Focus 580; Interview with Folk Singer Jean Redpath

A long time introducing her and I think I probably won't. I think we'll get right down to talking. Let's just say that she has been performing since 1961 when she first came to the United States and began as I understand it kind of by accident I don't think she was really intending to embark upon this career but of bark upon it. She did. She lived here in the United States for 15 years and then in 1976 she returned to live in Scotland on a permanent basis. She has recorded over 20 albums. She has performed widely in the United States and in Europe. She is now a singer in residence at the University of Stirling in Scotland then at the moment is in residence at unit one on the U of I campus and she is conducting workshops on the performance and history of British and American traditional music and spending time with students and they're going around to various other classes and being interviewed and I understand keeping quite busy. And I'm pleased that you could come in and give us some of your time. It's nice to be here. Let me give our telephone number as well because people might want to talk with Jean Redpath here in Champaign Urbana 3

3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free in Illinois. 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. I think when I spoke with you last I'm not even sure how long it's been it's been two years or has it been three years. I don't remember probably two. I'm told I've been counted twice in the last year. This was the thought time inside for years so that would probably mean continues to years ago. I think one of the first things that I asked and and I want to have you talk about it again because it's I think the distinction may be important. Someone before before I did the interview with you someone reminded me that I should not refer to you as a folk singer. I noticed that your wife had just quite an eye and that rather I should say traditional. And I think that I asked you about that and ask about it again in your mind what the distinction between those two things the difference between a traditional singer and a folk singer. Well I don't think it's crucial that the differences in my mind but it's been borne home to me many times that in other folks buying It's a folk singer it can mean

almost anything from Appalachian unaccompanied 85 year old to James Dale or. Michael Jackson you know if you can't call it anything else if it's not obviously Gys or obviously. Leader then folk singer does at a pinch so I doesn't really mean anything very much to a large segment of people so I have avoided like the plague. Then what. What does traditional music mean or traditional singing that too is you know the law. The longer I live in the more I sing the last I am inclined to put any kind of label on anything I say. I sing I like to sing it's an easier form of communication for me than talking despite the amount of alotta that I do frequently. And it's also easier for many people to listen to because it doesn't require an immediate response at least variable response. But what does it matter whether it's Scottish traditional or French art

song or American contemporary. If it's communicating if it's reaching you know the audience or the group and the moment well you know how in your repertoire how much of that is music that has been sung for a long time and how much of it is is new or is a music that's been written within the last. A few years proportionately I would be hard pushed to tell you right off the top of my head probably two thirds traditional Which means either anonymous or at least two generations. I don't know that anybody has actually defined when a song ceases to be a singer songwriter because we know perfectly well who wrote things like well you know come back again but she died in 1845. Does that mean it's not traditional because we know who the author is and it doesn't have to be anonymous if it stood the test if it's if it's gone into popular repertoire and people will sing it without first quoting their

sources I guess that's as good a reason as any to call it within the oral tradition. About two thirds of the stuff I work with would be traditional and raced in some other category whatever it might be or when I heard you sing on Saturday night at here on the your high campus on the credit center and you for example you saying a song that you said had been sent to you by someone and by that saying I don't want to encourage anybody just leaves no songs. I'm sure that's the that's the bane of a lot of performers existence people or so on themselves but this this happened to come on a cassette I guess with some others and many of them you liked and you're singing and you're saying that and of course you're singing some traditional Scottish songs. When you when you look at the you know say Say Something by Robert Burns or something that's maybe even older and you don't know who wrote it it's just something that has been passed down to many people. People have signed you are saying if you take that and set it aside a

