Jean Redpath was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to musical parents.
20 Facts About Jean Redpath
1.
2.
Jean Redpath's mother knew many Scots songs and passed them on to Jean and her brother, and her father played the hammered dulcimer.
3.
Jean Redpath was raised in Leven, Fife, Scotland, and later returned to Edinburgh, taking medieval studies at the University of Edinburgh.
4.
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.
5.
Jean Redpath learned about 400 songs, together with the oral folklore that went with them.
6.
From 1972 to 1976, Jean Redpath was artist-in-residence at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
7.
Jean Redpath lectured in folklore and acted as cultural resource in the local school system.
8.
In 1976, Jean Redpath embarked on a project to record all the songs of Robert Burns, some being folk songs, some Burns's own compositions, and most a mixture of the two.
9.
Hovey had done the instrumental arrangements for 323 songs, and Jean Redpath felt no other musician could replace him.
10.
Jean Redpath sensitively reconstructed songs that might otherwise have been lost.
11.
Between 1974 and 1987, Jean Redpath appeared regularly on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" APM radio show.
12.
Jean Redpath appeared on Robert J Lurtsema's "Morning pro musica" broadcast from WGBH in Boston.
13.
Jean Redpath toured throughout the US and Canada, played venues in South America, Hong Kong, and Australia, including the Sydney Opera House, and performed often at the Edinburgh Folk Festival.
14.
In 1977, Royal Jubilee Year, Jean Redpath appeared at a royal banquet at Edinburgh Castle for Queen Elizabeth II.
15.
Jean Redpath gave courses for ten years in Scottish Song at the Heritage of Scotland Summer School at the University of Stirling.
16.
Jean Redpath was awarded the MBE in 1987, as well as being named a Kentucky colonel by the Governor of Kentucky.
17.
Jean Redpath received honorary doctorates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of Stirling and the University of St Andrews, and was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
18.
In 2009, Jean Redpath made an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, singing "Some Kind of Love" by the late John Stewart of The Kingston Trio.
19.
Jean Redpath kept her links to Scotland, owning a house in Elie during her life.
20.
Jean Redpath died from cancer on 21 August 2014 at a hospice in Tucson, Arizona.