Tramps & Hawkers: The Alan Lomax Portait Series

In 2002, Rounder Records' Select label released Tramps & Hawkers as part of its Alan Lomax Portrait Series, reissuing some songs that had appeared on previous collections of Scottish ballads, as well as some previously unreleased songs. Jimmy MacBeath and his contemporary Davie Stewart (who also has an edition of the Lomax Portrait Series to his name) were two of the few folk balladeers in northeast Scotland who were able to perform as semi-professional interpreters of children's and "bothy" (farm life) ballads. The liner notes for Tramps & Hawkers are very complete, with transcriptions of both the songs and the spoken introductions, and the recording is clean and intimate in the traditional Lomax style. Fans of MacBeath's warm story-songs and his thick Scottish accent will be glad to finally have the definitive collection of his works on CD.