Bonnie Glenshee
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1954.88.B6
Original Tape ID
Summary
This is a song between two lovers, which describes the landscape, inhabitants and occasional travellers through Glenshee, including shepherds and soldiers. The man implores the woman to make herself ready to go with him and he will take her to Glenisla at the foot of Glenshee.
Maggie Stewart learned the song when she was fifteen years old, from her good-sister [sister-in-law].
Item Notes
3 verses with chorus after each, plus chorus at start. Also known as 'Busk Busk Bonnie Lassie'. Most commonly associated with the singing of the Stewarts of Blair. Said to be related to PM John MacLellan's First World War pipe tune 'The Bloody Fields of Flanders'.
See:
Ord , pp. 136-137
'Folk-Song of the North-East' (Greig) Art. CVII, CXLI
Greig-Duncan vol 5, pp. 494-498, no. 1053 'Oh No No'
Recording Location
County - Aberdeenshire
Parish - Aberdeen
Village/Place - Aberdeen
Item Location
County - Angus
Parish - Glenisla
Village/Place - Glenisla
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Fair