song that's that's been written by someone contemporary say there's this person who wrote this song that arrived in this packet with the others. What what what is in common with what is it that those two things share in common that there must be something about them that strikes a chord in you that says yes I want to sing both of these songs and it doesn't matter to me if this one is very old and this one was written last week. What is what is that the thing that they both share. Got it right there but I don't know what you call it. Right. The you said strike a chord I say ring a bell. If they're doing the right bells in my head it's immediately obvious to me that I need to learn the song so I can sing it. But I have been trying for 25 years to define what that is and have no idea what it is. It has a lot to do with the melody. I mean if it's a poor melody you don't have a vehicle for the story. I think it's easier to sing. Weaker words to a strong melody than it is to sing. Powerful words to a weak melody. But apart from that kind of distinction

the package and also of course the performer. I can I can find myself very moved by a performance of a song by a particular singer I get a hold of it. I work it out. Try singing it and think I can do that. You know it just doesn't work for me it worked on the incoming line but it is not going to work on the outgoing so it does sometimes. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to discover that also sometimes songs don't wear well. There are a few that one grows into and a few that are exciting for the first to see performances in anything I've done that maybe you maybe you just sort of develop beyond them or something. I don't know what one would call it. The responses instinctive emotional subjective and it's certainly nothing I can defy and short words. OK well let's talk with someone. Here we have a caller on our toll free line we encourage other people if you'd like to speak with our guest Jean Redpath the telephone number here at 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free in Illinois 800 2 2 2 1 4 5

5. Here's someone right here on our toll free line hello. Oh well yes. I referred to an incident which happened when. And it came from Northern Ireland. So it's only after I work as an actor cookie right here. It's bad that you're dead wrong on that. Now I don't know if it was really such a person and trying to do it I'm going up unless you can get a little dirty think it I guess. Walter Scott and somebody has used the romantic connotation which is with so many people you will have a half remembered notion of a story or a pair scene or a situation and when you're marketing something it's invaluable to be able to plug into that you know that kind of subliminal

association with something romantic so Laurent Lorna Doone shortbread cookies have been around for a good long time but whoever started the package the most thinking in terms of. A Scottish mystique I tend to refer to that kind of approach as applying a Shirley Temple ions to all sorts of things are nice. Lovely kind of romantic edge around them which doesn't have any specific application to reality but yes there they are. There was a a literary figure for an and romantic associations that were fairly cleverly used for marketing. She certainly was not a current purveyor of cookies that's for sure. The biggest problem I have with with names with Scottish Association Of course the senang something like a perfectly good respectable fairly elderly I mean 150 years young for the ballad and Lizzie Lindsay has been around

longer than that and has become a shorter popular song. And there's nothing at all wrong with the song was nothing comic about it. It's the inevitable story of you know William married me no one betrothed to somebody else but but you're but betrothed to me. Can't you remember. Oh it's you of course somebody you know that sort of improbable story line but the. The line which destroys the song in this country now is my. My fair that is because he my mother is a lady the say I am. I am Lauder Ronald McDonald. Today Speaker had I think she. And there is you know based upon like to talk to run dry the hall and if it's youngsters they just crack up and as the song is destroyed by a commercial name which takes precedence over any Adelie Redford's own.

Many of the songs that you sing will be to some degree impenetrable to those of us who as you put it the other night are Scottish language impaired even though you think you'd do a pretty good job of trying to explain to people what songs are about and what various words mean that there's no way that an American is going to understand and experience the song the way Scott would and I wonder if that set that's at all frustrating or if sometimes you wish that audiences that that really come to to hear you and appreciate you and your music and your voice and everything could at the same time understand a little bit better what you're singing about. I get asked a lot and I don't think it's a problem because the actual story line the actual vocabulary Yes. And what I've done at this stage I think is

use those as an excuse to. Pound all sorts of pulpits. I mean I have I have. I have axes I'm going bang particular axes I'm going down and and I think maybe what I'm trying to do is suggest that we have a great deal more in common than we have national and individual peculiarities. The emotion doesn't change people. Particularly if it's the heavier end of of the emotional spectrum people experience sadness and loss in the same way anywhere in the world. And I think and respond to a song talking about that as far as the comedy which tends to come in broad Scots is concerned that just plain gives me a chance to. To have a good time to try and draw some kind of word pictures of of what how I see the Scott. If there is such a creature if you can define such a creature how I see the country how I respond to. Weakness is under strength. In other words.

