This is Natalie Chalmer’s first Paths to Songs blog!
We didn’t go into detail on any one song in our first session but we spent the time discussing what songs we intended on learning about over the next year.
In my opinion Geordie Murison is one of the best bothy ballad singers and so I specifically want to learn these from him. Geordie said the most important thing for him is the dialect – getting the dialect and the pronunciation correct is what he cares about a lot, so I will be making sure I learn the correct way to say the auld doric words correctly eg Geordie pointed out that when I sing Hairst O’ Rettie I say “whittles” as it is spelt but it should be said like “fittles”.
We went through a list of Bothy Ballads and some that struck me and I would like to learn from Geordie are:
- Drumdelgie
- Ca’ ma loon
- Guise O’Tough
We also discussed traditional ballads and I have had great teaching from Elizabeth Stewart learning the big ballads but I lacked in some of the more up-tempo ballads and again Geordie is the man. He sang through some he had in mind but one really did stand out for me and I am very excited about learning this from Geordie – Aul’ Grey Beard which Geordie first heard sung by Jeannie Robertson.
We finally touched on some comic chorus songs and hopefully in the next few months I will learn all about the Big Kilmarnock Bonnet!
Our first session was good as it set a plan of what we would like to cover and achieve from this process. I am currently learning Drumdelgie for the next session to work on.