UP YON WIDE AND LONELY GLEN

A collection of musical transcriptions, song lyrics, memoir, stories, and lore from a matrilineal line of famed Traveller balladeers, musicians, and storytellersElizabeth Stewart is a highly acclaimed singer, pianist, and accordionist whose reputation has spread widely not only as an outstanding musician but as the principal inheritor and advocate of her family and their music. First discovered by folklorists in the 1950s, the Stewarts of Fetterangus, including Elizabeths mother Jean, her uncle Ned, and her aunt Lucy, have had immense musical influence. Lucy in particular became a celebrated ballad singer and in 1961 Smithsonian Folkways released a collection of her classic ballad recordings that brought the familys music and name to an international audience.Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen is a significant memoir of Scottish Traveller life, containing stories, music, and songs from this prominent Traveller family. The book is the result of a close partnership between Elizabeth Stewart and Scottish folk singer and writer Alison McMorland. The narrative, spanning five generations of women and written in Scots, captures the rhythms and idioms of Elizabeth Stewarts speaking voice and is extraordinary from a musical, cultural, sociological, and historical point of view. The book features 145 musical transcriptions and song lyrics, including eight original piano compositions, folktale versions, rhymes and riddles, and eighty fascinating illustrations of the Stewart family.Elizabeth Stewart, Mintlaw, Scotland, is an outstanding practitioner of the traditional arts. An internationally recognized singer, storyteller, composer, and song writer of remarkable ability, she has performed all over the UK and made several tours of America. She and her family have been visited by musicians, singers, folklorists, and journalists for over fifty years.