Jean Redpath

Jean Redpath MBE (28 April 1937<ref name="LarkinGE">Template:Cite book</ref> – 21 August 2014)<ref name="Obit"/> was a Scottish folk singer.

Career

Jean Redpath was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,<ref name="LarkinGE"/> to musical parents. Her mother knew many Scots songs and passed them on to Jean and her brother, and her father played the hammered dulcimer. She was raised in Leven, Fife,<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> Scotland, and later returned to Edinburgh, taking medieval studies at the University of Edinburgh.<ref name="Obit">Template:Cite news</ref> To help pay her way through her studies, she sang for beer money and undertook part-time work as a driving instructor and undertaker's assistant.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Scottish poet and folk-song collector Hamish Henderson was working in the School of Scottish Studies at the university and Redpath took a keen interest in the archive of tapes and discs of music and songs. She learned about 400 songs, together with the oral folklore that went with them. In March 1961, at the age of 24, she arrived in the United States with just eleven dollars in her pocket.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her first performance was in San Francisco. Later she met up with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village. The natural warmth and power of her voice brought her to perform at Gerde's Folk City.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> In 1963, following a concert performance, she signed with Elektra Records. In 1975, she switched to the Philo label. From 1972 to 1976, Redpath was artist-in-residence at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> She lectured in folklore and acted as cultural resource in the local school system.<ref name=":0" />

In 1976, Redpath embarked on a project to record all the songs of Robert Burns, some being folk songs, some Burns's own compositions, and most a mixture of the two. Twenty-two volumes were planned, but when her collaborator, the composer Serge Hovey, died after seven volumes, the project came to a premature end. Hovey had done the instrumental arrangements for 323 songs, and Redpath felt no other musician could replace him. The albums won critical praise from around the world. In 1986, she recorded Lady Nairne, a collection of songs written by Scottish women. Redpath sensitively reconstructed songs that might otherwise have been lost. Between 1974 and 1987, Redpath appeared regularly on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" APM radio show. She also appeared on Robert J. Lurtsema's "Morning pro musica" broadcast from WGBH in Boston.<ref name=":1" />

Redpath toured throughout the U.S. and Canada, played venues in South America, Hong Kong, and Australia, including the Sydney Opera House, and performed often at the Edinburgh Folk Festival. In 1977, Royal Jubilee Year, Redpath appeared at a royal banquet at Edinburgh Castle for Queen Elizabeth II.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Starting in 1979, Redpath was a lecturer at the University of Stirling, Scotland, with occasional trips to teach at Wesleyan University.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She gave courses for ten years in Scottish Song at the Heritage of Scotland Summer School at the University of Stirling.

She was awarded the MBE in 1987, as well as being named a Kentucky colonel by the Governor of Kentucky. Redpath also received honorary doctorates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of Stirling and the University of St Andrews, and was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame in 2008.<ref name=":3" /> A portrait of Redpath by Alexander Fraser hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1996, she launched the Burns International Festival.Template:Citation needed

In 2009, Redpath made an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, singing "Some Kind of Love" by the late John Stewart of The Kingston Trio. Letterman promoted her album By Request during her appearance, although the song "Some Kind of Love" does not appear on that album. This led to some confusion for viewers who wished to obtain a recorded version of the song.Template:Citation needed

In 2011, she returned to her alma mater to become artist-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies.<ref name=":2" /> She kept her links to Scotland, owning a house in Elie during her life.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Death and legacy

Redpath died from cancer on 21 August 2014 at a hospice in Tucson, Arizona.<ref>"Folk singer Jean Redpath has died", Bbc.com; 21 August 2014; accessed 21 August 2014.</ref>

In the town where Redpath was raised, Leven in Fife, there is a street named in her honour: Jean Redpath Wynd.

Discography

• Skipping Barefoot Through the Heather (1962) Prestige PR 13020<ref name ="FRSB" >Pohle, H. (1987) Folk Record Source Book; p. 388</ref>
• Scottish Ballad Book (1962) Elektra EKL 214<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Laddie Lie Near Me (1963) Elektra EKL 274<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Songs of Love, Lilt, Laughter (1963) Elektra EKL 224<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Frae My Ain Countrie (1973) Folk Legacy FSS 49<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Jean Redpath (1975) Philo PH 2015<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Songs of Robert Burns vol. 1 (1976) Philo PH 1037<ref name ="FRSB" />
• There were Minstrels (1977) Trailer LER 2106<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Song of the Seals (1978) Philo PH 1054<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Angels Hovering 'Round with Lisa Neustadt and The Angel Band (1979) Philo />
• Father Adam with Abby Newton (1979) Philo PH 1061<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Lowlands (1980) Philo PH 1061<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Songs of Robert Burns vol. 2 (1980) Philo PH 1048<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Songs of Robert Burns vol. 3 (1981) Philo PH 1071<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Songs of Robert Burns vol. 4 (1981) Philo PH 1072<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Haydn: Scottish Songs (1984) Philo PH 1082<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Love Is Teasin' (1984) Philo/Minnesota Public Radio
• Songs of Robert Burns vol. 5 (1985) Philo PH 1093<ref name ="FRSB" />
• The Scottish Fiddle (1985) Lismor LIFL 7009<ref name ="FRSB" />
• Lady Nairne (1986)
• Anywhere Is Home with Lisa Neustadt and The Angel Band (1979) Philo />
• A Fine Song For Singing with Abby Newton (1987)
• Songs of Robert Burns vol. 6 (1987) Greentrax TRAX 005<ref name ="FRSB" />
• First Flight (1989) Philo
• Songs of Robert Burns vol 7 (1990) Philo
• Leaving the Land (1990) Philo
• The Miller's Reel with Rod Paterson, David Hayman, Phyllis Logan (1996) BBC/>
• The Moon's Silver Cradle (1996) Jean Redpath Records
• A Woman of Her Time (1997) Jean Redpath Records
• Think On Me (1998) Jean Redpath Records
• Still the Night (1999) Jean Redpath Records
• Now & Then (1999) Jean Redpath Records
• Summer of My Dreams (2000) Greentrax
• Maiden Voyage (2002) Jean Redpath Records JR-112

External links

• Jean Redpath archive at the University of South Carolina Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 3521562

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