Not a disentanglement from but a progressive knotting into, installation shots. 2007
Not a disentanglement from... performance still with audience. 2007
Beginning unannounced
Singing
Version of Cod liver oil by Sheila Stewart, sung without consonants, thereby communicating no words only expressive intonation of vowel sounds
Text reading
"I was born ... in July - a good time of year for travellers. My family were tinkers, and earned their living from hawking, besom making and seasonal farm-work. They went up the glens, and had a horse and cart and went hawking, but then they would go away and stay at farms, pulling the flax and cutting the corn."
Ballads were always a part of my family's heritage - singing round the camp fires, just for their own pleasure. Hamish Henderson from the School of Scottish Studies collected songs ... the one he collected from my family went back to the 12th century.
My mother always sang to me - not for other people, but just for me.
My mother learned me the songs, but never taught me how to sing them - that was my Uncle Donald, who said that if you cannot give courtesy to the ballad, don't sing it.
If I sang a verse of a song and I didnae sing it the way he wanted, he'd say, clapping his hands,'Shut up! You're not ready for it. We'll try you with that in a few months time.' You had tae cut your head off altogether as far as he was concerned, and just go fae the heart tae the mouth. You had to do it as if you were drunk - inhibitions go out the window - you've got to do it singing fae the heart. Forget about your head, and just go, ‘Oh you bastard, that's good!’ You have got to give the ballads distinction, as far as he was concerned. But he said if you 'were sitting there, and you were singin' it to yoursel', and you...
He had to come up wi' a word that meant the same as the feeling of coming from the heart. He thought that the word Conyach was such a severe, heavy word that said everything of what he meant when he was singing a ballad. He made it up.
I sing the songs with a conyach, which means the emotion or feeling that you put into the ballads. Some songs, I don't hear myself singing them, but I hear my family singing them, and I connect to them as I sing.
From 1954, we were performing together as a family - my mother Belle, my father, my sister Cathie and me. We all had our own songs to sing, and we couldn't dip into each others' songs in public.
When my mother was alive, we always stood behind her on the stage, and the freedom I got when...
I sing all over Scotland now, at festivals and big concerts. I don't do many folk clubs now, but I do concerts in America, and at Universities and Colleges.
"The rest of my family has got the ballads, but they will never ever come out and perform them. There's a whole way of life that will die when I go six feet under. My family won't keep it going because they've blended in with society, whereas I used to get beaten up.
We went fae a trailer tae a bus tap, you know, just converted a bus.
My father was always the main storyteller within our family, because (his father), old Jock Stewart - him that the song was made for - was a wonderful storyteller. But a better storyteller was my father's mother, Agnes - Nancy we called her. I was frightened of my Granny until I was about 15, because she had the long black clothes, and when she told a story she put her faces the same as the characters'.
2Being out there in a tent, meeting other travellers, and having the ceilidhs. There was nothing like it. Unbelievably brilliant ... To stay with people that's on your wavelength, you dinnae have to put on airs with.
We were never bored, because every morn my father rose, he would have some other idea o' how to make money. If we got fed up he’d say, ‘Och, just leave that, we'll dae something else.’ Every morning it was a different job, and it was wonderful. Not sitting in an office eight hours a day - sitting typing. It was outside work; it was wonderful work; we didnae like too much hard work, and the work we did was what you call now, in a polite way, recycling. But we have done it fae the beginning of time." (1)
Spoken text
Those transcribed words were spoken by singer and storyteller Sheila Stewart and the song before it was my attempt to sing one of Sheila’s songs.
Performed action
There is something i’d like you to do with me, its a simple action. I’ll do it and as I’m doing it I’d like you to follow me. While we are doing the action I’ll tell you about it. So, i’d like you to stand on your tip toes and at the same time stretch your arms up. When we first got our hold it straight above his head making himself appear taller and the lion would turn away. It made me wonder how we would perceive each other here tonight standing like this.
Spoken text
Thank you for doing that, I am going attempt to sing another song by Sheila Stewart but i’d first like to tell you about my choice of clothes. This jumper I’ve had for arounrecent purchase, and the ones I was wearing when I got married, this makes them for me, the most valuable shoes I own.
Singing
Version of Jock Stewart by Sheila Stewart, sung without consonants, thereby communicating no words only expressive intonation of vowel sounds
End
References
(1) http://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/inart599.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/onyourstreet/mssheila.shtml
Not a disentanglement from... performance text transcript. 2007