Isla Cameron (c. 1930 - 1980) was a Scottish singer and actress. She was, f… Read Full Bio ↴Isla Cameron (c. 1930 - 1980) was a Scottish singer and actress. She was, for much of the 1950s, a singing partner of Ewan MacColl. In her time she was one of Britain's most popular woman folk singers, performing regularly in clubs throughout the British Isles. Her pioneering work in the 1950s paved the way for such figures as Sandy Denny and opened English folk music to a wider audience than it had been perceived as having.

Isla Cameron was born in Scotland but was brought up in Dorset and Somerset. While trying to become an actress she joined Joan Littlewood who had co-founded the Theatre Workshop in 1945. Joan’s husband at the time, Ewan MacColl was to become Isla’s singing partner for much of the 50s.

During 1953-4, Peter Kennedy produced a series of Sunday morning BBC radio programs called “As I Roved Out”. Two of these were later issued on the Folktrax label, with Isla singing three folk songs, Seamus Ennis playing uilliann pipes and tin whistle, Ewan MacColl singing some songs and Bob & Ron Copper also singing.

In 1956 Isla Cameron appeared in another radio program “Ballads and Blues: Sea Music”. In 1960 “The Singers Club” opened in “The Princess Louise” pub in Holborn, London. It was run by Ewan MacColl and his new wife Peggy Seeger. Isla Cameron became a resident at this folk club, but by this point her film career had taken off. She acted in a number of movies, with her biggest acting role being in the 1969 version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where she could use her Scottish accent to advantage.

She continued singing and recording during the 1960s. In 1962, Isla Cameron and Tony Britton recorded “Songs of Love, Lust and Loose Living”. In 1963, Peter Kennedy recorded Isla singing with accompaniment by Jack Armstrong on Northumbrian pipes. She sang songs by Bob Dylan and Bertolt Brecht but rarely sang after 1966, when acting took over her life.

She died in an accident in her home in 1980.

The Water Is Wide
Isla Cameron Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

We lay my love
And I
Beneath the weeping willow
But now alone I lie
And weep beside the tree
Singing oh, Willow Wally
By the tree that weeps with me
Singing oh, Willow Wally

Till my lover returns to me
We lay my love
And I
Beneath the weeping willow
But now alone I lie

Oh, willow I die
Oh willow I die

Overall Meaning

The Water Is Wide is a classic folk song that has been covered by various artists over the years. The song tells the story of a couple who laid beneath a weeping willow tree together in the past but are now separated. The singer is alone and weeping by the tree as they sing the chorus of "Oh, Willow Wally" in hopes that their lover will return.

The lyrics are a representation of the feeling of separation and longing. The weeping willow tree symbolizes the sadness and sorrow felt by the singer as they are alone without their lover. The repetition of the chorus is a way to express the pain and hopelessness of the situation. The final line "Oh willow I die" shows the extent of the suffering and the desperation felt by the singer.

Line by Line Meaning

We lay my love
Together, my love and I laid down

And I
As for me

Beneath the weeping willow
Under the sad, mournful willow tree

But now alone I lie
But now I am left alone lying there

And weep beside the tree
And cry alongside the tree

Singing oh, Willow Wally
Singing 'Oh, crying willow tree'

By the tree that weeps with me
Beside the tree that shares my sadness

Till my lover returns to me
Until my beloved comes back to me

We lay my love
Together, my love and I laid down

And I
As for me

Beneath the weeping willow
Under the sad, mournful willow tree