Trad Scots Song of Aberdeenshire
And a visit with a fine Scots singer
On one of our visits to Aberdeen, we enjoyed a visit with a great traditional Scots singer named Janice Reavell (née Clark), who grew up in Aberdeen and is well known for her performances at folk festivals, and her expertise in the traditional ballads of Scotland’s Northeast. She was influenced by great singers such as Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins, and Stanley Robertson.
To set the context for how important this vocal tradition is for Scottish culture, I’d like to share another chapter from my book, MusicScapes of Scotland: Vignettes from Prehistory to Pandemic. This was originally published in Scottish Life magazine in 2000 (with a few minor updates).
Her rich voice filled every note with a passion so plain that no one could listen unaffected. Her songs told old stories that felt urgent, and yet she sang each word as if she had all the time in the world.
Such was Jeannie Robertson of Aberdeenshire, “one of the angels of folk song that have kept the tradition alive and burning across time,” as folklorist Alan Lomax described her.
Plucked from ordinary lives and set down in the new folk festivals and clubs of the 1950s, Jeannie and other singers like her inspired a generation of post-war Scots to re-evaluate and explore their own native traditions. The cultural ripple effect of their singing upon modern Scottish music is remarkable.
CDs are now available that include Jeannie and other key Aberdeenshire singers, among them Jane Turriff, Jock Duncan, Jimmy MacBeath, Sheila MacGregor, Lizzie Higgins, Margaret Stewart, John Strachan, and Willie Scott. All can be heard on the Scottish Tradition series made available by the University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies on the Greentrax label, and on the Alan Lomax Collection CDs on Rounder Records.
Jeannie Robertson’s solo CD, Queen of the Heather, part of the Alan Lomax series, offers many previously unreleased songs, plus brief interviews revealing some of Jeannie’s thoughts about the songs. Jane Turriff has a solo album as well, drawn from archival recordings and aptly called Singin is Ma Life, while Jock Duncan recently recorded his first album, Ye Shine Whar Ye Stan!, at the age of 70, full of spirit and accompanied by his famous piping son, Gordon Duncan, along with Brian McNeill and Peter Shepheard. Both Turriff’s and Duncan’s albums are on Springthyme Records, a label devoted to traditional Scots music.
The northeast of Scotland is a treasure trove of songs. Some 1/3 of the ballads collected and catalogued by Francis Child originated in this area, and variants of these songs have spread throughout Britain and America. One of the largest folksong collections in the world is the Greig-Duncan Collection – over 3,000 songs found in Aberdeenshire by Gavin Greig and James Duncan at the beginning of the 20th century. At the time, nobody dreamed there could be so many songs in that area. As Lomax later noted, “the Scots have the liveliest folk tradition of the British Isles,” and the northeast of Scotland figures as one of the richest of regional cultures.
The School of Scottish Studies series includes an album of Bothy Ballads (songs from the farmworkers of Aberdeenshire and Fife), and an album of The Muckle Sangs (narrative ballads) from northeast Scotland, both of which present many of the traditional singers mentioned above.
In addition to Jeannie Robertson’s album, the Alan Lomax Collection includes four other CDs featuring music of Scotland: the World Library of Folk and Primitive Music Vol. 3, which highlights the first recorded survey of Scottish music (1951); two volumes of Child ballads in Classic Ballads of Britain and Ireland; and Songs of Seduction, which presents the more ribald folk songs.
Although the School of Scottish Studies series and the Lomax Collection are all digitally remastered from the original tape recordings to ensure reasonable sound quality, they are intended as documentation of a living tradition rather than as entertaining listening. Some of the singers are captivating, but others are unfortunately past their prime, and were recorded because of their repertoire or their renown.
A more listenable introduction to traditional songs can be found in Folk Songs of Northeast Scotland, an album recorded live at the 1995 Edinburgh International Festival. This album includes older singers such as Jane Turriff and Jock Duncan, and the classic singers Sheila Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart, and Norman Kennedy. There’s a song from Hamish Henderson, who developed the School of Scottish Studies and brought many traditional singers to light. Contemporary favorites Isla St. Clair, Sheena Wellington, Aileen Carr, Gordeanna McCulloch, and several other solo and group songs round out the album.
One stumbling block in listening to the songs of Aberdeenshire is the strong Scots, sometimes called Lallans (as in “Lowlands”) or Doric. It can frustrate English speakers to listen to songs that seem to be in English but, because of the Scots words and accent, are sometimes just beyond understanding. Yet the melodies and the lilting voices are worth hearing in and of themselves, and with a little practice, it’s not too difficult to understand most of the lyrics as well.
Isla St. Clair is one singer who was directly inspired by the great traditional singers performing in the Aberdeen Folk Club during the 1960s. She was featured in a BBC television program filmed live in a village hall. Two resulting CDs, Tatties and Herrin’: The Land, and Tatties and Herrin’: The Sea are educational and entertaining, alternating traditional songs with descriptions of life in northeast Scotland. She also sang the soundtrack for When the Pipers Play, celebrating the legend of the bagpipes in Britain and America.
Though music of the Scottish northeast is not widely known, it became available from the record label Sleepytoon Records, which made several albums by the traditional northeast singing group, The Gaugers, as well as a bothy song collection. Ross Records has a compilation of greatest hits from a popular annual Aberdeenshire concert series called The Auld Meal Mill 1982-1999, including singers Robert Lovie, John Mearns and Ina Miller, along with some fine northeast-style fiddling, dance band music and whistle playing.
If you become familiar with the songs kept alive by the old traditional singers, you’ll hear them crop up in many contexts in Scottish music today, whether performed by modern Celtic bands, popular entertainers, or urban folksingers. For example, the popular band Old Blind Dogs, originally based in Aberdeen, has included in its recordings quite a few old ballads and bothy songs from the Northeast, such as “The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Fordie,” “Cruel Sister,” “Battle of Harlaw,” “Mormond Braes,” “Barnyards of Delgaty,” and “Gin I Were Where Gadie Rins,” all with innovative, contemporary arrangements.
The editors of Living Tradition, Scotland’s folk music magazine [last published in 2022] produced the “Tradition Bearers” series to emphasize the notion that each generation produces singers with the talent and desire to immerse themselves in the tradition and become sources for the generation to follow. The first two albums of the series featured Bob Blair and Jimmy Hutchison in relaxed, enjoyable performances.
It would be difficult to list the many contemporary singers in Scotland who draw upon the great song traditions of Aberdeenshire — Ian F. Benzie, Sheena Wellington, Rod Paterson, Isla St. Clair, Heather Heywood, Adam McNaughton, Dick Gaughan, Archie Fisher, Brian McNeill, Iain Mackintosh, Alan Reid, Davy Steele — this might be a good short list (though no doubt I’ve left out somebody’s favorite singer!). Some who continued their Scottish singing though based overseas in the U.S. included Tony Cuffe, Ed Miller, and Jean Redpath.
One remarkable fact about these modern singers is that many of them spent most of their time singing. There is enough appreciation for traditional music that they could even make a bit of a living into the bargain. This is a long way from the time when traditional singers were farmers, traveling people, and shepherds.
And yet, judging from the likes of Jeannie Robertson, it doesn’t take a singing career to make a great singer. It requires a good voice, plus the heart and the dedication that were part and parcel of the thriving culture of Aberdeenshire.