The following article by Eric Winter appeared in the "New Musical Express" music paper in 1973
THE ART OF BARBARA DICKSON
She slipped quietly into London last week. London? Well, Morden is just within the county boundary, and, at the George, Epsom Road, they've got a young but very nice folk club going
Her name is Barbara Dickson. I've heard her before, and frankly went overboard for her album "From The Beggar's Mantle Fringed With Gold", when Decca issued it a couple of years ago.
This time I was just a little surprised at how traditional a programme she put on, considering that half her album is filled with the contemporary songs of her good friend Archie Fisher, with Alan Hull's "Winter Song", and Allan Taylor's "The Morning Lies Heavy On Me" thrown in for good measure.
"Derry Gaol", the singing of Tommy Makem's mother, Sarah, "Laird O' The Dainty Doon-by", "The Recruited Collier", "The False Lover Won Back" and so on.
The thing that struck me was that all Barbara's style is in the singing. No gimmicky endings, no forced presentation. In fact, you could almost believe that's she's throwing away some of her best songs, so free are they of concert-hall gloss and television glitter. Barbara is just not That Sort Of A Girl.
Yet her singing transcends the occasion with a certain majesty. One or two of the best Scottish singers have it. Jeannie (the incomparable) Robertson, Ray Fisher... and Barbara Dickson.
Barbara began folk singing as so many do, by wandering into a folk club.
Fortunately, it was the Howff in Dunfermline, the town where she was born. She admits that John Watt, doyen of the early revival days north of the Tweed, taught her a lot - songs such as "I Loved A Lass" and "Long A-Growing".
She got her chances. The Corries put her on in a ten-minute spot at the Caley Cinema during an Edinburgh Festival. She did some work for Grampian TV. But it did not take long for Barbara to discover that that is not where it's at.
She did her apprenticeship round the Scottish club scene between 1966 and 1969.
Hamish Imlach and Christie Moore (now of Planxty) helped set her up in North of England gigs at Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Chorley, Bolton.
In a strange sort of way, that set a seal on Barbara's club career. North of England and the Midlands right across the country is her undisputed territory but she has done little work in the south and south-west.
All this despite the fact that Barbara has three and a half albums to her name. "Beggar's Mantle" was preceeded by "Thro' The Recent Years" and "Do Right Woman (all on Decca) and she has a major share in the Trailer album "The Fate o' Charlie."
This year has been the year of the festivals for Barbara Dickson. Stainsby Brighouse, Hexham, Cleethorpes, Bromyard.
They are at last catching on to the idea that here is a woman of immense tone, no-nonsense singing, considerable stature, even on a scene that has produced some of the finest singers in the world.
Being Barbara, and That Sort Of A Person, she doesn't have much in the way of plans. Since Bernard Theobald began to manage her, she has done extremely well in terms of work, and there's a chance that the Sticky label will put out a single of Barbara doing a Gerry Rafferty number.
Between October 25 and November 5, she will tour Belgium on a circuit organised by that indefatigable ally of British folk music Leon Lammal, who runs the Mallemolen club just outside Brussels.
There won't be a big backing group or any electronic sounds. She's taking her voice with her. If you've heard it soaring across a club or festival, you'll know that Barbara Dickson's voice is enough.
