Elizabeth Stewart of Fetterangus was invited to tour in the USA in 1972, and took the opportunity to visit her friends the Goldsteins in Philadelphia. Here she sings to an academic group there.
In 1960 Goldstein recorded these songs by Elizabeth and Jane Stewart of Fetterangus. Elizabeth pays piano and their mother Jean plays accordion. None of these lovely tracks were copied by Goldstein to Tobar An Dualchais, so here they can be heard for the first time in 60+ years.
NOTE. When Ewan MacColl visited, and heard how the girls played The Hill O Bennachie, he was inspired to write 'Come Aa Ye Fisher Lassies', and get the girls to perform it on the 'Singing The Fishing' BBC Radio documentary..
On 'I Am A Miller' Lucy Stewart sings, with percussion accompaniment by several hands to imitate the sounds of an old-fashioned water-driven meal mill working. Other singers have sought to imitate the mill's sound by bumping elbow and hands on a tabletop, or on the back of a turned over guitar, but this track gives the most authentic effect. There is a 78rpm disc I have heard by I think Willie Kemp, singing the song in an actual mill. At the start he asks, 'Is the mill aa iled? Then, pull the cloot kimmer.' You hear the mill wheel starting and gathering speed.
Hamish Henderson had visited the Stewart family home in 1954, and recorded songs and music there, so he knew well the rich knowledge held by the family, and selected them for Ken Goldstein to work with.
Books tell us about Hamish taking Ken to Fetterangus in late 1959, but not that he then spent two hours getting Goldstein to record him asking for songs, tunes and associated knowledge . Some Hamish had already recorded, some he expected to find, and sometimes he was fishing in Fishie.
Most of what Goldstein recorded in Buchan he copied for the School of Scottish Studies where Hamish was based. But not these recordings! Hamish recorded thousands of hours for the School Archive, but here we have, tucked away in the University of Mississippi Archive, a unique demonstration by a master collector on how to find folklore. Each button below links to a specific recording reel.