Were there singers in your north or north-east family in the 1930s?
People who earned local fame for their renditions of ballads and sea songs, for example.
They may be long gone, but there’s a chance that their voices were recorded by an American song collector who came to the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire in 1931.
James Madison Carpenter (1888- 1983) came from Blackland, near Booneville, Mississippi.
He first trained as a Methodist minister, but it wasn’t until he was in his 30s that he found his way into song collecting.
He went to Harvard to do a doctorate in English, and was taken under the wing of an eminent literary and folklore scholar George Lyman Kittredge.
Collecting folk songs in Britain
For his PhD, entitled Forecastle Songs and Shanties, he undertook fieldwork in Britain, Ireland and America.
In 1929 he was awarded a fellowship to continuing collecting folk songs in Britain.
Armed with a car and a Dictaphone cylinder machine, he set off to explore the country in search of singers.
An 80-year-old woman from Aberdeenshire turned out to be ‘the greatest ballad singer of all time’ in his estimation.
She was Bell Duncan of Lambhill near Insch, with a repertoire of some 300 songs.
But there were many others, and Ross-Shire storyteller, ceilidh-maker and author Ewan McVicar is looking for the help of P&J readers to track down their families.
On his website, carpenterinthenorth.com, Ewan has posted some of the songs James Madison Carpenter recorded.
They’re irreplaceable fragments of folklore history.
Ewan said: “He recorded more than 100 songs from singers in Latheron, Balintore and Shandwick, Lochcarron, Keith, Fochabers, Portgordon, Spey Bay, Dufftown, The Cabrach, Elgin, Halladale and Inverness.
“The Dictaphone recordings were transferred onto discs which became scratched so they are now quite hard to listen to, but the lyrics and the information he gleaned about the people who sang to him are invaluable.
“Some of the recordings are unique versions of the songs.”
When Cromarty-based Ewan noticed that Carpenter had collected songs from several Balintore and Shandwick singers, he approached Maureen Ross of the Seaboard Centre, herself an accomplished singer, for help.
Tracking down Mrs James Allan
They managed to track down resident James Skinner who told them more about his grandmother, Mrs James Allan, who appears in the Carpenter collection.
He said: “Her own name was Barbara Ross. Granny was a good singer even in later years.
“We used to hear her in church joining in the psalms and paraphrases.
“Even at home her repertoire was usually of hymns rather than more secular songs.”
Tracking down Mrs Reid
Online community websites also came to Ewan’s aid in his searches, where he tracked down another of Carpenter’s singers, Isabella Reid, always known as Mrs Reid, Oran House.
The information came from her relative, Professor Peter Reid.
“The Reids of Oran House had been very prosperous ships chandlers, merchants, ship owners and bankers and Mrs Reid was at the pinnacle of village society such as it was.
“She married David Reid, a merchant and banker, and they had seven children, but she was widowed at 34 and brought up the children on her own.
“She was quite a character and something of a village grande dame.”
Tracking down Finlay Murchison
Ewan found former Highland councillor Helen Murchison of Kishorn who was able to help him with the Lochcarron singer who features in the Carpenter recordings, Finlay Murchison.
She said: “Finlay had a large family, none of whom are in the area now.
“He composed songs and the ones recorded are probably his compositions.”
Can you help track down more singers?
Ewan wants to find out more about the singers, and hopes P&J readers can help.
If you have any information about the singers listed below, please email Ewan McVicar here .
Alexander Brown
Anchor Cottage, Land Street, Rothes
Mrs Cameron of Keith
No other information about her, though she sang many ballads.
Miss J Cruikshank [aged about 80]
Ardshean, Dufftown
Mrs Jessie Davidson
Willow Cottage, Tugnet, Spey Bay
Mrs Watson Gray
She lived at Corner House, East Street, Fochabers. She sang unique versions of two ballads, and others learned in Glenlivet 50 years before.
Mrs A Innes
Bishopmill, Elgin
Gordon McBain, aged 82
Aldivalloch, The Cabrach
Colin McDonald
Dalhalvaig, Halladale
Carpenter also recorded two unnamed women singers in Strath Halladale
Mrs Alex McEwan of Inverness
She gave Carpenter one song, ‘learned from her father and grandfather, William and John Newlands, 46 years ago, between Inverness and Foyers’.
Mrs W A Reid
East Neuk, Fochabers
John Ross
At the age of 77 he was working as a farm labourer, living in a bothy on Lone Vine Farm, Delny, near Invergordon. He came from Balintore, and was the father of 10 children.
John Sutherland of Balruddery, Latheron
Was this Balruddery Farm?
Mrs Andrew Thompson of Spey Bay
No other information.
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