I'm an undercover agent for the Scottish Tourist Board basically But no I don't think that I don't think the language is a problem at all and if you you know if you subscribe to the notion that the Scots because of the language and the country and the climate and the geomorphology have a different experience of the world and therefore it's impossible to have somebody in Champaign Illinois do that you could equally well take that down to the finest possible distinctions and say that no two people can experience the world in the same way. That's that's a given I think we spend most of our life trying to cross these particular gaps however small I have and why they might be. I don't find it a problem. Now is there. Is there a difference do you think though in the way audiences react here and in and in Scotland. Yes but I don't know that it has anything to do with an ability to to respond you know to know what I'm saying I got rather a conditioning I think. I think Scots are still incredibly inhibited.

I get to make fun of the fact that from Fife for instance we had accused of being very very tight. Monetary only speaking of what's intended but that also extends into an emotional field you don't part with anything you don't part with money you don't part with information you don't part with reactions. It's a very controlled and not quite sure where it comes from. I have all sorts of theories about it but again on the most basic of levels if you think about a cold damp climate. You tend to keep everything closed up. Weather tight water tight wooden tight and that might very well wash over on it to keep in your top button fastened to keep me a lot fastened you know just. Whereas in warm Mediterranean claims the clothing is loose. The emotions are a little less tightly reined. There is a kind of climatic personality and most northern types tend to be

much more restrained than you know the Latin personality the Nordic personality is much more restrained than the Latin personality as a result of course I think the the music is that much more powerful because it's one of the few avenues that we have to pour emotion into and it's become quite intense almost too intense at times. I think we have somebody else here earlier toll free 1. There we are. Is there a color there. Well I guess maybe maybe Micah my director can check on that maybe I will also remind you that we're talking this morning with singer Jean Redpath And if you would like to speak with her our telephone lines are open here locally in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free Illinois 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. As you were growing up what was the place of music in your family. Two things I would say about that was always there because my mother sang a lot around the house which is

why of course I picked up the material. And my father did quite a bit of singing in the car. For instance if we were driving and he played the hammered dulcimer so I was very much aware of it. But I also picked up reinforced attitudes which are common still in Scotland that the homegrown isn't worth much in other words if I had asked the formal question of either parent anyway it into my teens. What's you know what's good music. It would have had nothing at all to do with the songs that we were singing in the House or the tunes that were being played. This is one of the less the less attractive and I suppose hardest to explain traits in Scotland. Tremendous national pride and a dreadful ability to to self denigrate so that music was there yes but by the age of 20 music for me with a capital M was still something that belonged between 3:15 and 4:00 on a Thursday afternoon in the music room and was usually

English art song or an attempt to to learn to read staff notation which I resisted violently and never did master and things like that but there was a lot of traditional music around. My mother was one of 12 and everybody in her family played something all by ear. You know most organ piano but an accordion. So there was a lot of stuff around but they didn't set any great store by it. So I really had to. I basically had to leave the country I've been advocating all Scots be shipped abroad for two years and early in the formative years it gives you a very very different and very fresh perspective on your own. You know in cultures that some call you make your own. You make you appreciate your old roots more. Oh absolutely absolutely. Nothing more basic than the language for instance the educational system in general and individual teachers in particular tried very hard to get all of us to lose any original Scottish accent that we might have. The implication of course was

