Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard (Little Matty Groves)
Jeannie Robertson (1908 - 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer.
Read Full Bio ↴Jeannie Robertson (1908 - 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer.
It is not known where Jeannie Robertson was born but she did live at 90, Hilton Street in Aberdeen, where a plaque now commemorates her. Like many of the Scottish Travellers from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Ayrshire, she went to Blairgowrie to pick raspberries once a year. Hamish Henderson was born in Blairgowrie and tried to track down the best singers there. In 1953 he followed her reputation to her doorstep in Aberdeen. According to legend Jeannie was reluctant to let him in. She challenged him to tell her the opening line of Child ballad no 163, The Battle of Harlaw and he complied. In November of the same year she was staying in the London apartment of Alan Lomax. In preparation for a TV appearance, Jean Ritchie, Margaret Barry and Isla Cameron were also there. They swapped songs with each other, while the tape rolled. Jeannie made the earliest known recording of "The Battle of Harlaw". Another of the songs she sang was Andrew Lammie (Mill o' Tifty's Annie) lasting over 13 minutes. At the end she told Alan Lomax about the parts of the story that she hadn't sang. Many of the 1953 recordings were issued as "The Queen Among the Heather" in 1975. They later reappeared along with other songs on a CD of the same name.
The television program was The Ballad Hunters, directed by David Attenborough, who later became director of BBC2 television. In 1958 Hamish Henderson recorded her in Edinburgh. Those recordings were issued as "Up the Dee and Doon The Don" on the Lismor label. The Traditional Music and Song Association founded the Blairgowrie Festival in 1965, during the fruit picking. The first festival saw Jeannie, plus Jimmy MacBeath and other valuable source singers, who learned folk songs without the influence of radios or books. Her 1968 appearance there was issued as part of an anthology on the Topic label. As well as classic ballads, she sang bawdy songs such as "Never Wed an Old Man". Jeannie was awarded the MBE in 1968 and died on 13th March 1975. Jeannie's most celebrated song is "I'm a man you don't meet every day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart". It has been recorded by Archie Fisher, The Dubliners, The McCalmans, The Tannahill Weavers and The Pogues. Variants are known from the USA in the 1880s and Australia in the 1850s. It was to the 1990s what "The Wild Rover" was to the 1960s in folk clubs.
Jeannie's daughter Lizzie Higgins issued an album in 1975 - "Up and Awa' wi' the Laverock". Stanley Robertson, a storyteller, ballad singer and piper from Aberdeen is Jeannie's nephew. Carmen Higgins, a fiddler with the Aberdeen folk band "Rock Salt and Nails", is closely related to Jeannie as well. Carmen Higgins has played with Old Blind Dogs, recorded a solo CD, and had appeared on television and radio.
It is not known where Jeannie Robertson was born but she did live at 90, Hilton Street in Aberdeen, where a plaque now commemorates her. Like many of the Scottish Travellers from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Ayrshire, she went to Blairgowrie to pick raspberries once a year. Hamish Henderson was born in Blairgowrie and tried to track down the best singers there. In 1953 he followed her reputation to her doorstep in Aberdeen. According to legend Jeannie was reluctant to let him in. She challenged him to tell her the opening line of Child ballad no 163, The Battle of Harlaw and he complied. In November of the same year she was staying in the London apartment of Alan Lomax. In preparation for a TV appearance, Jean Ritchie, Margaret Barry and Isla Cameron were also there. They swapped songs with each other, while the tape rolled. Jeannie made the earliest known recording of "The Battle of Harlaw". Another of the songs she sang was Andrew Lammie (Mill o' Tifty's Annie) lasting over 13 minutes. At the end she told Alan Lomax about the parts of the story that she hadn't sang. Many of the 1953 recordings were issued as "The Queen Among the Heather" in 1975. They later reappeared along with other songs on a CD of the same name.
