ONE of the last of the great oral tradition bearers of Scotland, Belle Stewart of Blairgowrie has died. Her name is known worldwide and she was honoured by the Queen for her services to folk music. Born in 1906 in a tent on the banks of the Tay as Isabella Macgregor, she rose to be a matriarchal figure on the Scottish folk scene. As a source singer she was responsible for making many of the young urban revivalists aware of their roots, to rediscover the beauty and power of the Scots song tradition.
Belle and her family came to public notice when Maurice Fleming, a local journalist, first recorded her for the School of Scottish Studies archives in the 1950s. Hamish Henderson had asked him to find the composer of a song called The Berryfields of Blair, which of course is now considered traditional. Belle wrote other songs, as part of her family's custom of celebrating birthdays, weddings, and Hogmanay.
As a singer, she sang from the heart, with a beautifully expressive style, handling everything from ancient ballads to comic bawdy songs, with deceptively simple expertise. For her, feeling was of paramount importance, a quality she called ''the coniach'', which translates as ''an intensity of melody''.
In judging singing competitions, as she did many times for the Traditional Music and Song Association, she would never rate a singer who left her cold, no matter how beautiful the voice might be, or perfect the technique. The TMSA's first festival was held in Blairgowrie. Her house became a Mecca for singers and song collectors from all over the world who learned from her to love and respect the travelling people, from whom she sprung.
Her song repertoire was inherited from her father, after he died, through her two brothers, Donald and Andy. It included ballads like The Bonnie Hoose o Airlie, The Twa Brothers, and The Queen among the Heather, music hall songs like Betsy Bell and I'm No Comin' Oot The Noo, as well as Irish songs like The Banks of the Foyle, and Blackwaterside.
She grew up in Blairgowrie, from where her mother hawked through the Perthshire glens, or did tattie-fitting or larch-peeling, along with her brothers.
Suffering the usual prejudice at school, she nevertheless became literate and grew up intelligent, perceptive, and articulate. Anyone who has ceilidhed in her house, met her in clubs and festivals, or seen her on film or television, will remember her wit and repartee.
In 1925 she married her second cousin, Alec Stewart, in Ballymoney in Ireland, where many Scots travellers had gone during the First World War. For a few years she went back and forth between the two countries until she and Alec settled in Blairgowrie with their two sons and three daughters. Strathmore being one of Scotland's foremost fruit-growing areas, it is no surprise that for a while they owned a berryfield at Essendy.
Their recognition as a traditional singing, piping, and storytelling family brought them many engagements in Scotland and further afield, till they were travelling to countries of Europe and parts of the United States. Belle was always happy to share her songs with others and was an inspiration to young singers who came under her spell. She had a natural grace and dignity that won hearts wherever she went, as well as a sense of fun. She did not hesitate to criticise, usually with sound common sense, when she thought people in the folk movement were going in the wrong direction.
I had the privilege of many years of friendship with Belle and her family, recorded her many times, and undertook a project that led to the publication of a collection of their stories called The King o the Black Art. Belle has always been for me ''The Queen among the Heather'', and I pay tribute to her on behalf of all singers, especially those of ''the country hantle'' and friends all round the world. She is survived by her daughters Sheila and Cathy, and three generations of younger family members, some of whom carry on the singing tradition.
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