very clear without it being spelled out that if one wanted to be a guard it as educated and socially acceptable first you had to send English and all I had to do was step off a plane over it he had the accent. Is the biggest natural gimmick I could have asked for I mean there are also thoughts of that built in there I don't know if you've ever noticed but if you have a broad accent then you would automatically probably harmless as you are slightly hard of hearing and probably not too bright. And it really is a very advantageous position to start from because it means that people are not threatened by you and are happy to help. The first momentary hesitation of you know what you want from my life when I stop a stranger as they frequently do because I'm nearly always lost. You know I always know what I'm going to do and I had to get there so I'll stop and say Excuse me can you tell me that first moment that he has Ed. When you stop a total stranger especially since it's a woman on her own what does she want from me. The minute they hear the accent you can you can see the

pros clear links he's obviously harmless talks funny. So it does help but that you know that in itself is a is something that we have been fighting for a long time in Scotland and I can't really blame anybody else but it does matter what somebody does to you you don't have to go along with it. But we haven't that's nasty. It's nasty self-flagellation builtin somewhat on the way. But when you came to the United States you certainly weren't coming here to start a singing career. Maybe it was just the case that you were interested in getting away from home and nothing of the place. What when you when you came here what what were you thinking about it. Probably the honest answer to that is nothing apart from you know the and the incredible guilt of having dropped out of university twenty seven eight years ago that was quite a step to take it was. It was it wasn't lightly done I must say but it caused me a good deal of grief but a little while that having been you know in quotes given the opportunity that you know the

previous generation to question a woman didn't have etc. how could I throw away Iraq Iraq Iraq when basically there was absolutely nothing wrong with my instinct. Probably the best thing I've ever done. And if I went back to that age knowing what I knew now I'm not sure if I would have the guts to do it. You know US security creeps up on you in middle years and it gets harder and harder to swim upstream. But I don't honestly think that I had any great scheme great life plan in mind it was sort of explosive immediate and impulsive instinctual and a very good thing. When did you start thinking about making a career of singing. About 10 years after I did it. I think it's one of these one of these things that suddenly presented itself to me as a fait accompli I didn't sit down and agonize about it I shouldn't be driving cars babysitting and scrubbing floors with. The

kind of education and intelligence I've I've gotten thus far do something a little more worthwhile I stumbled into it because it sounded like fun it was something I was interested in. It was a repertoire I already had. Give me a chance to travel and from there it gathered momentum and 10 years later I realized this was no longer a stopgap I was in it right up to my ears. We're talking with Jean Redpath she's a Scottish traditional singer. She is currently in residence at Unit 1 on the U of I campus and she will be here through the end of the week as she gave a performance as best we can at the granite center on the U of I campus. I was yes I wasn't listening Adly it on when I was talking to dicey Stevenson or Scott. I was accusing somebody of writing like Davidson of course but I don't know I think you said Scott Well shame on me. I said now that are more than two writers in Scotland but now Walter Scott has a great deal to answer for because he's practically single handedly responsible for how people see the Scott you know the whole Highland dress but it was

a pretty well a marketing pitch that he came up with for the royal visit to Scotland in 1822 so I tend to have it in for him his mind is his name as head of the pile but Robert Louis Stevenson of course is the author that well people do when people think of Scotland I'm sure that's the first image that comes kilts and bagpipes and all that stuff that's certainly part of the culture of Scotland but only one part and. It's a repeated part of one region and what's going on there but there are a lot of other kinds of Scots and they're not at all where killed off by bagpipes it's less than a quarter of the country actually from where I stand because it's Highland and I'm a little under and it's purely male that image is purely male which wipes you know all of the little ones and all of the women which doesn't you know is not wildly representative when you think about it. But there is absolutely no way that such a strong visual image is ever going to be ignored. There is no national dress for a woman in Scotland. The kilt is a

male trait and although there are many many women pipers around now it also started out as very much a male domain. That and the playing of the war pipes that are no. Many people play only other kinds of pipes which are in Scotland you know that or to see other versions of pipes in Scotland including something called the called One pipes called and it's produced by cold produced by bellows rather than by a longs. You can imagine if you blow into a wind pipe to fill a bag then it's obviously blood temperature as long temperature. So these these would be warmer hot wind with a never affair to such but the ones like the adage pipes where you're pumping a bellows with the available I called the cold wind pipes much less powerful much sweeter silent and therefore possible to sing with. I was obviously people say to me you never sing with the bagpipes have never been an enclosed space with a set of work pipes you know they're there outdoor instruments. Indeed yes and preferably at the other end of the block. It can affect your ear

