Ray Fisher

Ray Galbraith Fisher (26 November 1940 – 31 August 2011) was a Scottish folk singer. The Scotsman has called her "perhaps the best-known Scots folksinger of her generation", and The Guardian, "one of Britain's great interpreters of traditional song".

Early life Ray Galbraith Fisher was born on 26 November 1940 at Redlands Hospital, Glasgow, 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. followed by Jordanhill Teacher Training College.

Career Fisher began in the 1950s with a skiffle 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, and later Cilla's husband Artie Trezise. Ray and Archie both also had solo careers.

She was a familiar face on television music programmes, and appeared on BBC's Jools' Annual Hootenanny and STV's Here and Now.

Fisher released 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, Tyne and Wear, aged 70.

Discography

Solo albums

The Bonny Birdy, Trailer, 1972 Willie's Lady, Folk-Legacy Records, 1982 Traditional Songs Of Scotland, Saydisc, 1991

Further tracks appear on-

The Iron Muse (A Panorama Of Industrial Folk Music), Topic Records, 1963 On The Edge (A Radio Ballad), Argo, 1970 Vesdun - 1er Festival De Musique Traditionnelle, Prodisc Strasbourg, 1973 All Through The Year - A Calender In Music & Song, Hypertension Music, 1991 Scottish Women, Greentrax, 2004

Recording as 'Ray and Archie Fisher'

Far Over The Forth (7" EP), Topic Records, 1961

Further tracks appear on-

Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol 1, Decca, 1963 Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol 2, Decca, 1964 Folk Festival - Festival Folk, Waverley, 1964 The Hoot'nanny Show - Vol. 1, Waverley, 1964 The Hoot'nanny Show - Vol. 2, Waverley, 1964 Edinburgh Students Charities Appeal, Private Press, 1965

With 'The Fisher Family'

Traditional & New Songs From Scotland, Topic Records, 1966