Hamish Imlach (10 February 1940 – 1 January 1996) was a Scottish

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

. Imlach was born in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

to Scottish parents, although he claimed to have been conceived in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. His commercial success was limited, but he influenced many other artists, including most notably

John Martyn Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), known professionally as John Martyn, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums and received frequent critical acclaim. ...

Billy Connolly Sir William Connolly (born 24 November 1942) is a Scottish actor, musician, television presenter, artist and retired stand-up comedian. He is sometimes known by the Scots nickname the Big Yin ("the Big One"). Known for his idiosyncratic and of ...

, and

Christy Moore Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was one of the founding members of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts and has had significant success as a solo artist. His first albu ...

. In Central and Northern Europe Imlach enjoyed a strong reputation as a vivid live artist.

Career

He had his biggest hit in the late 1960s with '' Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice'', a scurrilous and hilarious take on the American

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

standard "Virgin Mary Had a Little Baby" written by Ron Clark and Carl MacDougall. The song was, for a time, banned by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as it was assumed to be full of double meanings, but at one point became the most requested song on British Forces Radio. He was described by Ewan McVicar, the Scottish storyteller and singer, as ''"a raconteur who taught

, a singer who taught

, a blues guitarist who taught

."'' Imlach was invited to join the Irish trad and folk group

The Dubliners The Dubliners () were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in pers ...

. He was also an early anti-nuclear protester, and wrote and performed protest songs as well as comic ones. After recovering from a serious illness in the 1970s he regularly toured with Iain MacKintosh as well as doing solo tours. For the last 18 months of his professional life, his stage partner was Kate Kramer, a Canadian fiddle player and singer who lived in Scotland, with whom he recorded his last CD, ''More and Merrier'' (1996).

Personal life

Hamish Imlach was married to Wilma Dundas, who died on 10 March 2019 and had four children named Mairead, Fiona, Jim and Vhari. Imlach's health deteriorated again towards the latter part of his life with bronchial troubles and obesity, and he died on 1 January 1996, six weeks short of his 56th birthday. In his 1992 autobiography, ''Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice'', co-written with Ewan McVicar, Imlach jested "When I die I want everything to be knackered!"

Discography

* ''Hamish Imlach'' (XTRA, 1966) * ''Before and After'' (XTRA, 1967) * ''Live'' (XTRA, 1967) * ''The Two Sides of Hamish Imlach'' (XTRA, 1968) * ''Ballads of Booze'' (XTRA, 1969) * ''Old Rarity'' (XTRA, 1971) * ''Fine Old English Tory Times'' (XTRA, 1972) * ''Murdered Ballads'' (XTRA, 1973) * ''Scottish Sabbath'' (Autogram, 1976) * ''A Man's a Man'' (Autogram, 1978) with Iain MacKintosh * ''The Sporting Life'' (Musikiste, 1981) * ''Sonny's Dream'' (Lismor, 1985) * ''Portrait'' (Musikiste, 1989) * ''I Was Born in Glasgow'' (Gallus Music, 1991) * ''Two's Company'' (Vindaloo Music, 1993) with Muriel Graves * ''More and Merrier'' (Lochshore, 1995) with Muriel Graves and Kate Kramer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Imlach Scottish folk singers 20th-century Scottish male singers 1940 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Scottish musicians Transatlantic Records artists