Ray Fisher unwell (Dec 2009)-died 31 Aug 2011

Subject: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:21 AM

Singer Ray Fisher is in hospital again as a result of complications / after-effects from the surgery she had a few years ago.
She's painfully thin, but the sense of humour is still intact (just) as is the way with words.

Any spare good thoughts Catters may have would be welcome, and I'll try to pass messages on. When I saw her yesterday she was cheerful but obviously in some discomfort. I think it would help her to know that people are rooting for her.

Thanks
Paws

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:36 AM

I sure am rooting for her - I haven't had the joy of seeing Ray for many years now, but I always remember what fun she was, and what a gorgeous voice. As it happens, I am just back from visiting Packie in Donegal, who thinks as highly of Ray as I do and has always spoken of her warmly. I know he would send his best wishes too.

Here's to a speedy recovery, Ray!

Bonnie xx

Packie had an ancient folkie mag lying around his house which I was looking at - and amongst its photos was one of a very young Ray when she was just starting her career.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:44 AM

I had the pleasure of seeing Ray sing a year or so ago, outwardly fully recovered and in as marvellous form as ever. I'm sending every good wish and fervent hope that this setback is a mere blip and that she'll be back performing soon.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:47 AM

All I know of Ray is her recordings, but oh, they're wonderful. I hope she knows how much she's appreciated.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:52 AM

Diane - was that at the Bert Lloyd event at Cecil Sharp House? I saw her sing there with Desi Stefanova of the London Bulgarian Choir - it was the highlight of the evening for me.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:53 AM

I should have added: best wishes to Ray and here's hoping for a quick recovery.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: peregrina
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 05:06 AM

It was wonderful to hear Ray at Whitby last summer--sending all good wishes

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Folkiedave
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 05:06 AM

And I was lucky enough to hear her at Whitby. She was wonderful. Speedy recovery Ray.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 05:36 AM

Ray, you must know how much you are loved by us all, and I'm sure all that affection will carry you through this wee hiccup.
I too had the pleasure of meeting up with you again at Whitby over the last two years, and I look forward to meeting up again in 2010.
Frae yin Glaswegian tae anither, awra best hen.

Lang may yer lum reek.


John MacKenzie

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 05:56 AM

Best Wishes to Ray; it has been far too long since I last saw and heard her.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 05:58 AM

I saw Ray and Colin at Ripponden Folk Club a few years ago, she was on top form [ as was Colin Ross ]

Best wishes, Dave H

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Jim McLean
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 06:11 AM

We go back a long way so please give her my regards and wishes for a speedy recovery.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 06:29 AM

Ray remains one of my heroes & inspirations; back in the eighties she sang up a storm every week at The Bridge and always had a wry twinkle in her eye at our own wayward endeavours. Her records are too few for so outstanding a genius; & I remember sharing a few happy words when she had her wool stall in Tynemouth flee-market...

Good thoughts, Ray - and best wishes - for auld lang syne & the future to come!

Sean.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Ken Wilson
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:03 AM

We were talking to Ray a couple of months ago still maintaining her great sense of humour, and remembering some great late night sessions, one of which I seem to recall Ray dancing on the tables in a bar at Redditch festival.

Ray's a battler and I'm sure she'll see this latest setback off!

Best wishes Ray from the Wilson Family.

Ken & Chris.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Brian Peters
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:18 AM

Please pass on my best wishes to Ray as well. I haven't seen her for some time, but I remember a good evening and a lot of laughs when she played our local folk club in the 1990s and cleaned us out of malt whiskey (with a bit of help from me, it must be admitted).

Ray Fisher will always come top of my 'female singers' list and very likely my 'any singers' list, too. She can weave incomparable magic with the great ballads, but also make what in other hands could be a throwaway song into something profoundly moving.

Hope I get the chance to hear you sing sometime soon, Ray.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Silas
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 09:05 AM

Well, I do wish her well. I have not seen her since the old Bromyard days when Cilla and Ray all performed together - great times.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Silas
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 09:07 AM

Sorry, I meant Cilla Ray and Archie!

