Jean Redpath
| Jean Redpath | |
|---|---|
| Born |
28 April 1937 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 21 August 2014 (aged 77) Tucson, Arizona, USA |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Website | www.jeanredpath.com |
Jean Redpath MBE (28 April 1937 – 21 August 2014) was a Scottish folk singer, educator and musician.
Redpath was born in Edinburgh to musical parents. Her mother knew many Scots songs and passed them on to Jean and her brother; her father played the hammered dulcimer. She was raised in Leven, Fife, Scotland, and later returned to Edinburgh, taking medieval studies at the university. To help pay her way through her studies, she sang for beer money and undertook part-time work as a driving instructor and undertaker's assistant.
The Scottish poet and folk-song collector Hamish Henderson was working in the School of Scottish Studies at the university and Redpath took a keen interest in the archive of tapes and discs of music and songs. She learned about 400 songs, together with the oral folklore that went with them. In March 1961, at the age of 24, she arrived in the United States with just eleven dollars in her pocket. Her first performance was in San Francisco. Later she met up with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village. The natural warmth and power of her voice brought her to perform at Gerde's Folk City. In 1963, following a concert performance, she signed up with Elektra Records. In 1975 she switched to the Philo label. From 1972 to 1976 Jean was artist-in-residence at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She lectured in folklore and acted as cultural resource in the local school system.
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