Ray Galbraith Fisher (26 November 1940 – 31 August 2011) was a Scottish folk singer. ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' has called her "perhaps the best-known Scots folksinger of her generation", and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', "one of Britain's great interpreters of traditional song".

Early life

Ray Galbraith Fisher was born on 26 November 1940 at Redlands Hospital,

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 ...

, the second of six daughters and third of seven children of John Fisher, a police inspector, and his wife, Morag Fisher (born Marion Macdonald). Her father sang as a soloist in the City of Glasgow police choir, and her mother sang in

Scots Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongside both Irish and Manx, developed ou ...

. She was educated at Hyndland Secondary School, as was her brother Archie, and it was where she met

Hamish Imlach Hamish Imlach (10 February 1940 – 1 January 1996) was a Scottish folk singer. Imlach was born in Calcutta to Scottish parents, although he claimed to have been conceived in Glasgow, Scotland. His commercial success was limited, but he influence ...

, followed by Jordanhill Teacher Training College.

Career

Fisher began in the 1950s with a

skiffle Skiffle is a music genre, genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, Country music, country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. ...

group alongside her brother Archie, before they became a folk duo, Ray and Archie Fisher. They were regulars at Norman Buchan's Glasgow Ballads Club, and it was through Buchan and his wife Janie, that Ray met Jeannie Robertson, who invited her to stay in Aberdeen, where she then spent six weeks learning about traditional Scottish folk songs. Ray and Archie later formed a trio, The Wayfarers, with singer/fiddler Bobby Campbell, and the Fisher Family, with their parents, their younger sister

Cilla Cilla is an English female given name, originally the diminutive form of Priscilla and less frequently Drusilla (name), Drusilla. People * Cilla Black (1943–2015), English singer, actress and entertainer * Cilla Fisher (born 1952), ex-member of ...

, and later Cilla's husband Artie Trezise. Ray and Archie both also had solo careers. She was a familiar bespectacled face on television music programmes, and appeared on BBC's ''

Jools' Annual Hootenanny ''Jools' Annual Hootenanny'' is a TV show presented by Jools Holland and broadcast on New Year's Eve as an end-of-year special edition of his series '' Later... with Jools Holland'' on BBC Two in the United Kingdom since 1994. From the show's ...

'' and STV's ''Here and Now''. Fisher released only three solo albums, ''The Bonny Birdie'' (1972), ''Willie's Lady'' (1982), and ''Traditional Songs of Scotland'' (1991).

Personal life

On 3 September 1962, Fisher married Colin Ross (1934–2019), a schoolteacher, fiddler and Northumbrian piper, and they had three children: Andrew (born 1964), Duncan (born 1963) and Fiona (born 1966). She died from cancer on 31 August 2011 in

North Shields North Shields ( ) is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. The population of North Shields at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom cens ...

, Tyne and Wear, aged 70.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Ray Galbraith 1940 births 2011 deaths Scottish folk singers Singers from Glasgow Scottish male songwriters People educated at Hyndland Secondary School 20th-century Scottish women singers