PLOUGHMAN LADS AND SINGIN QUINES
A celebration of 1959/1960 recordings in Buchan by Kenneth Goldstein
This project was worked on by some of Scotland's finest traditional singers. Recordings of new performances they made are elsewhere in this website. The project is at present in abeyance.
In 1959/60 American folklorist Ken Goldstein spent a year in Buchan, collecting traditional songs in Fetterangus, New Pitsligo, Strichen and around. He copied most of his tapes to the School of Scottish Studies archive, but not all. In early 2024 all his Buchan recordings, held in the University of Mississippi [Ole Miss], are to be put on line. The Ploughmen and Quines project aimed to -
a] have esteemed Scottish singer Christine Kydd work with ‘Tripple’, a trio of female young and emerging artists in the North-East, to explore the repertoire of Traveller Lucy Stewart and develop responding performances of some of her songs, particularly the song she was best known for The Ploughman Laddies Are Aa The Go.
b] have fine younger singer Natalie Chalmers 1] share her account of being taught songs by Elizabeth Stewart, 2] add some tracks by her of the songs she learned to the website.
c] have some of the above work documented through recordings and photography by songwriter and technical expert Andy Shanks, and through the creation of a dedicated website made by project leader Ewan McVicar.
d] Create a storytelling element in the new website from Pauline Cordiner of GAS, retelling stories given to Goldstein by Lucy Stewart and others.
e] utilise in the project the 1960 P&J articles written by then reporter Arthur Argo about Goldstein at work, and recordings of singers Argo did at that time. Arthur subsequently became a key mover and shaker in the Scottish Folksong Revival of the 1960s.
Natalie Chalmers is one of Scotland's best young traditional singers. She was taught her singing skills by various others, but gives the key credit to Elizabeth Stewart of Fishie. Below is a link to her talking about Elizabeth.
Also below are pages from Natalie's notebook in which Elizabeth has written lyrics in her distinctive attractive script.
