Tom Spiers spiks aboot A Puckle Muckle Sangs. The project looks tae reconnect fowk wi ballads fae the Nor-East o Scotland through video an audio recordings wi ane o the key aims bein tae create a resource that can be used bi schools in the airt.
‘Muckle Sangs is anither name for the traditional ballads that hae been passed doon in faimlies an communities for hunners o years. They’re really jist stories wi a tune, and because they wir passed on bi wird-o-mou, maist o them hae lots o difrint versions an can be caed bi difrint names.
Awa back in the 18th & 19th centuries, a lot o cliver fowk collected these sangs so they widna be lost. Then, in the second half o the 19th century an American Professor caed Francis James Child gaithered a these sangs the-gither an picked oot the best eens tae be published as “The English and Scottish Popular Ballads”.
So if yi hear fowk spikin aboot The Child Ballads, that’s fit they’re on aboot. He really got the title the wrang wye roon, as maist o them wir Scottish. In fact a third o a the best eens wir collected in Aiberdeenshire.
The ful collection is three hunner an five ballads, but the project jist looks at a puckle o them wi gweed stoeries.’
Heed ower tae A Puckle Muckle Sangs tae tak a look for yirsel.
