Jeannie Robertson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jeannie Robertson, in full Regina Christina Robertson, was a Scottish folk singer. She was born in 1908 in Aberdeen, the daughter of a bagpiper, Donald, and a singer, Maria Stewart, and died in 1975. In Aberdeen a plaque commemorates her home on Hilton Road. She learned her songs in the traditional way, orally, without the influence of radio or books.

Music and breakthrough

In 1953 the folklorist Hamish Henderson sought her out in Aberdeen. According to tradition she only let him in after he had named the first line of Child ballad no. 163, The Battle of Harlaw. In November of that year Alan Lomax recorded her in his London apartment, together with other singers such as Jean Ritchie and Margaret Barry. There she sang, among other songs, My Son David and Andrew Lammie, a ballad of more than thirteen minutes. Many of those recordings appeared in 1975 as The Queen Among the Heather. In 1958 Henderson recorded her again, in Edinburgh, for Up the Dee and Doon The Don. She also performed at the Blairgowrie Festival, from 1965, and besides classic ballads she sang bawdy songs.

Influence

She became known for her version of I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day, also called Jock Stewart, which was later covered by The Dubliners and The Pogues. Her daughter Lizzie Higgins and her nephew Stanley Robertson carried on the tradition. She is regarded as one of the most important bearers of the Scottish ballad tradition and as a source for the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

Listening

• 
  My Son David · Jeannie Robertson, 1953
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1959Jeannie Robertson
• 1998The Queen Among the Heather

See also

• British and Irish folk music