and another singer, Willie Kemp, took part. John Mearns sang "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" on the broadcast. Fyvie is about 3 miles from Crichie. On 16 July 1951, John Strachan sang the song for Alan Lomax who recorded it using a portable tape recorder. It is the earliest known recording of the song. Some of the recordings made that year were issued commercially on "Folk Songs of Britain" in 1960, but the fullest version was in 2002 on the album Songs from Aberdeenshire. They are fine examples of Doric dialect (Scotland). Repertoire and legacy Strachan had an impressive repertoire of songs that had been passed down by word of mouth, probably in this same locality, for over 200 years. These included many of the famous Child Ballads, such as Binnorie, Clyde's Water, Robin Hood and Little John, Johnnie O Braidislie, The Beggar Man, Glenlogie, The Laird O Drum, Lang Johnnie More, The Mother's Malison, The Farmer's Son, Keech in Creel, Bonnie Baby Livingston, Fair Rosie Ann, Four Marys The Bonnie Hoose O Airlie, and The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter. Steeleye Span covered his version of The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter as "The Royal Forester" on their 1972 album Below the Salt. Bob Dylan covered Strachan's version of "Peggy O" as "Pretty Peggy-O" on his first album in 1962. Simon and Garfunkel recorded it in 1964 on the album Wednesday Morning 3AM. The Corries recorded it in 1965. On the album, Strachan sings "Lang Johnnie More", 43 verses long, lasting almost 13 minutes, to the tune of "Caul Kail in Aberdeen". Just afterwards, he said "Noo it's too long that". Strachan must have known many bawdy songs but seemed reluctant to sing them. He gave us a fragment of "The Ball of Kirriemuir", also known as "Four and Twenty Virgins Went up to Inverness". At the end he says "It's a terrible een". Footnotes This article derives from the liner notes to "Songs From Aberdeenshire", but the text has been changed considerably. 1875 births 1958 deaths People from Aberdeenshire People educated at Robert Gordon's College Scottish folk singers Scottish farmers 20th-century Scottish male singers 19th-century Scottish male singers