Shetland fiddler and singer-songwriter, Claire White, profiles extraordinary northern women
With Burns Night and Valentine’s Day just past, and International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day around the corner, this is a great time of year to celebrate womankind. As a songwriter who’s drawn to stories of extraordinary females, I enjoy doing this by looking at the lives of Shetland lasses who have inspired musical tributes.
First up is Jeanette Nowak, or Peanuts as she’s better known. In her garden shed on the island of Yell Peanuts creates jewellery from sea glass and pottery, and baskets from local plants. Jeanette’s work influenced a leading Scottish fashion brand’s spring/summer 2018 collection, and a dress based on her deconstructed basket graced catwalks in London, Paris and Milan. I visited Jeanette’s shed for the first time in September 2017 and was deeply moved by the positivity and creativity Jeanette shows whilst living with cancer. Her light shines brightly.
Peanuts’ Shed
In wir shed o dreams it’s
Foo bricht we shine wir licht
Mair life I’m niver seen
Athin ee peerie place
As in dy shed dis hairst
An in dy sonsie face
“Jeanette Nowak shö bides
In Nort-a-Voe” dey’d tell
On axin fir Peanuts
Whan stravaigin trowe Yell
Sun ida window
An in dy glansin een
A coose o creations
Da rarest I hed seen
Beetroot laeves lay dryin
Firnenst sea gless an lem
Hingin bowes an baskets
Skoitin neest a ring
Dy seaborne proil sat prunk
In reason an in rhyme
Frida Kahlo chaise longue
A place for tinkin time
Fashion lasses fun dee
Here in dy lichtsome state
Reddin up afore dem
Aboot ta change dy gaet
A basket clippit up
Balled doon apo da flör
Dichted an laid up noo
Wis art, no bruck, no more
Wid du tak a hunder?
Dy babe wis no for sale
So dey med a froak for
Der London fashion rail
A blink o city life
Wis dine for joost a start
But hame wis shön pooin
At treeds aboot dy heart
For du kens mair as maist
Whit is really wirt wir might
In wir shed o dreams it’s
Foo bricht we shine wir licht
In wir shed o dreams it’s
Foo bricht we shine wir licht
From Jeanette’s contemporary luminescence we step back in time to the late nineteenth century and meet Jean Pole (1880-1965), a female Shetland fiddler at a time when this was unusual. Jean learned repertoire from her father in Waas and, in turn, passed traditional tunes onto local cultural aficionado, Dr Tom Anderson. Tom taught me Jean’s ‘Boanie Polka’ when I was a child, explaining that Jean played this tune seated, dancing steps with her feet in time to the music. This striking image inspired me to find out more about Jean’s life from Shetlandic writer, Christine De Luca. Christine explained that Jean played for local weddings and dances from the age of eighteen until her early thirties. Family responsibilities then took precedence as Jean lost her father and two siblings within a period of two years. With her mother and older sister to care for, Jean knitted and ‘carried the post’ to make ends meet, but her fiddling days weren’t altogether over. She continued playing for neighbours domestically and, at the age of 82, was interviewed for BBC radio about her music knowledge. Christine De Luca describes Jean as a ‘quiet expert’ and I hope that by recording her life story in song, Jean’s achievements will sound just a little louder.
Sang for Jean Pole
Aged nine in Stove in Waas
A fiddle first I played
Soldier’s Joy an Hen’s Mairch
Da early tunes I med
Clementina’s fiddle
Wis cut fae board an treed
Seaman Faider’s playing
Wis aa da help we’d need
So on turning eighteen
In eighteen ninety eight
Tunes for wedding dances
Made music dan my fate
In Lerwick Faider bocht
My gaer ta tak in tow
Paying eighteen shillings
For fiddle, case an bow
Hadd oot a langer dances
Fae four o’clock to ten
Seventeen oors o playin
Fir me an twartree men
Bow apo me foreairm
An rockin too for aese
Fingers skynned bi tyoch strings
An ringin lugs fir days
Atween me spells o playing
Cam polkas, Shetland reels
Schottisches too I danced
An keekit up me heels
Mair as a decade passed dan
In lichtsome spree an foy
Whan I cam by thirty
Da fiddle wis laid by
Losin Dad an Tammie
An Clementine göd too
Left Leebie, me an Mam
Ta mak wir hom anew
Days taen up wi makkin
As postie an da lik
Foo life’s path is trodden
It passes in a blink
Trowe it aa my fiddle
Wis never far fae sicht
Fir neebor fock I’d play
Whan in aboot da nicht
Tammy took an interest
In aa da tunes I kent
Dan cam Erchie P Lee
My mindins fir ta hent
Noo I’m auld an happit
At eighty-five I’m don
But aye I sammas wissed
‘At my tunes dey wid live on
Though blate I telt my tale
In hoop someen wid mind
Aa at’s geen afore wis
Da mett o love an vynd
Now we move to a celebration of Shetland’s community life, and in particular a group of Lerwick and Scalloway women known collectively as ‘Da Hennie’. For almost sixty years these friends have met weekly in each other’s houses on Thursdays evenings between eight and eleven o’clock. Together, they enjoy a catch-up, homebakes and drinks, and over several decades they’ve seen each other through life’s significant events including births, marriages and deaths. Gatherings began in 1960 when members were in their late twenties or early thirties and they knitted whilst chatting to supplement family incomes. Now, they meet purely for pleasure and it was a privilege to attend their 28th September 2017 gathering to experience the space they create for each other in life.
Da Hennie
Thursday nights ir diamonds
A jewel atae wir weeks
A dram, an supper too
A time ta gaff an sheeks
For sixty years wir met
Wis six, an idders tö
Eight o clock’s da keek aff
O tree oors o “whit’s new?”
If we need, we shout
If we need, we shout
We pit wir heids tagedder
An we work it out
Da Hennie’s foo wir kent
We gadder turn aboot
Birthdays an Christmas
Is whan we aa geng oot
In 1960
Fae bairns we took wir aese
Wir makkin it cam too
Fir dan wis leaner days
Wir faced life tagedder
Weddings, births an grief
Spaekin aathing trowe bar
Politics an belief
Work at da phone exchange
In offices forby
In taxis an textiles
Wis foo we med wir wye
Lerwick life his altered
Fae early hennie days
Oil wealth brocht changes
New rods, new maet, new claes
Helly buses
Geed fae da Market Cross
But taxis shön took owre
An memories wis wir loss
Sixty years o freendship
Whit is dat really wirt?
Yis, it’s disagreements
But n’er an ackwart wird
An wir bairns noo
Haes a hennie tö
Da acht o wir meetins
Biggin lives anew
Loyalty, creativity, and skill, just some Shetland women’s qualities worth celebrating in song. Wherever you are in the world this Valentine’s weekend, love the lasses!
Signed 'Lasses Trust In Providence’ CDs are available from www.clairewhite.info