On Tuesday I was saddened to hear the news of the passing of folksinger Jean Ritchie at the age of 92. She lived a good, long life and had a tremendous influence on the culture of folk music in the US over the last half century or so. In my musings, it occurred to me that another performer who had achieved huge influence in folk music, also named Jean, had passed away in August of last year, but I had only learned about her passing months later, hearing a mention of "the late Jean Redpath" on a radio program. Both Jean Ritchie and Jean Redpath were graced with extraordinary singing voices. Both grew up immersed in the folk music of their respective cultures, and acquired encyclopedic knowledge of that music. Both were gracious and well-loved performers who left behind impressive bodies of work. Let's take a look at their lives and work below the fold.
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Though she passed away more recently, I will start with the older of the two musicians, Jean Ritchie. Yesterday, murrayewv wrote a tribute diary for her which is still on the Community Spotlight list; I hope mine will not be too repetitive (I've mostly chosen other songs). Born in 1922 in rural Viper, Kentucky, in Appalachia, she was the youngest of 14 children. The Ritchie family had a reputation for being musical, and, indeed, the Ritchies were among those isolated Appalachian singers who had preserved their own versions of centuries-old British ballads. In 1946 she received a bachelor's degree in social work from the University of Kentucky and then moved to New York City to work at the Henry Street Settlement, where she soothed the children by singing to them.
When she sang at folk music parties, the significance of the hundreds of songs she knew was immediately recognized. Thus began her performing career. She was recorded by Alan Lomax for the Archive of Folk Song, of the National Archive. In 1952 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship that allowed her to go to Britain to unearth the source and the history of the songs she learned from her family.
Almost by accident, she brought the Appalachian (or lap) dulcimer to the attention of urban folk music aficionados and may very well have saved it from oblivion, just by bringing one with her to New York City. No one at these musical gatherings knew what it was. Nowadays, at any folk festival, it's impossible to swing a cat and not hit one or two. Here is a clip of her playing the dulcimer from Pete Seeger's show "Rainbow Quest":
Jean Ritchie did not just sing the songs she learned in her family; she also wrote songs, including many expressing social conscience. Coming from Kentucky, it shouldn't come as a surprise that coal mining, its dangers to the miners and its destruction of the environment, would be one of her subjects.
Combining her Christianity with a love of the environment, she also wrote this next song; apparently, the concept of stewardship goes over the heads of modern conservative Christians. Incredibly, I can't find a recording of Jean Ritchie singing the song on youtube, so here's Kathy Mattea.
Here is another song "None But One," about the unity of humanity, and again, I could not find a youtube of Ritchie singing it, so Kat Eggleston will have to do.
In 2002, she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
She lived most of her life in Long Island with her husband, George Pickow; after he passed away in 2010, she moved back to Kentucky until she herself passed away on June 1. Here's the NYT obit.
Jean Redpath was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1937, and grew up in Fife, She learned many traditional Scottish songs at her mother's knee. By the time she had finished college and discovered the musical archive at the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, she had learned some 400 songs. In 1961 she came to the US and eventually wound up in Greenwich Village in New York where the folk revival was reaching its peak. She regularly rubbed elbows with Bob Dylan and Ramblin' Jack Ellliot. Here she is performing a few songs for Pete Seeger (again), including some "mouth music," which was used to provide music for dancers when there were no musicians.
In one of her great life achievements, over the course of 20 years, in collaboration with Serge Hovey, she recorded eleven albums of the songs of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet. It's generally not known that Burns intended for his poetry to be sung to particular Scottish tunes. "Auld Lang Syne" is only the most popular. Here is an impromptu performance of another one of them from 2013, slightly marred by the recorder's whispering.
For many years she appeared regularly on A Prairie Home Companion. Here's a clip from a televised broadcast of the show from 1986.
And because I can't resist, here she is singing one of Garrison Keillor's parody songs, with Keillor on harmony.
She passed away on August 21, 2014, in Arizona, of all places. Somehow I failed to notice until February of this year. Here's her obit from The Gaurdian.
I saw Jean Redpath in concert twice, once in 1985, and once in 2010. Unfortunately, I never saw Jean Ritchie in concert. They both leave behind tremendous legacies in the music they discovered, preserved and created, guaranteeing that they will not be forgotten.
Rest in peace, ladies.
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