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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZREDPATH, Jean(b 28 April 1937, Edinburgh, Scotland; d 21 August 2014, in a hospice in Arizona) Traditional folksinger, who did children's songs, English and Scottish ballads, bluegrass songs, etc. She lived in Elie, Fife, Scotland, and at other places around the world; at the time of her death it was not known why she was in Arizona. She sang for beer money when she was in college. She went to a friend's wedding in San Francisco in 1961, had a phony call offering a booking in a club in New York City and found herself stranded with the likes of Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. She played at Gerde's Folk City and got a good review in the New York Times; she was teaching at Wesleyan U. in the late '70s. Her albums included Skipping Barefoot Through The Heather on Prestige International; Scottish Ballad Book, Songs Of Love, Lilt And Laughter and Laddie Lie Near Me, all on Elektra; then Frae My Ain Country '73 on Folk Legacy. On Philo for Jean Redpath '75 followed by Shout For Joy with Lisa Neustadt, Father Adam, Lowlands and Lady Nairne '86, all with Abby Newton. Also Angels Hovering 'Round (with the Angel Band) and Anywhere Is Home on Fretless, both with Neustadt. She attempted to record all 323 songs by Robert Burns, for Scottish Records, then for Philo: she made it to about 180. Six volumes were compiled on three CDs, the first CD with her collaborator/composer Serge Hovey (d May '89); some tracks were done with Lawrence Glover and the Paragon Ensemble; a seventh came out on CD. She also recorded the Scottish songs set by Franz Joseph Haydn for Philo.
The Edinburgh Daily News once said that defining her as a folk singer was “a bit like calling Michelangelo an Italian interior decorator.” She made around 40 albums altogether, and her historical knowledge was deep. She had begin learning songs from her mother, and she said she knew so many songs that she could have sung for a week without repeating herself, while her voice had a unique, smokey character that kept her from sounding like a generic folkie. She was a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion program on NPR.
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