Jeannie Robertson (1908 – 13 March 1975) was a Scottish

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

. Her most celebrated song is "

I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" ( Roud 975) is a traditional Scottish or Irish music hall song written from the point of view of a rich landowner telling the story of his day while buying drinks at a public house. According to Archie Fisher, t ...

", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart", which was covered by Archie Fisher,

The Dubliners The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-yea ...

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and

The Pogues The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic ''póg mo thóin'', meaning "kiss my arse" ...

. Variants are known from the US in the 1880s and Australia in the 1850s.

Hamish Henderson and Alan Lomax

Robertson was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

, Scotland, and in her early life she sometimes lived at 90 Hilton Road, where a plaque now commemorates her. Like many of the Scottish Travellers from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Ayrshire, she went to Blairgowrie to pick raspberries once a year. Hamish Henderson was born in Blairgowrie and tried to track down the best singers there. In 1953, he followed her reputation to her doorstep in Aberdeen. According to legend Jeannie was reluctant to let him in. She challenged him to tell her the opening line of

Child ballad The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...

no 163, "The Battle of Harlaw", and he complied. In November of the same year she was staying in the London apartment of

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...

. In preparation for a TV appearance,

Jean Ritchie Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally ...

, Margaret Barry and

Isla Cameron Isla Cameron (5 March 1927 – 3 April 1980) was a Scottish-born, English-raised actress and singer. AllMusic noted that "Cameron was one of a quartet of key figures in England's postwar folk song revival – and to give a measure of her importa ...

were also there. They swapped songs with each other, while the tape rolled. It is sometimes stated that she made the first recording of "The Battle of Harlaw" but this is not so. The first recording was made in 1936 by the Bothy Ballad singer Willie Kemp (for the Beltona label) and it may be from this that she learnt the song. Another of the songs she sang was "Andrew Lammie" ("Mill o' Tifty's Annie"), lasting over 13 minutes. At the end she told Alan Lomax about the parts of the story that she had not sung. Many of the 1953 recordings were issued as ''The Queen Among the Heather'' in 1975. They later reappeared along with other songs on a CD of the same name.

Performances

The television programme was ''The Song Hunter'', produced by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histo ...

, who later became controller of

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

television. In 1958, Hamish Henderson recorded her in Edinburgh. Those recordings were issued as ''Up the Dee and Doon The Don'' on the Lismor label. The Traditional Music and Song Association founded the Blairgowrie Festival in 1965, during the fruit picking. The first festival saw Robertson, plus Jimmy MacBeath and other valuable source singers, who learned folk songs without the influence of radios or books. Her 1968 appearance there was issued as part of an anthology on the Topic label. As well as classic ballads, she sang bawdy songs such as "Never Wed an Old Man". Robertson was awarded the MBE in 1968 and died on 13 March 1975.

Related folk musicians

Robertson's daughter Lizzie Higgins issued an album in 1975: ''Up and Awa' wi' the Laverock''. Stanley Robertson, a storyteller, ballad singer and piper from Aberdeen, was Jeannie's nephew. Carmen Higgins, ex-fiddler with the Aberdeen folk band, Rock Salt and Nails, is also closely related to her. Carmen Higgins has played with

Old Blind Dogs Old Blind Dogs is a Scottish musical group which plays traditional Scottish folk music and Celtic music, with influences from rock, reggae, jazz, blues, and Middle Eastern music rhythms. Background The three founding members of the band (I ...

, recorded a solo CD, and has appeared regularly on television, radio and in the press. Joss Cameron, a folk singer from Edinburgh is related to her, and still performs Jeannie Robertson ballads. Maggie Stewart (1902-1983), Jeannie Robertson's aunt, was recorded singing many traditional ballads and telling stories which can be heard via the Tobar an Dualchais website. In the early 1960s, the folk-singer Andy Hunter learned songs and storytelling from Jeannie Robertson and her family while studying

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

at the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

.Gilchrist, Jim (1984), ''Andy Hunter: "The Man the Wind Blew Over"'', in Parker, Geoff (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 18, Autumn 1984, pp. 7 - 10,

Discography

*''Lord Donald'', Collector JFS 4001 *''World's Greatest Folk Singer'', Prestige (1960) INT 13006 *''The Cuckoo's Nest and Other Scottish Folk Songs'', Prestige INT 13075 *''Songs of a Scots Tinker Lady'', (with Josh Morse) Riverside RLP12-633 *''Jeannie Robertson'', Topic (1959) 10T52 *--do.--(without guitar acc.), Topic 12T96 *''What a Voice'', Folktracks TFSA 60-067 *''The Gypsy Lady'', Folktracks TFSA 60-186 *''Silly John & the Factor'', (folk tale & talk) Folktracks TFSA 60-187 *''Up the Dee and doon the Don'', Lismor (1984) In 2009, "MacCrimmon's Lament" from ''Jeannie Robertson'' was included in Topic Records 70-year anniversary CD boxed set ''

Three Score and Ten ''Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People'' is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label. The album consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a paper ...

''.

References

External links

Scottish Traditional Music - Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Jeannie 1908 births 1975 deaths Scottish folk singers 20th-century Scottish women singers Scottish Travellers Musicians from Aberdeen Scottish folk-song collectors 20th-century British musicologists Women folklorists Topic Records artists Riverside Records artists