drums for quite some time. We have several people to talk with other kids do that. Lie Number one is next. Hello hello. Yes I'd like to tell Tina that I seen her perform several times and that I really enjoy her music. And besides owning a month every album say have got myself part of a re-enactment group that does it. Thanks very aware Nachman and when she was mentioned about that pipe being drawn down I now. But I'd like to comment on less in your performances. When you do that do the live shows you do something that is not so much on your album and that is almost all the time it has at least one or maybe two secular type of songs as opposed to just

more float type songs and I was wondering if you would ever consider. I realize that when you want the audience to sing along with you you get your largest response thought of oh Amazing Grace or not even a anything goes but you know like your song. Do you ever think that maybe that could be offending some of the Iranians who are not of the religion. Persuasion. You know what. It never occurs to me that anybody would be offended. So basically because no offense is intended and I think the only way you can operate in this world is have you have to stand on somebody's Tollers than there has to be malice of forethought. You know if I didn't have if I didn't have a reverence or offense in mind then there is nothing I can do about somebody else's tendency to read it in a you know you could you could finish up speechless. If you if you carry that particular mental attitude to it's ultimate

conclusion. I do think that you could get that same type of response you know I think like you're looking for and doing these kind of things has to get everybody in the audience that you know and let's be honest those kind of songs a lot that people either know or they have come to their life and they piercing along real well. Do you think that if you would incorporate maybe one or two of the kind of traditional old guard songs in your record. Project X strain with chronic no is the short answer to that. I really don't know I if I understand you you're suggesting that I am my main aim is to saying I call them God songs and not I you know I realize that that makes some people bridle too but as far as I'm concerned that since as descriptive a genetic tear I'm covering every conceivable kind of religious persuasions anything else there's a there's a

very real reason for my using those because it touches something a great deal deeper in most people than I could hope to do by saying what is essentially foreign language material. Yes I can teach a Scottish song yes I can teach a chorus but as we were talking about here a couple minutes ago an American audience's reaction to a Scottish song is going to be not too subtly different from a Scottish audience you don't bring the same lifetime of emotional connotation to it and unless you are absolutely militant atheist then you do bring some kind of personal association to a god song. Whatever your persuasion whatever your background whatever your belief you do have some kind of association and I'm not saying that the first person that I can think of that. Or perhaps for characters in other words that don't work. It would be

to the left out. It's nor the term I'm sittin here doing a form of that me. I would hate to think so but by the same token the. You know there isn't a sentiment involved. I'm not proselytizing I know but you are getting a trailing of around me and spoke to us in a song that would you know meant to pieces there or have reference. Therefore you know I'm sorry. I'm wondering if you don't do a song like goddess type of melody that everybody would know. Scotland the Brave are funny. Oh I've got an excellent answer for you there. A I love Amazing Grace. I think it's a wonderful song. B I love I will guy the CIA love give me just a little more time. I hate Scotland the Brave. Absolutely no excuse for

me to sing a song I can't stand. I don't know I didn't record Well most of it most of the popular ones unfortunately have been done to death and I also think most of the very well known Scottish songs subscribe to an image of Scotland that I won't touch with a bargepole. I think we have an insoluble here actually I. I understand I've had a couple of people in the past and I mean literally a couple who have been outraged by my singing of a Moody and Sankey him or a black or white Baptist song. I can only repeat again that if I am singing it from a view of what I regard as an honest presentation in an attempt to communicate with the largest possible number of people in the hall that's all I can ever do I can never hope to reach everybody in the hall in exactly the same way. I understand I do like leaving off the feeling that I do that. Thanks for having me love people life. I really appreciate everything that you have been a for me well thank you and thanks for calling

