Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen: Travellers' Songs, Stories and Tunes of the Fetterangus Stewarts

415 Pages·2012·9.2 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Stewart

Up Yon Wide
and Lonely Glen
Howard Glasser, based on notes left on a scrap of
paper by his late mother
Up Yon Wide
and Lonely Glen
Travellers’ Songs, Stories and Tunes of the Fetterangus Stewarts
Elizabeth Stewart
Compiled and edited by Alison McMorland
University Press of Mississippi in association with the
Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the
Association of American University Presses.
The Fishgutters’ Song (from the Radio Ballad “Singing the Fishing”)
by Ewan MacColl, published by Stormking Music Inc.
Reproduced by permission of Ewan MacColl Ltd.
Copyright © 2012 by University Press of Mississippi
All photographs, stories, songs, and tunes copyright © 2012
by Elizabeth Stewart, except where indicated
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2012
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stewart, Elizabeth, 1939–
Up yon wide and lonely Glen : Travellers’ songs, stories and tunes of
the Fetterangus Stewarts / Elizabeth Stewart ; compiled and edited by
Alison McMorland.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-61703-314-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-1-61703-308-7
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-61703-309-4 (ebook) 1. Folk songs,
Scots—Scotland—History and criticism. 2. Ballads, Scots—Scot-
land—History and criticism. 3. Folk music—Scotland—History and
criticism. 4. Scottish Travellers (Nomadic people)—Music—History
and criticism. 5. Stuart family. I. Title.
ML3655.S84 2012
782.42162’91630092—dc23
[B] 2011038627
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
First and foremost, I would like to dedicate this book to my
three children, Jeannette, Elizabeth and Michael. I’d like to
think that my children and grandchildren will always and in
their own way honour our special family traditions.
I also would like to extend this dedication to the memories of
my mum, Jean Stewart, my Aunt Lucy and Uncle Ned, and my
talented brother Robert, all of whom were so dear to me.
And, of course, not forgetting Big Michael.
—Elizabeth Stewart

Contents
ix ........Preface
xiii .......Acknowledgments
xvii ......Introduction
xxii ......Select Family Tree
xxiii ......Map
3 ........Chapter One Doon the Dukker
27 .......Songs
67 .......Chapter Two Jean Stewart’s Dance Band
100 ......Songs
141 .......Chapter Three Aunt Lucy
171 .......Songs
221. . . . . . . Chapter Four Binnorrie
263 ......Songs
315 .......Song Notes
—Geordie McIntyre
Appendices
339 ......I. The Narrative Voice
—Caroline Milligan
viii Contents
341 ......II. Transcribing and Editing the Music
—Jo Miller
347 ......III. Kenneth and Rochelle Goldstein Archive: Stories,
Riddles and Song Fragments
—Alison McMorland
365 ......Glossary
369 ......Bibliography
373 ......Discography
375 ......Contributors
377 ......Song Index
385 ......Index
Preface
Elizabeth Stewart comes from a legendary Traveller family of pipers, musi-
cians and singers. From the 1920s until the early 1960s her mother, Jean
Stewart, was a household name in the North-East of Scotland, known for her
dance bands, broadcasting and teaching, while Elizabeth’s aunt Lucy’s ballad
singing and treasury of songs made an impact on the 1950–60s Scottish Folk
Revival reaching well beyond these shores. The influence of these women is
still reverberating today. They in turn owed much to their mother, Aul Betty,
whose own story is of a hardworking and resourceful Traveller woman. Songs
and singing enlivened Aul Betty’s life and as it turned out were part of the
legacy she left to the family.
Elizabeth Stewart’s personal reminiscences are at the heart of this book.
She tells of her ancestral family and of three generations of women, of their
lives and musical traditions, and of their story traditions. The family narra-
tives, traditional tales and riddles are interwoven throughout, giving a fasci-
nating portrayal of the Stewart family’s wealth of stories and lore. A diverse
and wide-ranging anthology of songs complement the prose; these vary from
Stewart versions of classic ballads, to comic and music hall songs, parodies
and children’s rhymes. Some of these ballads and songs are now widely sung,
having been first brought to the wider public during the Folk Revival. Docu-
mented here, we are again reminded of the Stewarts’ key role, and of their kith
and kin, inhabiting the same area as Gavin Greig and James Duncan, whose
Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection was amassed here during the early years
of the twentieth century, though very few of their sources were Travellers.
The richness of the Stewart song repertoire illustrates the family’s and the
Travellers’ unique role in the preservation of the music and song traditions of
Buchan and the North-East, an area extensively studied by ballad collectors
over the centuries. Also included in the song anthology are Elizabeth’s own
music and ballad compositions adding modernity to this kist of riches and
revealing the continuity of tradition. Elizabeth’s wish for her family songs,
stories and lore to be available gives prominence to her unswerving convic-
tion and belief in her inheritance. She is keen to stress, however, that ‘it is not
ix