Look at some of the greatest Scots ballad singers of the past: Anna Brown, Bell Robertson, and Bell Duncan. Anna Brown learnt her ballads in the 18th century, from an aunt who had in turn learned them from local women. Many singers seemed to have learned ballads as small children, from the singing of their mother - in the way that fairy tales were also passed on. Some academics have suggested that, in Scotland at least, ballad transmission was essential a female preserve, although that rather ignores male singers prominent in the Greig-Duncan and Carpenter collections.

To EKanne's list of great Scots ballad singers from the revival I could add Ellen Mitchell, Sylvia Barnes, Sheena Wellington and of course Anne Neilson herself. Big ballads, Scotland and womanhood seem to be a pretty potent combination!