Jeannie Robertson

Folk singer, born in Aberdeen, NE Scotland, UK. She was virtually unknown beyond the NE of Scotland until discovered in 1953 by Scottish folklorist Hamish Henderson (1919–2002). Her huge repertoire of classic traditional ballads and other songs, together with her powerful and magnetic singing style, exerted a profound influence on the folk-music revival. Although she lived most of her life in Aberdeen, she belonged to the ‘travelling folk’, whose music was passed down orally from generation to generation, and she represented an important link with this ancient culture.

Jeannie Robertson (1908 - 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer.

It is not known where Jeannie Robertson was born but she did live at 90, Hilton Street in Aberdeen, where a plaque now commemorates her. Like many of the "travelling people" from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Ayrshire, she went to Blairgowrie to pick raspberries once a year. According to legend Jeannie was reluctant to let him in. Jeannie made the earliest known recording of "The Battle of Harlaw". Another of the songs she sang was Andrew Lammie (Mill o' Tifty's Annie) lasting over 13 minutes. Many of the 1953 recordings were issued as "The Queen Among the Heather" in 1975.

The television program was The Ballad Hunters, directed by David Attenborough, who later became director of BBC2 television. The Traditional Music and Song Association founded the Blairgowrie Festival in 1965, during the fruit picking. The first festival saw Jeannie, plus Jimmy MacBeath and other valuable source singers, who learned folk songs without the influence of radios or books. Her 1968 appearance there was issued as part of an anthology on the Topic label. As well as classic ballads, she sang bawdy songs such as "Never Wed an Old Man". Jeannie was awarded the MBE in 1968 and died on 13th March 1975. Jeannie's most celebrated song is "I'm a man you don't meet every day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart".

Jeannie's daughter Lizzie Higgins issued an album in 1975 - "Up and Awa' wi' the Laverock". Stanley Robertson, a storyteller, ballad singer and piper from Aberdeen is Jeannie's nephew. Carmen Higgins, a fiddler with the Aberdeen folk band "Rock Salt and Nails" is closely related to Jeannie as well.