Some Ballads of Anna Gordon, Mrs. Brown of Falkland is a major event for ballad scholarship: classic versions of twelve ballads from one of the earliest and most famous Scottish sources in a double CD, with notes and commentary by leading singers and scholars.  The repertoire of Anna Gordon, collected in the closing years of the eighteenth century, has long been a standard reference-point for folklorists but never before has it actually been heard. Commissioned to accompany Ruth Perry’s landmark new biography The Ballad World of Anna Gordon, Mrs. Brown of Falkland, (Oxford University Press) these historically-informed performances by traditional singers Alison McMorland with Jo Miller and Kirsty Potts open a thrilling new soundscape into this ancient art. The sensitive direction of Alison McMorland, using occasional doubling of voices and gentle instrumental interjections, beautifully recreates the informal domestic circumstances in which these ballads were originally learned and sung.  The results will surprise and delight even the most experienced ballad enthusiast.  Nothing like this has been heard in modern times.

Eight of the tunes come from the transcriptions made by Robert Eden Scott, of his aunt, Anna Gordon’s, singing– three of these as amended by Bertrand Bronson who supplied conjectural readings that he felt better fitted the words. Another comes from the notebook of Walter Scott’s daughter, Sophia Scott. Three of the texts came down without tunes, but Scotland’s contemporary ballad-singing tradition supplies two of the airs and the third comes from the eighteenth-century Blaikie MS cited by Bronson. As Alison McMorland says, ‘I have long been fascinated by the ballad as a form, and in arranging for the recording of these ballads was frequently reminded of the belief of my old friend and mentor, Hamish Henderson, that performance “breathed new life into ancient memorials.” Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl’s testimony in their Blood and Roses ballad project perfectly echoes my own experience: “a ballad is not a ballad until it is sung.”’

These recordings are a rare treat and the listener experiences a real sense of the ballad as a singing story.

In her introductory note Alison McMorland says she likes to think that Time is made audible in singing these glorious ballads which Anna Gordon herself heard and absorbed some 200 years ago. She’s spot on – the listener is transported back in time and hears these songs in a new way through these sensitive and beautiful performances.

The singing by McMorland, Miller and Potts is fresh and clear, with the words and story taking precedence. And the sensitive choices of tunes and performances, including instruments that Anna Gordon would have used herself, gives these ballads a real sense of authenticity, bringing out the dramatic, sometimes theatrical, qualities of our national ballads.

The mix of memorable solo ballad singing by McMorland and Miller, along with the sensitive vocal ensembles and instrumental accompaniment (similar to those Anna Gordon herself might have experienced) makes this a lovely and inspiring listen from beginning to end. And the notes, from these experienced ballad singers and scholars are fascinating and helpful.

Professor Kirsteen McCue Professor of Scottish Literature & Song Culture, University of Glasgow

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