Shelagh McDonald

Glasgow, Bristol, London

Shelagh McDonald was born in Edinburgh in 1948, moved to Glasgow at 12 and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. She taught herself guitar, grew up on classical music and once wanted to be a classical pianist. In the Glasgow folk clubs she did floor spots and met Iain McGeachy, later John Martyn, who introduced her to his London agent, and she met Keith Christmas, who invited her to Bristol. About a year later, through Christmas, she won a recording contract, and from 1968 she was a rising folk name in Bristol and London. She chose to perform, she told FATEA, as a girl and her guitar, not in a band.

In 1969 she appeared on the BBC Radio One LP Dungeon Folk, and on September 14, 1969 she played the Rugby Rag Blues Festival, the only entry in setlist.fm for her.

Two albums

Album (B&C CAS 1019, 1970) was produced by Sandy Roberton for September Productions, with arrangements by Robert Kirby. It was recorded in London in three sessions in February and March 1970, with later sessions in June, and the musicians included Keith Christmas, Keith Tippett, Gerry Conway, Gordon Huntley, Andy Roberts and Ian Whiteman. She recalled it was the first time she had recorded with a full band, that there was no rehearsal and three to five takes, and that the band's power was like being given the keys to a phantom jet. It was mastered at Abbey Road and reviewed favorably, though sales did not match.

Stargazer (B&C CAS 1043, September 1971) was recorded in February to May 1971, again produced by Roberton, with John Wood engineering and mixing, Kirby arranging strings and choir, and players including Richard Thompson on guitar, Dave Mattacks on drums, Danny Thompson on string bass and Ray Warleigh on saxophone. Apart from one traditional song the material was her own. Many called her the new Sandy Denny at the time. She left music in 1971 during sessions for a third album, and she gives her own account of why in a FATEA interview that is not reproduced here. A few tracks surfaced on Peg Records compilations in 1972.

Return

The Independent's Charles Donovan wrote about her in June 2005 in a piece titled Mystery Woman, and later that year Castle Music issued the two-CD collection Let No Man Steal Your Thyme, with all known recordings including demos, outtakes and third-album sessions. She gave interviews in 2012 and played her first official public appearance in more than 40 years on January 16, 2013 at the Green Note in Camden as a guest of The False Beards. She self-released Parnassus Revisited in 2013, was interviewed on BBC 6 Music's Freak Zone in January 2014, played the Solas Festival in June 2014 and toured with Nigel H. Seymour in 2017. Talking Elephant reissued both albums on CD in 2017, and Stargazer came out on vinyl again in 2025.