The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #61007   Message #978867
Posted By: andymac
08-Jul-03 - 05:20 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Rue and Thyme
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rue and Thyme
Joe,
I got the password, thanks for that.
I was at a small gathering a few months ago and heard Sylvia Barnes singing a "hairs standing up on the back of your neck" version of the song, she said that she'd heard it from Maureen. Alison McMorland, who was also there said that she had learned a small fragment from Lucy Stewart, the traditional singer who had lived in Fetterangus and she had then written/built the song up around that fragment I assume the air came from Lucy Stewart, but don't know. It's certainly haunting.
There is also a song called "Rue and Thyme" in the Greig-Duncan collection, but the words are different and Elaine Petrie sings the Greig-Duncan Rue and Thyme to a different (to my ears anyway) air on a CD entitled "Songs of the North-East" (released on Greentrax).

Of course we could have asked either Alison or Sylvia for the words but didn't since we had the Maureen Jelks CD, but it had gone astray somewhere.
I thought I'd track down the words for my wife, who is keen to sing the song. Easier said than done, till (yet again) Mudcat came to the rescue.
As for the connection to Kellyburn Braes, I didnt even know of it till I started hunting for this song.

Hope all this helps

Andy