Right, that does it: I've decided I have to create a new category for music I wouldn't have bought had it not been for Stephin Merritt. This is of course just another plank in my project to convince the world of his genius (and, by implication, my rare and precocious insight in appreciating genius when I see it).
In Daniel Handler's song-by-song interview with Merritt about each of the 69 Love Songs, Merritt mentions his affection for Jean Redpath's albums of Robert Burns songs in connection with the nuclear pastiche of Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget. Amazon.com has a free download of one of Redpath's songs, which I quickly grew to like, so I bought one of the CDs, more or less at random.
Until I lighted upon her website just now, I knew very little about Jean Redpath — the sleeve notes have more to say about Serge Hovey, the arranger. I didn't know, for example, that she was performing in Greenwich Village in the midst of the folk revival in the early '60s, or that she regularly contributed to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio shows. Her voice is a rich mix of Kathleen Ferrier and something more earthy like Eliza Carthy.
I'm criminally ignorant of Burns' writings too. I should listen to this more often, with the lyric sheet in front of me. The songs that most often grab me are The Slave's Lament and The Belles of Mauchline. The sleevenotes helpfully explain who each of the six belles were in real life, Miss Armour being the future Mrs Burns.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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