'Frae my ain countrie': Robert Burns in the archive of Jean Redpath

Hansen, M. (2021) 'Frae my ain countrie': Robert Burns in the archive of Jean Redpath. In: Brown, I. and Carruthers, G. (eds.) Performing Robert Burns: Enactments and Representations of the 'National Bard'. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, pp. 183-197. ISBN 9781474457149

Abstract

In March 1961, 24-year-old Jean Redpath moved from her native Scotland to the USA. Although starting in San Francisco, she would quickly find herself in Greenwich Village, New York and at the heart of the folk music revival that would sweep America. To this, she would bring her own repertoire of Scottish folk songs, sung in her clear and expressive mezzo-soprano with little or no instrumental accompaniment. At the heart of this body of work were the songs of Robert Burns. Jean would spend the rest of her life living and working between the USA and Scotland, continuing to add to the range of Burns materials she recorded and performed through her own research and teaching on both sides of the Atlantic. Following her death in 2014, her extensive archives were bequeathed to the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow and the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of South Carolina. Drawing on the Burns-related content of those archives, this chapter will explore Jean Redpath’s relationship with the bard – the breadth and depth of her work to better understand the nuance of the bard’s songs, the various contexts within which she recorded those songs including an project conceived with Serge Hovey to record Burns’s entire catalogue, and the impact of her career on the placement of Burns as a central figure in both national and international folk song traditions.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hansen, Dr Moira
• Authors: Hansen, M.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Scottish Literature
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• ISBN: 9781474457149
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Edinburgh University Press
• First Published: First published in Performing Robert Burns: Enactments and Representations of the 'National Bard': 183-197
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy