine exponent of traditional songs mainly from the north of Ireland with songs in both Irish and English. She has been a guest at Cullerlie Traditional Singing Weekend and at the great traditional gathering at the Whitby Folk Festival. Many of her songs show evidence of historical links between Scotland and Ireland. Her songs come from her mother and from other singers in the rich traditions of her area. Here she sings Down the Moor and The Moorlough Shore.
Duncan Williamson: Duncan now lives in Ladybank just down the road from the singing weekend venue, but his roots are in the traveller life and he was born in a traveller's bow tent on the shores of Loch Fyne in Argyll. In summer his family wandered the highlands, working on farms or selling their wares of tin and heather and baskets of woven willow. Duncan took an interest in song and story from a young age soaking up his repertoire from family, from friends and from thatchers and dry stane dykers he worked with along the way. He is recognised worldwide for his outstanding store of Scottish traditional folk tales - but is also a fine singer with some magnificent ancient ballads. Here he sings his grannie’s version of that great old Scots ballad Sir Patrick Spens.