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Monday 13 November 2023

When Shelagh Sings

Some sweet-voiced folk-rock from the early 1970s to start the week.

Shelagh McDonald is a Scottish singer-songwriter who released a couple of very nice albums before then 'doing a Vashti Bunyan' and disappearing completely for thirty years. 

By her own account, Shelagh had a bad LSD trip and moved back up to Scotland, met her late partner and spent many years living in tents and homeless shelters before eventually reconnecting with her old life and resuming recording and gigging in 2013.  

Along with many others I first discovered Shelagh's music through the 2005 compilation "Let No Man Steal Your Rhyme", which I believe is still available. After her reemergence she made an album called "Parnassus Revisited", which I have never heard as it was only sold at the handful of gigs she played in 2014 and 2017. If anyone knows how to get hold of a copy please drop me a line.

Since then things seem to have gone quite again. Shelagh has a website but there has been a grand total of one new post in the last nine years. Hopefully she is well wherever she is and whatever she is up to.

Here's a track from each of her first two albums, "Album" (1970) and "Stargazer" (1971).

"Mirage" -  Shelagh McDonald 

"Dowie Dens Of Yarrow" - Shelagh McDonald 

And here's a clip from 2014.

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