Jimmy McBeath (1894 - 1974)

Scottish singer of traditional songs.

Two Gentlemen of the Road. "Song and Interview Notes" by Ewan McVicar

Disc One

1. The Merchant's Son

Sung by Davie Stewart playing accordion accompaniment. Recorded by Alan Lomax in London. date unknown, in 1957. 

John Strachan tells how a foreman was stopped while singing this song at a dance, as it was considered too "rough" for polite female company (Portraits: John Strachan: Songs from Aberdeenshire [Rounder 1835], track 2). See "The Merchant's Son," Greig-Duncan, volume 2, no 303. Davie's version is very fine. Note how in the fifth verse he  neatly interpolates a phrase from the secret Scottish Travelers' cant - instead of "she's away with the merchant's gear", he sings "she sway with the gadgie's lowie". He varies his register, sometimes singing "now" and "gown", sometimes "noo" and "goon".

2. Cowpin the Dishes

Interview: How He Started Travelling.
Spoken by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax in London. date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased. 


An early adventure while hawking - selling goods door to door. Here Davie says he started to "go away" when aged about eight, but he told Carl MacDonald he was "around six years old". His account is rich in Scots words.

3. Hey Barra Gadgie

A Song in Cant.
Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased.


A song in cant, the Scots Travelers' "cover tongue". Jimmy first sings the three muddled verses on this track. When Lomax says, "Do it again" Jimmy sings two more verses in which the phrases are muddled differently. Jimmy mixes his text so much he seems to have learned it in phonetic chunks rather than fully understanding what he is singing, or perhaps he is retrieving from memory a song he has not sung in many years. When he translates, not all the phrases are there in the sung versions. In his transcription Alan Lomax comments, "He stumbles - I don't think he knows." However, Jimmy's Jimmy's tune is used for the well-known Irish song, "The Little Beggar Man." Cathie Higgins of the Stewarts sang four lines to a different tune, a "fragment of a cant song," which seems to be another splinter from the same tree. Cathie Higgins' first two lines are "Hi, baramanishie, will ye bing wi me. Hi bara gadgie, I dinnae jan yer fee." In Jimmy's second essay upon the song, the second stanza begins, "Well, will ye manashee, will ye jazz avree?"

After singing. Jimmy explained the following words and phrases. Gadgie in this keer - man [manager] in this place; jazz avree - go away, take the road, manashee - girl; not sweet upon yer naggins - doesn't like ye; paddencan - lodging hoouse; widdna jan yer peeve - won't take you in because you've been drinking whiskey (peeve).

4. It Was Aa Beggin That We Did

Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953 in London. Previously unreleased. 

Jimmy MacBeath explains what toerags are.

5. Kindness From A Policeman

Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased. 

In his accounts, Jimmy often comments on the quality of food or tea he got on particular occasions. For years on the road he "did not know where his next meal was coming from." Here, he tells how his travels began with his first long walk from Inverness to Perth, a journey he describes (on track 12) as having taken a week.

6. Grat For Gruel

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. 

One of the songs Jimmy was famous for. The gusto with which he sang "waashin pot" and "gae wa, gae wa" in public performance was much admired by other singers. Here, recording in Alan Lomax's house, he sings more lyrically. Sheila Douglas says that older versions of the song make it clear that the theme is impotence rather than greed. The weaver is postponing going to bed.

7. How To Build A Bender

Spoken by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins in London. date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased. 

This is a remarkable account of how the "bender" tent of the Scottish Travelers is constructed. Davie is describing the process to Anna Lomax. Timothy Neat calls this kind of construction a "bow tent." The cover would usually be a tarpaulin, and the tent-stones would be left "in orderly heaps" for use by the next comer.

8. Chantin, Griddlin and Laldyin

Interview: From Inverness to Perth. Song Fragments: TEERY BUSTIN, TEERY AWDIN and ROTHSAY-OH.Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased. 

This is later in Jimmy's first long journey down from Inverness to Perth (as begun on track 5). After Aviemore and Dalwhinnie he got no shelter or food until Blair Athol and then was threatened with prison by railway workers.

9. The Day We Went to Rothsay-Oh

Sung by Davie Stewart playing accordion accompaniment. Recorded by Alan Lomax in London. date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased.

They very distinctive tune of this song was used earlier by William Watt, a Lothian weaver, for "The Tinker's Waddin", which was recorded by Alan Lomax when sung by John Strachan at the 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh. The Tennessee singer and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon recorded a sprightly religious song "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel", to this self-same tune in the 1930s.

10. Playing for an all-night hooley

Spoken by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax in London. date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased. 

Davie plays for an all-night hooley (a noisy alcoholic party), in an informal, i.e. illegal, drinking den in Northern Ireland and is astonished at the large amount of money he is paid. He usually found better pickings south of the border. He told Carl MacDonald that southern Ireland was "the best for traveling. In Southern Ireland you've got a fair on every day or second day at different places and you can travel to that fair - say, a sheep, cattle or pig fair, a horse fair - and then you could always get a hurling match in between. You're never short of anything in Ireland. I'd sing and take my accordion or whatever I had, bagpipes even. On a Sunday there's always hurling matches in the Free State. Not like Northern Ireland. I've seen me going to the matches there [in Eire] on a Sunday and making a good few pounds."

