The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156697   Message #3694327
Posted By: GUEST,Anne Neilson
15-Mar-15 - 08:44 PM
Thread Name: Jeannie Robertson 40 years ago
Subject: RE: Jeannie Robertson 40 years ago
Thanks for the story, Jim.

I've mentioned this before on Mudcat, but I have a particular memory of Jeannie from back around 1960/61.
I was still a pupil at school and was invited to my teacher's house (the late Norman Buchan who eventually went on to be an MP and who was responsible for the nomination of Jeannie for her MBE). Trying to be inconspicuous, I sat on the floor and half under their grand piano -- the rest of the room being full of adults I didn't know. Anyway, before things took off I was offered a glass of wine by someone who was circulating, but Norman rushed over and said that I was still at school.
Then there was Jeannie, standing with her back to the wall, apologising for her sore throat and launching into song. At one point she sang Matty Groves and got all the way through the song until the episode where Lord Darnal offered Matty his choice of swords -- she stopped, looked round the room until she saw Norman standing by the door and said, "Well, you see, Norman, he wis aye a fair man."! And then she lifted the story back up to its conclusion.
Later on there was singing from around the room and Norman encouraged me to sing The Baron of Brackley -- when I finished, Jeannie corrected my version in which Inverey escaped down Glen Turner (which was what I thought I had heard on Norman's reel-to-reel tape): she spoke with real knowledge of the local geography and I learned that the correct route would have been through Glen Tanar!

An amazing, wonderful singer….