In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

xvii Introduction This collaborative venture was first set in motion by Elizabeth Stewart on returning from her final singing trip to the USA in 1997.At her request to help, I felt drawn to do so. Why? Like many other people, I had first visited Lucy in the early 1970s, which was when I also first met Elizabeth, encouraged by Hamish Henderson of the School of Scottish Studies.As a young singer I was seeking to know more of Scots songs and ballads, and I was eager to learn from older singers. Hamish had invited me to visit the School of Scottish Studies where initially he gave me a compilation tape of traditional source singers to listen to, one of which had been prepared as a teaching resource for students.A track of a particular woman singer shone out.I asked if there were any more recordings of her and this prompted him to search in the basement of 27 George Square, returning with a number of tapes solely of Lucy Stewart. In listening to these reel to reel tapes in Hamish’s study over many hours and visits, I was enthralled and inspired by her direct story-telling style and her strong voice which was at times sweet, at others haunting and stark. I was overwhelmed by the treasury of songs with their beautiful and rare melodies . They told of legendary and historical happenings, love songs with much pain and disappointment, of longings, struggles, defiance and humour – both daft and clever. On these visits, I stayed with Hamish and his charming wife, Kätzel, receiving a warm welcome and sleeping in the front room of their Melville Terrace flat. I remember a stack of vinyl records in the corner of the room, one of which was of Lucy Stewart singing eleven ballads. As I learned songs and ballads from these sources, the Stewart music already had a hold on me and my visit to meet Lucy Stewart in Fetterangus was an important event. Elizabeth’s invitation, so many years later, offered me the prospect of deepening my understanding of traditional singing and balladry set within its context. It also, importantly, presented me with the opportunity to give something back when I had received much. I wanted to help Elizabeth realize her dream of a book about her family. In responding to Elizabeth’s request, I chose initially to record her accounts and memories through the medium of video. I wanted to capture Introduction xviii her personality and document the area she had lived in all her life, while also anticipating that these recordings could become a future archival resource. At the time I was Scots Song tutor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, which awarded me a research expenses grant. Employing the skills and experience of folklorist and film maker Doc Rowe in 2001–2 we spent two three-day sessions filming with Elizabeth at her home in Buchan. From my own training, and in the guidance of many in Life Story work, I knew it to be essential to allow those engaged in this process to have ownership of what is told and for it to be authentically their own. The teller’s experience in the first telling of a story to a fresh listener prompts what is uppermost in their mind. In our case, I was aware that this narration would also reveal future themes for my follow-up questions. Therefore in the video recording sessions I encouraged Elizabeth to tell me what was most important to her, allowing her to take the lead, knowing this would provide the bedrock for exploration.We visited the site of the family croft in Duke Street, Fetterangus, and the graves of her dear family in the cemetery there. On re-visiting Steve Ransome’s studio, where Elizabeth had recorded a cassette Atween Us Twa in 1992, she recorded again in his studio and they remembered together a strange happening on that previous occasion (retold in Chapter 4). During these first recording sessions it was obvious that Elizabeth felt an immense responsibility to honour her ancestral and close family. However it also became clear to me that Elizabeth’s own story was equally important and needed to be told. I felt an urgency to see that she herself was honoured and given full recognition for her own outstanding talent.With this in mind, during the second set of sessions, I asked questions that concentrated on her...

Share