Nancy Whiskey (
Anne Alexandra Young Wilson,
BridgetonBridgeton may refer to the following places:In Scotland:*Bridgeton, GlasgowIn the United States:*Bridgeton, Indiana*Bridgeton Township, Michigan*Bridgeton, Missouri*Bridgeton, North Carolina*Bridgeton, New Jersey...
,
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, 4 March 1935 – 1 February 2003) was a
ScottishThe Scots people and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.An ethnic group, historically they emerged from an amalgamation of Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
folkThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
singer, best known for the 1957
hitA hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
song, "
Freight TrainA freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by a locomotive on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...
".
While attending art school in Glasgow, Wilson performed on the local folk club circuit where she met fellow singer and
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
Jimmie MacGregorJimmie MacGregor is a Scottish folksinger and broadcaster.He was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art, becoming a potter and teacher....
who introduced her to
bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and hillbilly music. She took her
stage nameA stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
from a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
folk song, 'Nancy Whiskey' which has a chorus of: "Whiskey, whiskey, Nancy whiskey, Whiskey, whiskey, Nancy-O."
She was signed to
Topic RecordsTopic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.-History:...
and moved to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1955.
Nancy Whiskey (
Anne Alexandra Young Wilson,
BridgetonBridgeton may refer to the following places:In Scotland:*Bridgeton, GlasgowIn the United States:*Bridgeton, Indiana*Bridgeton Township, Michigan*Bridgeton, Missouri*Bridgeton, North Carolina*Bridgeton, New Jersey...
,
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, 4 March 1935 – 1 February 2003) was a
ScottishThe Scots people and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.An ethnic group, historically they emerged from an amalgamation of Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
folkThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
singer, best known for the 1957
hitA hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
song, "
Freight TrainA freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by a locomotive on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...
".
While attending art school in Glasgow, Wilson performed on the local folk club circuit where she met fellow singer and
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
Jimmie MacGregorJimmie MacGregor is a Scottish folksinger and broadcaster.He was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art, becoming a potter and teacher....
who introduced her to
bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and hillbilly music. She took her
stage nameA stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
from a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
folk song, 'Nancy Whiskey' which has a chorus of: "Whiskey, whiskey, Nancy whiskey, Whiskey, whiskey, Nancy-O."
She was signed to
Topic RecordsTopic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.-History:...
and moved to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1955. Although reluctant to surrender her reputation as a
soloIn music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
performer, she was persuaded to join the
Chas McDevittChas McDevitt is a British musician, one of the leading lights of the skiffle genre which was highly influential and popular in the United Kingdom in the mid-to-late 1950s....
Skiffle Group to record
Elizabeth CottenElizabeth "Libba" Cotten was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.Self-taught and having no knowledge of conventional guitar tunings , Cotten developed her own original style...
's
songA song is a metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad....
"Freight Train". The
recordA gramophone record, commonly known as phonograph record, vinyl record, or simply record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc...
made the top five in the
UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
in 1957, and she also toured the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with McDevitt’s group.
After a second, smaller hit, "Greenback Dollar", Whiskey left the group to resume a solo career and marry musician Bob Kelly, who became a member of her backing group, the Teetotallers. By the 1970s, she had largely retired from the music industry.
External links