and Alex very much. We have a couple of other people here. So something I just wanted to ask you real quick you know I'm curious about over the years I wonder if if various sorts of voice teachers or voice professionals have approached you and and said that you were doing something wrong and they wanted to they wanted to fix you have have said. You know if you will study with me then the world will take care of something and will make you a great singer. You know I have had people over the years said you're you're not getting it quite right that you should be doing something different not in the last 15 years you know no one's had better just look like not just you. This is again a perennial discussion and you know I. I go out of my way to indicate that. I was lucky in that. Who knows what drives kept me with traditional music and that I mention the arbitrary age of 20 that when I reach 20 I still thought of music

as being that shape in a small square box of a certain kind. That's because the education system conditions me that way. It had to be innate perversity that kept me from going going with the flow. But I did approach somebody at the age of 20 and say I think I'd like to have my voice trained. And one of the things in my life that I really can claim no credit for and I do think that there is a measurable tendency on the part of many Scots to claim credit for what they have done with their time their energy and their talent. I'm not doing what I'm doing now by sheer dumb luck. There's been a lot of hard work and a lot of decisions involved and I'm aware of that. There's nothing wrong with that comes from being a member of the human race but asking the right woman at the age of 20 to train my voice was something I had no control over and she said to me when you want to train it to do so that at a very early age I was asked you know what are your definitions what are you going to do with that. What you know where are your

priorities. And I think I was saved from becoming a. A singer of Bel Canto our leader or art song or anything else because I do think that once you have developed certain techniques you can't backtrack you can't then become an unselfconscious producer of voice and so it's luck that I was given the instrument and the breathing ability. It's luck that I asked the right woman who said if that's what you're interested go sing for 20 years you're not doing anything wrong and your breathing hasn't been got that. But it is also something I accept personal responsibility for that I've spent 20 years working on it. Say generally speaking most voice teachers once in a while somebody will say oh I would love to hear you sing. You know whatever their love is whatever. But generally speaking what what will be said and not to grudgingly is that of

you. You're doing a lot of things that I'm trying to get some of my students to do. And you seem to do them naturally. I think mostly because I never thought about it. And you know if you if you don't wonder whether or not you're going to be able to jump that distance you know get from stone to stone the chances are you'll do it when you start to what are you about whether that step is too high or whether the water's too deep. That's when you're in trouble and for who knows what reason. I never wondered about whether or not I could produce that sound. Do you have young people coming to you and saying can you teach me to sing like you. Oh sure. And can you. No good God no. I wouldn't want to either. They should sing like them should sing like me. And they say no and the other question is I'd love to do what you're doing to which my response is No you probably wouldn't. And the formula that I've come up with in the last few years to answer this one apart from you know how can I do what you're doing are I what do you suggest my suggestion is don't. But on a much more serious level

if you have any choice then you shouldn't go into this kind of of a lifestyle that's bizarre but if you don't have any choice then you're very lucky. Well I've been we've been talking here and I've been keeping callers waiting patiently name all of them but let's get back to the phones here. Toll free line there. Hello hello. Yes I just wanted to ask I have occurred to me. We've seen it on the Prairie Home Companion kissing I'm sure was here many times. Impurities don't want. Well thank you and I just wanted to add the caller before I don't think the song is your voice your stock your heart to rock. Well thank you. Thank you for calling. Well thank you. We have about 10 minutes left We're talking with the Scottish singer Jean Redpath. Our telephone number here is 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 that's in Champaign-Urbana toll free Illinois 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Someone here on another local line. My number two. Hello hello. Yes yes. Spread. Pat can you talk a

