Jeannie Robertson - The Great Scots Traditional Ballad Singer (Topic Records 10T52 1959)

Jeannie Robertson is a monumental figure in Scottish traditional song whose influence and importance as a preserver of folklore will sustain for as long as traditional ballads are sung.

Regina Christina Robertson was born into a traveller family in Aberdeen on October 21, 1908. Her father, Donald, who died a year later, was a piper and her mother, Maria, was a singer with a vast store of songs and stories.

There was music going back generations on both sides of the family and as Jeannie grew up in the traveller life, spending six months of the year in Aberdeen and spring and summer on the roads up Deeside and down Donside, there were musical gatherings round both hearthside and campsite. Music wasn’t just entertainment. The songs and stories formed guides to traveller history and lessons in life.

Some of the songs Jeannie sang weren’t quite as old as her callers suspected, as she often made up songs of her own while doing her housework. Her singing of ballads including her most celebrated song, Son David, and the Battle of Harlaw was, however, the long oral tradition at work and she gave battle songs added realism through visualising swords clashing and men falling as she sang.

In 1968, Jeannie was appointed MBE for services to folksong, an event made all the more significant since she was the first folksinger and the first traveller to receive this honour. She died in March 1975 having passed on her songs to students including her daughter Lizzie Higgins, her nephew Stanley Robertson, Ray Fisher, Andy Hunter, and Jean Redpath, and having enriched the lives of everyone who heard her sing.

01. The Bonny Wee Lassie Who Never Said No

02. What a Voice

03. My PIaidie’s Awa’

04. The Gipsy Laddies

05. When I Was No but Sweet Sixteen

06. MacCrimmon’s Lament

07. Roy’s Wife of Aldivalloch

08. Lord Lovat

Recorded by Bill Leader in 1959

link to the free album

Jeannie Robertson - The Great Scots Traditional Ballad Singer