> Folk Music > Records > Various Artists: Festival at Blairgowrie
Festival at Blairgowrie
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Festival at Blairgowrie Topic Records 12T181 (LP, UK, 1968) |
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Recorded by Bill Leader at a concert in The Angus Hotel, Blairgowrie,
Perthshire, on 13 August 1967
with the cooperation of The Traditional Music and Song Assiciation;
Notes by Peter Shepheard;
1976 sleeve design by Derrick McRobert;
Photography by D Wilson Laing
Musicians
Mary Brooksbank, vocals [5-6];
John “Hoddan” Macdonald, vocals [9-11];
The Marsden Rattlers [7-8];
Jeannie Robertson, vocals [4, 12];
Willie Scott, vocals, melodeon [3];
Belle Stewart, vocals [1, 13];
Davie Stewart, vocals, accordion [2]
Tracks
Side 1 | Side 2 |
---|---|
All tracks trad. except |
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Review
Aisnia Cswica's review is from Gramophone, December 1968:
Back of Benachie (mono 12T180) is a generous sample of the living tradition, with Sheila Stewart's Mill o’ Tiffy’s Annie, Belle Stewart's Bonnie House o' Airlie, and Maggie MacPhee's Back o' Benachie. Sheila Stewart and her mother, like Lizzie Higgins and her mother Jeannie Robertson, span two generations, and show what has been lost further south in strength and renewal of singing. The same point is amply illustrated on The Travelling Stewarts, a companion record (mono 12T179), with their singing, their husband's piping and the first Topic recording of Christina Stewart, Davie Stewart, and his daughter Jane. The other meaning of a living tradition—the spontaneous renewal of the songs as well as the singers—is brought out in Festival at Blairgowrie (mono 12T181), where Belle Stewart sings both the Berryfields o' Blair, which she wrote forty years ago, and her 1966 parody of it; while the indefatigable Mary Brooksbank, having composed one of the shortest and clearest of radical statements in her Jute Mill Song (“Oh dear me, the world's ill divided/ Them that work the hardest are the least provided”), returns at the age of 70 to sing it movingly. This record is also notable for the singing of John “Hoddan” Macdonald of Lewis.
> Folk Music > Records > Various Artists: The Blair Tapes
The Blair Tapes
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The Blair Tapes Ericht Trust ETCD01 (CD, UK, 2000) |
All tracks recorded live at the Blairgowrie Folk Festival between
1986 and 1995
except track 1 is from Hamish Moore's album
Stepping on the Bridge;
Cover picture: Anthony Armstrong: “Berryfields in Blair”
Musicians
Chuck Fleming & Gerry Kaley, fiddle, guitar [6, 11];
Vin Garbutt, vocals, guitar [4, 13, 16];
Isaac Guillory, guitar, vocals [10, 14];
Lizzie Higgins, vocals [7, 9, 15];
Hamish Moore, Northumbrian small pipes [1];
Marion Paterson, vocals, guitar [5, 17];
The Stewarts of Blair, vocals [2-3, 12];
Kathryn Tickell, Northumbrian small pipes [8]
Tracks
- [HM] Battle of Waterloo / Wee Highland Laddie / The 8th Argyll's Farewell to the 116th Regiment de Ligne / The Boy's Lament for His Dragon marches (4.36)
- [S] Bonnie Glenshee (Roud 832; G/D 5:1053) (2.25)
- [S] Keyhole of the Door (Roud 2099) (3.43)
- [VG] Carol-Ann Kelly (3.24)
- [MP] Mary Hamilton (Roud 79; Child 173; G/D 2:195) (6.10)
- [CF, GK] The Cliffs of Moher (1.10)
- [LH] The Beggarman (Roud 118; Child 279; G/D 2:274) (2.48)
- [KT] Lizzie Lindsay / Tyneside Tunes / Madame Bonaparte (4.12)
- [LH] The College Boy (Roud 31; Laws O35; G/D 6:1222) (4.40)
- [IG] Guitar Man (5.33)
- [CF, GK] Shake Loose the Border (5.43)
- [S] The Nobleman (Roud 2533) (1.59)
- [VG] Where the Hell Are We Going to Live? (3.18)
- [IG] Fools Paradise (3.26)
- [LH] Lord Donald (Roud 10; Child 12; G/D 2:209; Henry H814) (4.27)
- [VG] If I Had a Son (6.51)
- [MP] Carrickfergus (Roud 26183) (3.30)
All tracks trad. except
Track 4 Vin Garbutt;
Tracks 10, 14 Isaac Guillor;
Track 11 Chuck Fleming, Gerry Kaley;
Track 13 Paul Wright;
Track 16 Phil Millichip