little about even with the unit one student your reaction that there. And what did they seem to be interested. Oh that's a white one. My reaction is that it's so unique in my experience I've never come across anything quite like it before. I think it's a marvelous idea. Those are. Those are very very stimulating and very interested students over there I suspect in the long run at the end of two weeks I'm going to get a good deal more out of it that I'm putting into it. But then I'm I'm in a position to judge that I don't know. I don't know what they're going to get out of it. The notion that they can be in and sort of daily and fairly close contact with such a diverse group of people from every conceivable walk of life in the course of an academic year is something that I I envy them and rest retrospect I think it I think it has to it has to be much more valuable as pure education than than many as a course that one could take

thi. Subjects were covering one of the things that I found. Momentarily dizzying was that I am used to residences I'm used to teaching summer school I'm used to doing workshops but obviously they tend to be concentrated on traditional music on the ballad on the works of Robert Barnes. In other words the field that I am particularly interested myself in of course what what it turns out that these kids are looking for is well how do you feel about such and such coming from your particular point of view and as of last Monday when I was first introduced to them once I had talked for a while and sung for a while and just generally given them a chance to to find out who I was and how I thought. We then asked for suggestions of what they would like to do and the workshops that we came up with were really quite weird and wonderful. The notion for instance that I all of a sudden have become history. What. What was music

like in Greenwich Village in the 60s. And of course that's not the desperately long for me I've got an unbroken line of continuity since the folk revival in the 60s. But it came as quite a shock to realize that a lot of these students weren't born till 1970 so that you know I'm discussing a historical era practically for them which is as a real turnaround. It's difficult to know what will happen with a thing still coming but one of the things that I've been doing is a half hour every afternoon of just you know come in and sing an arbitrary choice of three or four songs just to see what it feels like. You don't ever have to sing them again you don't have to memorize them but it does make a difference if you are aware that people who worked in mills and could sing about how miserable their life conditions were that there are anti-war songs there are three or four hundred years old as well as the contemporary ones that people have been aware that it wasn't the most intelligent thing to do to bump each other off.

It really is a case of just rubbing shoulders over dinner over lunch over. A foreign song and into reacting and as they say it's been it's been a total education for me ads. My hat's off to the to the university and to and to Allan Hall for having kept this program going for 13 years I think it's great. Does that get to your question here. Thank You are very welcome. I'd like to get back to talking a little bit more about performance. I have no seen you twice and the two performances were all rather different at least in sense that the first time was completely solo. I was just you by yourself and then most recently with a cellist and a fiddler and I gather that you've been you've been performing with them in public more for more and more and more. Well.

Abbey and I have worked together on records for 15 years 14 years and have done performances. She's a little more flexible I guess. Particularly in the east we've done a lot of concerts together over the years Alastair also has an independent carry of that's that's the problem you know if you're if you're working if you're working as a solo act and booking many months ahead it's a logistic problem to try and get three independent musicians in one place for a concert. So although I thoughtfully enjoy it I don't think it's likely to become the stat that you know the norm rather than the exception but it is a joy to the to be able to sit back and watch somebody else work for a change too. Well as a as a performer. How do you think that that of for you and for the audience how do you think those two kinds of performances are different. One where you come out of the stage and you do the whole thing and where you have to you're have two other performers

with you. Oh that's a hard one. Excuse me. Sorry Mike. The positive side of it of course is that the audience is being exposed to a much wider range of of Scottish music than I can offer on my own. The fact that you know the fiddle is very very closely allied to the some tradition particularly when you're dealing with bird songs because he used so many fiddle tunes to to set songs to the fact the 18th century fiddle music was scored in so many cases to be accompanied by Tana when you never hear that when I last and I do a beautiful job of that. And the formal arrangements again along the lines of you know sound sound English more people will find you acceptable. This is not nothing new at this and in Burns time at the end of the end of the 18th century is when a lot of the Scottish traditional songs where set by the European composers because the editors who invited Haydn and Beethoven to do it where aware that it would