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 09:14 AM

a great singer who has never, in recent years, got the recognition that her talents deserve. She was on top form a year ago at the 50th anniversary celebrations at the Bridge in Newcastle (when she and husband Colin - and Louis Killen - also received the EFDSS Gold Badge) ... great singing and full of her usual fun and jokey comments.
get well soon Ray!
Derek

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Andymac
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 09:55 AM

As a relative latecomer to the folk scene, I never thought much of Ray at first as I'd heard no more than 1 or 2 songs from recordings others had played for me. Then I saw her judging at a small festival in the Scottish Borders, then again at a concert with Cilla and Archie and since then I've gone on to buy every one of her recordings I could find.
She's a one-off, as Brian says: she's got a way with the big ballads but can also effortlessly switch from profoundly moving to hilarious within the space of an intro to a song.

I agree with many of the other posters in that she's been criminally under-appreciated, especially by the high-flying youngsters. Get better soon Ray, I haven't seen you anything like often enough yet...

Andy

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Vic Smith
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:28 AM

One of the all time greats with a voice to die for and a way of putting over songs that showed that she knew what it was all about.
The stories that she told about life in Glasgow were an absolute hoot!
All best wishes to Ray

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:37 AM

I agree with every word of the above posting fom Vic Smith. Ray is an exceptional artist and human being. Best wishes ffro a speedy recovery my friend.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:43 AM

Excuse typo. Should read Best wishes FOR a speedy recovery..

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,George Henderson
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:53 AM

Haven't seen Rae for many years but I still listen to her recordings. A great, great singer. Get well soon Rae.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,chris
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:00 AM

best wishes and love from Chris and Annie at Swan Folk Loughborough
chris

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: maeve
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:08 AM

Ray was especially kind to me when she, Cilla, and Archie were touring the US several years ago. I especially enjoyed our conversations at The Folkway Coffeehouse and the Iron Horse. I'll send her a note.

Ray- You are one of the reasons I sing in a strong voice. Thank you.

maeve in Maine

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Anne Lister
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:17 AM

Please pass on my very best and warmest wishes to Ray. I haven't seen her for far too long and I'm very sorry to hear that she's unwell.

with love

Anne

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:26 AM

I first saw Ray,Cilla and Archie at the Chocolate Church in Brunswick Maine. What a performance! And the story Ray told about getting into a traffic snarl in Boston? or NY and the Irish cop mistook them for Irish, and they went right along with him and got out of the jam! Wonderful! Be well and please come to Maine again.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: maeve
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:03 PM

Guest- Remember the story about Ray and Cilla's cooperative gear shifting? One to work the shifter and one to work the pedal and steer the car.

"Shift and spin..."

I'll never forget Ray in a lineup of amazing women at the Edinburgh International Folk Festival years ago, performing "I AM Woman: W-O-M-A-N.

And Ray- I still owe you and Cilla a visit to a wild Maine pub with "nightlife".

maeve

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,EKanne
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:08 PM

So sorry to hear that Ray has had a setback, but she's a fighter, so here's hoping for her improvement soon.
One of my early and treasured memories of her was in the Berkeley Hall in Glasgow around 1960 when she, Archie and the fiddler Bobby Campbell were part of the support for Cisco Houston at a concert put on by Janey and the late Norman Buchan. Cisco did a wonderful set of hard-hitting songs (including Guthrie material that we all sang with him) and brought back Ray etc. for a finale. She just stood at his elbow and gazed up at him in wonderment! (Not that any of the rest of us would have done any different.)
All my best wishes to Ray and family.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 01:30 PM

Hi Julia,
Please give Ray our love (and Colin too).
Mitch and Robyn in NZ

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: kendall
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 01:35 PM

That Guest was me, I didn't know I had lost my cookie.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 01:59 PM

Thanks for all the messages so far, I'll get them to Ray as soon as I can.

Paws

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 02:13 PM

Best wishes for a speedy recovery from me. Never met Ray or seen her sing, but The Bonny Birdy is one of the all time most wonderful folk albums ever made.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Anglo
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 02:15 PM

Do wish her the best from me too. We had some great times together over the years, particularly one week, a good many years ago, where we co-hosted a session at Pinewoods camp.
John Roberts

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Surreysinger
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 02:20 PM

Best wishes from me (and from my sister too, who has always been a great fan of Ray's ). It was a joy to see her back in action in the ballad session at Whitby Folk Week this year.
Irene Shettle

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 02:42 PM

Every best wish from me. Glorious memories of Ray singing and dancing (including at Sidmouth, practising morris in the shelter on the Ham) and relating the embarrassing incident of how she broke her hosts' loo when she guested at Herga....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 03:00 PM

She certainly has my good thoughts. Ray is a marvelous musician.