The television program was The Ballad Hunters, directed by David Attenborough, who later became director of BBC2 television. In 1958 Hamish Henderson recorded her in Edinburgh. Those recordings were issued as "Up the Dee and Doon The Don" on the Lismor label. The Traditional Music and Song Association founded the Blairgowrie Festival in 1965, during the fruit picking. The first festival saw Jeannie, plus Jimmy MacBeath and other valuable source singers, who learned folk songs without the influence of radios or books. Her 1968 appearance there was issued as part of an anthology on the Topic label. As well as classic ballads, she sang bawdy songs such as "Never Wed an Old Man". Jeannie was awarded the MBE in 1968 and died on 13th March 1975. Jeannie's most celebrated song is "I'm a man you don't meet every day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart". It has been recorded by Archie Fisher, The Dubliners, The McCalmans, The Tannahill Weavers and The Pogues. Variants are known from the USA in the 1880s and Australia in the 1850s. It was to the 1990s what "The Wild Rover" was to the 1960s in folk clubs.
Jeannie's daughter Lizzie Higgins issued an album in 1975 - "Up and Awa' wi' the Laverock". Stanley Robertson, a storyteller, ballad singer and piper from Aberdeen is Jeannie's nephew. Carmen Higgins, a fiddler with the Aberdeen folk band "Rock Salt and Nails", is closely related to Jeannie as well. Carmen Higgins has played with Old Blind Dogs, recorded a solo CD, and had appeared on television and radio.
Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard
Jeannie Robertson Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Little Musgrave And Lady Barnard' by these artists:
Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick On a day, on a day, on a bright holiday…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Jeannie Robertson:
MacCrimmon's Lament Round Cuillin's peak the mist is sailing The banshee croons …
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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anne neilson
I'm Scottish, and I have a very vivid memory of hearing Jeannie sing this in Glasgow c1961/2.
I was at a gathering in the house of my then English teacher, the late Norman Buchan (editor eventually of two very influential books which popularised Scottish folk song, and latterly a Labour MP).
A grand group of interested people were gathered in Norman and his wife Janey's lounge and I was seated on the floor half under the grand piano, to be unobtrusive -- although Norman had already leapt across the room to prevent someone offering me a glass of wine because I was underage!
Anyway, Jeannie (who was staying with the Buchans) stood in front of the room and launched into this ballad -- but she stopped when she came to the point where Lord Barnard had arrived in the bedroom to witness the adultery: at that point Jeannie's version had Barnard offer Matty Groves/Musgrave a sword with which to defend himself. Jeannie looked round the room until she spotted Norman standing by the door, at which point she said, "Well, you see, Norman, he wis aye a fair man!", before resuming the story...
I later heard that Jeannie was aware of the story of the ballad/knew it, but she took to this version when she heard it from the singing of Sandy Paton at an early folk festival in Aberdeen.
(Sorry that I'm not more reliable on the dates.)
Alexander Velky
Hiya. You're right about what's sung; there are (at least) two versions of the song title recorded though and for some reason this recording always seems to be labelled with the "Musgrave" one. Same song and same story though (depending on what's added or amended by any given singer).
Kim Walker
Great Thanks, I always heard it as Matty Grove, but after a wee internet search, I realised i was being hasty in my opinion, interesting and thanks for posting this great song.
Nightspore
Wonderful :)
Kim Walker
I think this may be 'Matty Grove' rather than Musgrove? :-)
Joe Fogey
Folklorists tend to call the song Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard because that's the name Child used. The Matty Groves version (and various other names) were collected in the USA, It would be interesting to know where Jeannie Robertson learned the song - it's worth remembering that traditional singers have the same access to recorded media as the rest of us, and songs in their repertoires can come from records, radio, and so on as well as from oral transmission.
Alexander Velky
Joe Fogey aye similar with Anarchie Gordon, and Auchanachie, plus many others. her family were Scottish travellers. from Wikipedia: "Like many of the Scottish Travellers from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Ayrshire, she went to Blairgowrie to pick raspberries once a year. Hamish Henderson was born in Blairgowrie and tried to track down the best singers there. In 1953 he followed her reputation to her doorstep in Aberdeen. According to legend Jeannie was reluctant to let him in. She challenged him to tell her the opening line of Child ballad no 163, "The Battle of Harlaw", and he complied..."