11. March, Strathspey and Reel

Played by Davie Stewart (Accordion). Recorded by Alan Lomax in London. date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased.

These are all "pipe tunes", first made to be played on the Highland bagpipes. Although all the tunes are played for dancing, the assemblage here of march, strathspey, and reel is meant to show the technical ability of the musician and not to be danced to. As usual, Davie left-hand accompaniment is sketchy at best.

12. Were you always alone?

Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased.

This is an example of how difficult interviewing can be. Jimmy seems very uncomfortable and Lomax is working hard to draw him out. This is early in the tape sequence, and Jimmy summarizes episodes in his life that later in the recording sequence he recounts in much more relaxed and expansive style. Eventually Lomax asks him to sing..

13. The Forfar Sodger.

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on July 17, 1951, in Turriff, Scotland.

Forfar is a market town 14 miles north of Dundee. The young man enlists, is dressed in uniform, and is sent off to the Peninsular War, 1808 - 1814. this satirical song is by Forfar weaver-poet David Shaw 1786-1856. Ford comments that Shaw was "the accepted laureate of the fidging fraternity", and in addition to these "much-esteemed verses" also "produced other screeds of humorous lyric verse" including his most popular song, "The Work o the Weavers". The song is now sung to a jollier, more rollicking version of the tune. The rich little phrase that begins Jimmy's tune gives his version more satiric weight.

14. They put a different turns in their tunes.

Spoken by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1957. Previously unreleased.

Alan Lomax has asked Davie to demonstrate "the difference between the Irish and the Scots style of singing." Davie struggles to explain musical styles other than by performing in his own way (but see his criticism of Jeannie Robertson's singing style on track 17). Then confusion emerges over different meaning of the word "diddling." Lomax is seeking small, amusing single-verse songs, sometimes called "diddling songs" and typically sung when particular tunes are played for Scottish country dancing. Davie responds by demonstrating song-and-dance tunes using "nonsense" vocables - this is termed "diddling" the tune. (On disc 2, track 12, Jimmy MacBeath is puzzled at Lomax's interest in diddling songs)..

15. Outside, on the safe side.

Spoken by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1957. Previously unreleased.

Davie Stewart describes a Traveler's precautions.

16. The Ox and the Fox Dug A Hole for Me.

Told by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson in November 14, 1953. Previously unreleased.

Alan Lomax is hoping for a version of Child Ballad No 14, titled "Babylon" or "The Bonnie Banks Of Fordie" (Grieg-Duncan 2/199). Instead, he gets a traditional tale of murder thwarted. The villains are told that their plan is discovered through a coded verse. The rather tenuous connection between Lomax's summary of the ballad and the story Jimmy tells seems to be that both are about a planned killing in the open air.

17. It's A Long Drow At The End.

Spoken by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1957. Previously unreleased.

In this interview Alan Lomax sounds surprisingly ill at ease, perhaps because Davie is criticizing the singing style of famed Northeast ballad singer Jeannie Robertson, whom Lomax has described as "a monumental figure of the world's folksong," and "one of the elect, one of the angels of folk song."

18. Old Bodies, Five or Six Pounds Each.

Told by Davie Stewart to Anna Lomax. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1957. Previously unreleased.

Lomax awakens Davie's animated storytelling style by getting him to talk directly to Anna Lomax. Hamish Henderson has written of "the amazing mythology which has grown up [among the Travelers] ... of murderous body snatching." Although Dave says that berkers must be considered a different breed from the grave robbers who sold bodies to the Edinburgh anatomy school in the early nineteenth century, the name berker surely derives from the notorious William Burke, who with his partner William Hare, eventually resorted to murder to gain enough bodies.

19. Did They Kill Children As Well?

Told by Davie Stewart. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1957. Previously unreleased.

Told by Davie then explains more. The berkers came in a black hearse-like coach with wooden sides, drawn by four horses, carrying three doctors and a driver, wearing long black lum hats [top hats] and black cloaks with white breasts.

Disc Two
1. My Darling Ploughman Boy


Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London.

This unlikely account of a ploughman lad, heir to a fortune, seems to be an adapted version of a song, perhaps better known in England, in which the protagonist is a sailor. Greig-Duncan, volume 6, no. 1117, gives two versions of the tune of "My Darling Sailor Boy", with a first verse closely related to Jimmy's song here, and refers to Sharp 79, "The Bonny Lighter Boy".

2. From The Top of The Deck

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London.

Early in Jimmy's visit to London Lomax is trying heard to get him to talk fluently. Jimmy responds with short answers and quickly sketches out his travels and early life.

3. Ah Likit Ma Mother, Aye

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London.

