> Folk Music > Songs > Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie

Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie / Bonny Glenshee

[ Roud 832 ; G/D 5:1053 ; Ballad Index McCST033 ; trad.]

The Scottish Folksinger Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland

Jeannie Robertson sang Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie on her 1957 EMI album Jeannie's Merry Muse. A live recording, made by Hamish Henderson in Edinburgh in 1958, was released in 1984 on her Lismor album Up the Dee and Doon the Don.

Cathy Stewart sang Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie, accompanied by Alex Stewart, in 1965 on the Topic album The Stewarts of Blair. Hamish Henderson wrote in the sleeve notes:

North of Blairgowrie and Alyth rise the Grampians, a convenient refuge for Jacobite armies in retreat, and for eloping lovers. The chorus of this marvellous song links it with the Braes o’ Balquhidder and with many similar songs of love triumphant among the hills and braes. Greig printed a version called Oh, No No (FSNE CVII), but it lacks this evocative chorus, much to its disadvantage. The opening of the tune and that of the pipe march The Bloody Fields of Flanders are virtually identical.

Alex accompanies Cathie on the ‘goose’, a small set of Highland pipes—bag and chanter, but minus the drones. Alex’s father used it for teaching and for practice, as it is easier to play than the chanter alone.

Belle Stewart sang Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie, in 1977 on her Topic album of Scots traditional songs and ballads, Queen Among the Heather. Geordie McIntyre noted:

Belle learned this distinctive parting song from her daughter Cathie’s mother-in-law, the late Charlotte Higgins, “a grand old woman for songs”. A much longer, more ‘literary’ version, minus chorus, is printed under the title of Oh No No in Gavin Greig’s Folk-Song of the North-East. The song has become very popular with revival singers, usually sung at ‘funeral pace’. Belle observes it should be sung ‘wae a wee lilt’.

A live recording of the Stewarts of Blair singing Bonnie Glenshee at the Blairgowrie Folk Festival in between 1986 and 1995 was included in 2000 on the festival anthology The Blair Tapes.

Brian Dewhurst sang Busk Busk Bonnie Lassie in 1977 on his Fellside album Follow That With Your Sea Lions.

Jim Reid sang Busk Busk Bonnie Lassie in 1984 on his Springthyme album I Saw the Wild Geese Flee. He noted

A lovely traditional song from the Stewart family of Blairgowrie that has become widely popular in recent years. The song has a superb chorus, so sing and join in.

Maggie Boyle sang Busk Busk Bonnie Lassie on her 1987 Run River album Reaching Out.

Norman Kennedy sang Busk Bonnie Lassie at a concert held at the First Parish of Watertown Unitarian Universalist Church on 23 October 1999. A recording of this concert was released in 2004 on the Autumn Harvest album I Little Thocht My Love Wid Leave Me.

Maureen Jelks sang Bonnie Glenshee at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2006. A recording of this was included in the following year on the festival anthology Some Rants o' Fun (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 3). The album notes commented:

This beautiful song came to the fore in the 1960s when it was recorded by the Stewarts of Blair sung to the accompaniment of Alex on the goose (a pipe chanter). Cathie Stewart had the song (the first three verses anyway) from her husband's mother Charlotte Higgins of Blairgowrie.

This video shows Iona Fyfe and audience singing Bonny Glenshee on November, 17 2018 at The Cellar Upstairs near Kings Cross station in London:

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