Joan Mackenzie

Joan Mackenzie was an essential connect to the fading customs of Celtic folk music, preserving the tunes and tales of Scotland’s European Isles both like a singer so when an intrepid archivist. Created Sept 2, 1929, in Stornoway, within the Outer Hebrides isle of Lewis, Mackenzie (Seonag NicCoinnich in her indigenous tongue) spent her child years steeped in Gaelic folklore: her mom was a vocalist, and her grandmother was a storyteller of substantial local renown, moving the traditional tunes of the Traditional western Isles — music of hardship and melancholy — right down to her grandchildren. While students at Stornoway’s Nicolson Institute, Mackenzie started performing publicly, frequently at the house of retired schoolteacher Nan Dag. As term of her obvious, poignant tone of voice and considerable repertoire pass on, she was asked to appear over the Traditional western Isles, motivated by music collector Calum MacLean to search out new materials in her moves. After World Battle II, Mackenzie relocated to Glasgow to make her teaching certificate from Jordanhill University. In 1951, she came into the Royal Country wide Mod, an annual event celebrating Gaelic tradition, and won the original vocal competition, a feat she repeated four years operating. In time the institution of Scottish Research of Edinburgh University or college offered Mackenzie a tape recorder to record the music she uncovered in her moves, and in the years to check out she was a staple of BBC radio broadcasts, executing these traditional folk ballads while College of Scottish Research professor James Browse discussed their roots and signifying. Mackenzie was also a continuing presence over the BBC series Se Ur Beatha, performed using the Edin Sisters, as well as for the Gaelfonn trim a set of industrial recordings, decades afterwards collected on Compact disc within the Greentrax label’s Gaelic Melody: Scottish Custom Series. Through the early ’60s Mackenzie steadily retired from executing to focus on raising a family group. She and her hubby also launched professions as wine vendors. She passed away in Edinburgh on, may 13, 2007.