Scottish Tradition Series Vol 24 - Songs And Ballads From Perthshire (Field Recordings Of The 1950s)

(May 2011) 25 tracks: Ower Yon Hill There Lives a Lassie * Frank and Ruby * Boggie’s Bonnie Belle * The Maid of Culmore * Hatton Woods * Jamie Foyers * Late Last Night I Was Asked To A Wedding * Tifty’s Annie * The Green Bushes * Jean McLern * Susie Pirate (Lord Bateman) * Lowlands of Lowlands * In A Garden a Lady Walking * The Elfin Knight * The Banks O Airdery O * I’ll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair * The Farmer’s Curst Wife * Lord Randal * Falkirk Fair * The Golden Vanity (John MacDonald and John Reid versions) * The Tinker’s Waddin (Willie Townsley and Stewart McPhee versions) * Banks O Red Roses * The Dyin Ploughboy * The Boys of Bayview * The Flower of Strathmore.

Volume 24 of the acclaimed Scottish Tradition Series of recordings from the archives of the School of Scottish Studies.

Maurice Fleming, of Blairgowrie, whose collecting forms a very important part of the School Archives, has acted as editor. These recordings include many of the fine singers Maurice met while on fieldwork in the 1950s in Perthshire - such stalwarts as Belle Stewart, Sheila Stewart, Willie MacPhee, Bella Higgins, Jock White, Charlotte Higgins, John MacDonald, Willie Townsley, Tommy Bonthrone and more.

All but one of the singers featured here is a member of the Travelling community, and it is is very fitting that the Travellers should be the focus, since their contribution to the School of Scottish Studies Archives have been so central to the understanding of oral tradition.

Maurice was lucky to find the Stewart family (the Stewarts of Blair) and held sessions at their home on the other side of the Ericht in Rattray. They invited in Travellers who were in the district for the berrypicking and were camping on farms round about the town. He recorded in other houses as well and in the open air, wherever he found Travellers willing to sing to him or tell tales. Later he went to Birnam to record Martha Reid and her family and to Pitlochry to meet the Travellers at the Bobbin Mill where they lived.