Later in the same interview, Jimmy softens when recalling his mother's songs.

4. He used to diddle a lot o songs

Spoken and sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased.

Jimmy's "sea shanty" is known as "The Fisherman's Wife," full of Northeast coast references and language. The fisherman's wife must rise and gather mussels for bait before she can light the fire or make the bed.

5. We Are Called The Buchan Stewarts

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London.

Davie talks about his Traveler relations, many of whom were musical, and answers questions about Traveler wedding customs. Davie's comprehensive knowledge of the names and whereabouts of his relatives contrasts strongly with Jimmy MacBeath's lack of contact with his own siblings (see track 2 above).

6. Dark-Eyed Lover

Sung by Davie Stewart, playing accordion accompaniment. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1957. Previously unreleased.

This song is in Grieg-Duncan, volume 6, no 1145, titled "Font Affection". the tune is a relative os "She was Poor but She Was Honest". In Davie's wonderfully florid and emotion-dripped rendition, many words are so distorted that Alan Lomax's own transcription is very different from that of the present editor. For comparison, here is what Lomax made of the lyric: "Once I loved a dark-eyed lover, And he thought with me./ Till one day he found another, And he's sat no more with me./ He took the ring from off my finger, And the flock from [? by] braids,/ Farewell, you old lover, Weel I know who you love best...".

7. It Was Aa Slave Drivery

Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953 in London. Previously unreleased.

Jimmy's account of farm work is more highly colored than of Davie Stewart, who worked periodically as a farm laborer and even learned how to plough and also earned money by going to bothies and entertaining the single men.

8. The Barnyards of Delgaty

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath on August 30, 1951, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Recorded at the 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh, when the forgotten richness of Scots song was presented to an astonished audience. this is now the best known of all the bothy ballads, telling of the hardships in one of the largest farm town of the Northeast.

9. Singin along at the plough

Sung by Davie Stewart, playing accordion accompaniment. Recorded by Alan Lomax, date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased.

This interview follows immediately after Jimmy has sung "Neeps Tae Pluck," a composition of G.S. Morris, a professional performer, that can be heard on the Jimmy MacBeath album (Portraits: Tramps and Hawkers Rounder 1834). Although fascinating, some of the detail of Jimmy's account of group song composition is exaggerated: the process was probably less organised than he says.

10. The Laird o Dainty Doonby

Sung by Davie Stewart, playing accordion accompaniment. Recorded by Alan Lomax in London, date unknown, in 1957. Previously unreleased.

Although printed be Herd 200 years ago and perennially popular with singers, this ballad of rape followed by marriage was not selected by Child. The tune is "Johnny Cope". Davie's text, with its wonderful final verse of parental relief and delight, is close to that sung by Jeannie Robertson on "The Queen Among the Heather" (Portraits, Rounder 1720). Davie seems to forget momentarily the line (in the second to last verse), which is usually "He pit the keys into her hard" - a loss of concentration that leads to a startling genital presentation. Davie's variant has not been recorded elsewhere. His accordion is an extreme example of the way he often began by searching for a tune, mode, and suitable key. They key he does settle on proves markedly difficult to play whilst singing, but he soldiers on.

11. The horseman's grip and word

Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased.

Jimmy describes the secret initiation ritual for horse handlers on the Northeast farms. F. Marian McNeill calls 'The Horseman's Word' "a curious relic of the old ritual magic", which 'gave its possessor power over horses and woman". Jimmy was not a horseman, so he never became an initiate, although he seems to have been present at or to have overheard a ceremony.

12. It was torn, rippit, tattered

Spoken by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London. Previously unreleased.

A fragment of the great ballad of abduction and attempted rape, "Eppie Morrie" (Child Ballad no 223), of which there are 21 stanzas in MacColl and Seeger's The Singing Island (1960). Then Jimmy sings a two-line "diddling" song (see also disc 1, track 10) and tries to explain the meaning and nature of the song. He becomes puzzled at Lomax's interest in these small songs and then embarrassed at the request for "blue songs". It is with relief that he launches into the song "The Madlin Grenn", which can be heard on Jimmy MacBeath's Portraits album (Rounder 1834).

13. The trooper and the maid.

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London.

Child Ballad no 299. Grieg-Duncan has six versions and interesting notes on this song (vol 7, no 1470). A young soldier is billeted on a very welcoming young hostess, with the predictable outcome. The vigorous, lilting tune is also used for "The Brewer Laddie".

14. The story lives forever. A story of fairy abduction.

Sung by Jimmy MacBeath. Recorded by Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson on November 14, 1953, in London.

This tale of a Traveler who goes to play the pipes for a party and is gone for 20 years shows Davie as a masterly storyteller. It is rich in detail of sights and sounds, explanatory insertions, and incidental detailing of aspects of Traveler life. He does not, however, explain the nature of the intoxicating liquid in the pot that the revelers put on their eyes. Perhaps this liquid keep the piper young and reduced his stature.


Last updated on 10/02/2011