Shelagh McDonald (born 1948,
Edinburgh, Scotland)
is a
Scottish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist who released two albums before her abrupt disappearance in 1971. Nothing further was heard of her until 2005, when she made contact with the ''Scottish Daily Mail'' to tell the story of her intervening years. In 2013 she made a low-key return to public performances and made new recordings for the first time since the early 1970s.
Early life
McDonald was born in 1948 in Edinburgh and moved to Glasgow, at the age of 12, with her parents, She was privately educated before moving on to the
Glasgow School of Art.
[
]
Career
On her first two albums, McDonald was backed up by many notables within the English folk-rock scene, including Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Danny Thompson, Keith Tippett, Keith Christmas, the Fotheringay
Fotheringay was a short-lived British folk rock group, formed in 1970 by singer-songwriter and musician Sandy Denny on her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from her 1968 composition " Fotheringay" about Fotheringhay ...
rhythm section, as well as Ian Whitman, Roger Powell and Michael Evans, then members of Mighty Baby
Mighty Baby were an English band formed in January 1969 from the ashes of The Action. They released two albums, ''Mighty Baby'' (which appeared in December 1969, but had been recorded almost a year earlier) and ''A Jug of Love'' (October 1971 ...
. During the recording sessions for her third album in 1971, she mysteriously disappeared following a bad trip
A bad trip (also known as challenging experiences, acute intoxication from hallucinogens, psychedelic crisis, or emergence phenomenon) is an acute adverse psychological reaction to classic hallucinogens. With proper screening, preparation, and su ...
on LSD.
On 23 June 2005, by which time McDonald's albums had been reissued on CD, an article by Charles Donovan appeared in '' The Independent'', the first high-profile piece about McDonald's disappearance. This prompted copycat features in local papers, the '' Glasgow Herald'' and the ''Scottish Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''. It was the latter of these that caught the eye of McDonald herself. In November 2005, McDonald turned up in the offices of the ''Scottish Daily Mail'' and told them her story. She retreated from public life after a bad LSD trip left her paranoid and hallucinating, with a ruined voice. Living with her parents and working privately in Edinburgh, she met and married bookseller Gordon Farquhar; together, they lived a nomadic lifestyle in Scotland, living on welfare benefits and moving from house to house, and later tent to tent.[Grace Macaskill, "Back From the Wilderness", ''Scottish Daily Mail'', 19 November 2005. . Retrieved 25 October 2006.]
After that nothing more was heard of her until 2012, when she spoke to ''fRoots'' magazine. In the new interview she revealed that, since her partner's death earlier in the year, she had resumed contact with other folk musicians and was cautiously planning low-key live appearances and hoping to record new material. In an October 2013 interview with '' The Guardian'', she revealed that she had, in fact, recorded a new album, though she provided no further details about it.[Shelagh McDonald,]
Experience: I disappeared for 30 years
" ''The Guardian'', 11 October 2013, Retrieved 13 October 2013 The new album, called ''Parnassus Revisited'', with several new songs, was made available at gigs, but has not been widely distributed. A collaboration with Galloway indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation.
The genre has its ...
band The Razorbills, "Fame Fatale", was broadcast on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone in 2014; McDonald also performed with this band on a number of occasions, and with Nigel H. Seymour.
On 16 January 2013, McDonald made her first official public appearance, after more than 40 years away, as a guest of The False Beards at the Green Note, Camden, London. Among her half-hour set of previously unrecorded material, she also played her version of the traditional song "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
"The Sprig of Thyme", "The Seeds of Love", "Maiden’s Lament", "Garners Gay", "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" or "Rue" () is a traditional British and Irish folk ballad that uses botanical and other symbolism to warn young people of the dangers in ...
" from her first album. A series of small appearances took place in 2014, mainly at Scottish venues, and a similar but longer tour in 2017, in collaboration with Nigel H. Seymour followed, which took in some appearances in England. It was also announced that a recording called ''Timescapes'' was forthcoming.
Discography
* ''Album'' - B&C Records, 1970
* ''Stargazer'' - B&C Records, 1971
* ''Club Folk 2'' - Peg Records PS3, 1972 (one track: " Rainy Night Blues")
* ''Let No Man Steal Your Thyme'' - Sanctuary Records, 2005
* ''Parnassus Revisited'' - Shelagh McDonald, 2013
See also
* List of solved missing person cases
References
External links
* — originally established 1999 in hopes of learning her fate, before she turned up.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Shelagh
1948 births
1970s missing person cases
Formerly missing people
Living people
Psychedelic folk musicians
Scottish folk musicians
Temporary disappearances
Date of birth missing (living people)