Jean Redpath_Bonnie Susie Cleland

[@tomgreene2282]

Wonderful singer R I P .

[@cleikheim]

Miss you, Jean..........

[@hipocampelofantocame]

She's an angel singing authentic Scot's music. No one can do this song justice.

[@baizhanghuaihai2298]

Jean singing this just tingles my spine and mists my eyes. Every time.

[@theseustoo]

This woman has perhaps the clearest, most accurate and most beautiful voices in British folk music... with the possible exception of Sandy Denny... (but that may just be a personal opinion... I've ALWAYS loved Sandy Denny!) Even so, Jean would certainly give even Sandy Denny a run for her money! ☺

[@handmlove]

Yes, you are right! This is a sad history of women, which is felt by us all thanks to the beautifully sad voice of Jean Redpath.

[@CorinneClose2u]

First time I ever heard this it sent shivers down my spine. I determined to learn it and sang it at my local folk club. It still gives me a lump in my throat. The purest voice I've ever heard.

[@carolcripps9056]

I felt the exact same way, first time I heard this. Alas, that was a good while before the Internet was around, so I has to wait a whole year till that singer returned to our folk club to learn the rest of the song. I'd got the tune and part of the lyrics, along with the story the first time and waiting that year was agonizing.

[@ddinnewyork]

I have this song on a recent release by Sheena Wellington (Greentrax 2003). Words are pretty much identical and included on the CD. There are also notes saying that witch burnings certainly occurred in Dundee, including women who had consorted with English soldiers after the Siege of Dundee in 1651. No record of Susie Cleland, though.

[@mayterry3676]

I don't usually like her singing that much, but this is gorgeous.

[@theseustoo]

One of the most beautiful, yet saddest, of all British folk songs... I only hope the people of Dundee are a little less barbaric and brutal these days... 😕

[@CinnAlla]

@crlcripps As a Taysider myself, I spent some time researching this song. It's a version of Child Ballad 65, known as "Lady Maisry". In fact there appears to be no record of such an incident in Dundee.

[@carollizc]

@Lisnageeragh I learnt it from a guy who appeared at our local folk club once a year. It took two listenings for me to get it down, so if you were to listen to it four or five times, I'm sure you'd have it down pat. As you can probably tell, I'm a great fan of learning things via "the folk process" and not from books. Some songs I sing have been cobbled together from four or five versions and are uniquely my own - BUT I think that's the way it's supposed to work.

[@Lisnageeragh]

@crlcripps This is a wonderful song and a great rendition ....where could one get the words?

[@Lisnageeragh]

@CinnAlla Thank you! Google is not always the best though ....I know from seeing some offerings for Irish wordings and contexts. This is a wonderful song so well sung. Very interested in the Lady Maisry connection.

[@basmah381]

This was a true court case in Dundee, the charge was 'Disobedience'. I recent ly heard a horrid rendition that bumped up the tempo and gave it a happy ending. Ugh! Even today I'd like to see one lone Englishman riding through my clan o' kinsman, trying to rescue me for doing something they felt reprehensible. He woudna' mak it to the border!

[@Max.Wiggins]

Woah!!

[@crlcripps]

Believe it or not, this is a true story - Susie Cleland was, apparently, burnt at the stake for the crime of "disobedience". Jean Redpath's voice is too lovely, here, to convey the horror the song conveys.

[@CinnAlla]

@kenrubes Indeed it is

[@CinnAlla]

@Lisnageeragh A simple answer - google! You'll certainly find the words as sung on a later recording by Cilla Fisher.

[@clifftj]

Oh, how wicked we were back then in those callous ages! And then to imagine those devilish deeds were committed by those people accepted as Christians: of course they were 'so-called' and impostors! God bless the glory of woman today!!!

[@clifftj]

And oh, in auld Jeany we enjoy the best o't! If you will never see heaven, but you do make it to a Jean Redpath concert, then at least you've got as close to heaven as you could ever come.

[@jessedylan6162]

Nice voice and song..didn't do much in the way of moving me to tears or tingling my spine, though.