Gillian McPherson

This afternoon I conducted one of those aimless Internet searches, where I started with one obscure folk singer, then by a series of links ended up with a name that I haven't seen for about 50 years - Gillian McPherson.

I remember seeing her at the Bristol University Students' Union in March or April 1971: she appeared solo, of that I am certain. I think that she was the third act of three, but I have no idea who the headliner might have been, and presumably the reason why I had gone to this concert. I was moderately impressed by her performance, especially by one song, "Look what we've got to do". It must have been shortly after that a favourable review of her (apparently only) record, "Poets and painters and performers of blues" appeared in Melody Maker, so off I went to the record shop to buy this.

On record, Gillian was far from unaccompanied: some tracks had strings arranged by Robert Kirby (very much the flavour of the time after his work with Nick Drake) and some tracks had backing by Tommy Eyre (producer?), Jon Mark (?) and Johnny Almond, who were three quarters of the group 'Mark Almond' that I liked at the time. "Look what we've got to do" received a good arrangement and production, and I recall that I used to play this song myself - it had the decending G6 F#7 FMaj7 E chord run that I like.

I have another hazy memory of Gillian: either I went to see her at a concert a bit later but she cancelled, or someone else cancelled and she played. It's a shame that I threw away my 'concert log' several years ago. Anyway Gillian disappeared and she hasn't crossed my mind since. The entire album can be found here.

Information about the album or the singer seems scarce; from one source, I see that she apparently was born in Belfast, 1949; this explains the background behind the song "They all want somebody to blame", a waltz that I remember (now) being introduced as about "the troubles", ie Belfast. It also means that she was only 22/3 when I saw her.

What are the songs like? An awkward mixture, it sounds to me now. "Is somebody in tune with my song" has a string arrangement far better than the song itself. "Who's at the deceiving end?" is sung archly - maybe an attempt at a single. The afore-mentioned "Look what we've got to do" and "We can't be the last line" have good arrangements and performances; no doubt these are the songs that attracted me. "Flight" features a complex guitar (Jon Mark?) and cello arrangement, again far better than the song warrants; a bit too precious for me. "Lazy dreamer" is jaunty and probably wouldn't have found favour with the soon-to-be 15 year old; I don't care for it now. The title track (the final song) features clumsy drums.

I get the feeling that I was less impressed with the record than with the performance, which is probably another reason why I haven't thought about these songs for 50 years.