Dan

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Paul Davenport
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 03:04 PM

Much love and best wishes to Ray from us both
Paul & Liz

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Richard Hardaker
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:23 PM

Happy memories of Ray running ceilidhs & judging competitions at Newcastleton festival over the years. I value her encouragement & example for developing myself as a ballad performer.

Best wishes, Richard Hardaker

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Ken Campbell, Scotland
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:36 PM

Ray rightly remains hugely important to Scottish Traditional Music and a great lady as well.

She taught me and many others a lot about singing traditional songs and did me the huge honour of writing the sleeve endorsement on my first solo album. Highly regarded in the USA and further afield as well.

Please convey best wishes to her and Colin for a full and speedy recovery from me and everyone on the Scottish scene.

Ken Campbell

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: RiGGy
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 06:19 PM

Thank you, Ray for your kindness to me and my fiddlin' partner, John Specker when we landed in Tyneside back in the early 70s. I've had a great appreciation for your music ever since. Feel good, real soon !! Riggy

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: karen k
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:16 PM

Ray, Thinking of you and wishing you well. Fond memories of your singing and songs and fun driving you around Connecticut. Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Cookieless KathWestra
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:14 PM

Ray,
Thinking of you and sending you all best wishes for a speedy recovery, freedom from pain, and the continued good health of your wonderful sense of humour. Haven't seen you since you and Jo Freya stayed at my house in Silver Spring too many years ago and watched squirrels and cardinals on the deck. We sure laughed a lot in between the songs!
Be well,
Kathy Westra

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Pat & Frank Scaglione
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:50 PM

So sorry to hear that Ray is unwell again. We have fond memories of billeting Ray & Colin at our home in Haumoana, when she toured New Zealand with the Northumbrian Pipers in 2001.
Please pass on our love and good wishes.
Pat & Frank Scaglione
Huamoana,Hawke's Bay
New Zealand

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:36 AM

I alerted Ray and Colin's friend Sheila Miller to Ray being in hospital and she's spoken to Colin. Sheila has asked me to post this message here:

"I phoned Colin last night to find out. It turns out that she wasn't eating, because eating was causing her pain. As a result, she was suffering from malnutrition. It came to a head while they were at her cottage on Barra. Colin got the doctor round (he had to sneak out while she wasn't looking, because she kept telling him not to go for the doctor), and he sent her to hospital. They found out that, as well as the malnutrition, she had pneumonia, and she was there for a couple of weeks, but is now in the North Tyneside Hospital. They tried feeding her through a tube in her nose, but some reason that didn't work (it has worked for her in the past), so they've now put some kind of implant in her abdomen, and have been feeding her through that. She's now quite a bit better, and is the life and soul of the ward, Colin says."
Sheila

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: maeve
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:44 AM

Derek and Sheila- thank you both very much for the update. Do, please, let Ray know she is loved and respected by so many here. What can we do: Send cards? Music? Funny papers?

Thanks to Colin as well, for making things happen for Ray's well-being. We are grateful.

maeve, in Maine

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Diva
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 08:03 AM

Ray is a treasure and always supportive of singers. Our paths have crossed many times over the years and its always a joy. Hope you are soon on the mend


Kathy Hobkirk

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 12:26 PM

Maeve (and anybody else)

Ray is in:

Ward 9
N. Tyneside General Hospital
Rake Lane
NORTH SHIELDS
NE29 8NH

where she's known as Mrs Ray Ross.

She was only in hospital on Barra for 5 days: Colin brought her home as soon as she was stabilised, but she was admitted to N. Tyneside the next morning.
I've printed out all the messages up till this morning and passed them on. I'll continue to do so with any new ones.

I hope to see her again in a couple of days or so: at present family are staying and I don't want to intrude on their time with her.

Paws

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: maeve
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 12:48 PM

Paws- Thank you very much. I'll send out a card asap. I'm thinking calls to the hospital will NOT be a good idea as it usually becomes a burden for staff and a disturbance for patients.

maeve

Subject: RE: Ray Fisher unwell: good thoughts, please
From: Northerner
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 02:24 PM

She was an inspiration to me when I was a young singer and gave me encouragement. I was lucky enough to see her in Whitby this summer and she was as splendid as ever. I wish her well.