broaden their market that it would be in quotes improve the songs and. I can't do a Haydn setting obviously as a as a solo singer I need the instrumentals so there's a much broader range possible sometimes depending on how much adrenaline I'm pumping and how the audience are responding. I regret the ability to. Take them when I want them to go for two hours because if you get up. Not having seen that group of people before and they are responsive if they're alive you can do almost anything you want them you can. And since I am proselytizing in a sense I can cover a tremendous amount of territory. Get them to sing get them to listen hopefully get them to laugh get them to eat get them to do all sorts of things. And just in terms of plain time to do 40 minutes solo and then join the others. That is a structure superimposed on walk on with two other people is not there with a solo

act so it's a different experience for me as well it's a different experience for the audience I don't think it's better or worse it's just different. I don't think that's desperately articulate. What of what have boiled down to saying I think is that since there are three people involved we have to have a program we have to have a running order. We know how long it lasts I can't run off at the most quite as long as I might if I were just picking at the air so that it's considerably more structured but then the content is winded and there's a lot more variety. Right away we'll talk with someone else here on our toll free line once again. Hello. They just can't help but express how much we enjoy the difference. The frequency with which we had a chance to hear your guest on Prairie Home Companion and wondering if there is any other sort of outlet that we can dependably turn to the click here. Contribution not as far as the media is concerned I don't think at the moment.

There isn't there isn't another program running right now that I'm a steady guest on I guess the answer is No. Unfortunately I'm I'm bouncing around the continent quite a bit doing concerts but that's a very different thing unless I show up in your hometown it's no help to you were tall rock or spirits but such a lot for us really enjoyed. I was one of those friends we get prepared to partner up with some regularity. Just reading her message Hope you find some benefit our super PAC contributions. Well thank you so much you've done wonders for my flag and morale this morning. Thank you but perhaps I should mention again in case anybody doesn't know that Gene has recorded a number of record albums so if she doesn't pop up on your radio you certainly can put her on your turntable and listen that way something else I was curious about. It was my understanding that for a long time you were very resistant to the idea of doing a compact disc and I know that you have one. Now you look at me like what. No I didn't think I was.

I thought that that for a long time you didn't want to do it that's not true no. I know I have always resisted the notion of a live recording but CDs no. I mean it's. I'm happy to put music on. You know plastic light sleeps if that's the way the technology is going. You know I don't think I had any strong feelings about CD at all. As a matter of fact I think the next thing down the pike is a CD of the very early electro records which were made between 61 and 64 and seems to me that makes perfect sense you know that technology is such that you can clean up masters that have been around for a long time and make them fit to listen to again you're not you're not condemned to two that's scratchy echoey sound that we associate with Caruso and things like that. But no I don't think I ever had any resistance to a CD but I certainly I still feel fairly strongly about live recordings. Why is that.

There's there is an immediacy of spontaneity and an intimacy in a hall that I think is really only or is only the the right and just property of the people who are there at the moment. And also a song will where repetition obviously. With any luck one never sings the same song exactly the same way twice running. It stands to reason that you can listen to a song as I do many times I can listen to the same cut 14 times in a row if I'm in the process of learning it. I don't think the same thing is true of spoken introductions of one liners. I mean obviously every performer has as wide a repertoire of introductions and one liners and I hate to say jokes because I'm not thinking so much of jokes as introductions that are aimed at changing a mood in a certain direction and I don't think these where well at

all. Basically it boils down to almost everything else I do it's subjective I don't like what's mine to live recordings I find I find the chart of the applause the stuff and in between intrusive and I don't think that the atmosphere that is captured as a result of a live recording compensates for that at all so since I feel that way about listening to them I don't have any any desire or feel any any pressure to make one although it's been mentioned Many's the time I can't see why. I wish we had more time line and the time went quickly as I knew it would. So I'm afraid we'll just have to leave it at that and say the next time you come back to serve in a band of well we'll welcome you back if you would if you would have us again settle and settle. Thanks very much for being with us. Thank you Jean Redpath.