Jimmy MacBeath Jimmy MacBeath ( 1894 – 1972 ) was an itinerant worker and singer of Bothy Ballads from the north east of Scotland . He was a source of traditional songs for singers of the mid 20th century Folk Revival in Great Britain . Life . Jimmy MacBeath ( pronounced the same as Macbeth ) was born to a family of Scottish Travellers in the fishing village of Portsoy , Banffshire , Scotland . He learned songs such as " Lord Randall " ( Child Ballad 12 ) from his mother . At the age of 13 he started work as a live - in farm hand at Deskford . He was a bachelor all his life and learned many songs in the bothies , or farm huts where the male farm workers lived . He was to be a traveller for much of his life ; in 1908 he took his first long walk , from Inverness to Perth . In the First World War he joined the Gordon Highlanders and fought in Flanders . Later he served in the Medical Corps during the Anglo - Irish War . In the 1920s he was demobbed . Working as a kitchen porter , begging and at seasonal fruit picking , he set about tramping the roads of Scotland , England , the Channel Islands , and even Nova Scotia . In the streets , pubs , hiring fairs and markets he earned money by singing . It is even said that he sang in cinemas where there was no piano for silent films . He tended to wander during the summer , and spend the winter in Elgin . He died in Tor - Na - Dee hospital in Aberdeen and was buried in Portsoy . Singing career . Jimmy MacBeath was a " traditional singer " . He was part of the last generation to sing traditional songs in bothies , along with John Strachan , and Willie Scott , In the 1920s he travelled the roads with Davie Stewart , who was also a singer , and who played the bagpipes and accordion . Their styles were very different , so one sang while the other collected . He lived in " model lodging houses " , government - run houses for homeless men , slightly better than " flophouses " . In 1951 Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson were in Turriff , when they heard about Jimmy in Elgin . At the prospect of living at the expense of Columbia Records , he came to Turriff and stayed at one of the best hotel rooms . In 1952 he went to London to appear on the earliest folk series on British television . For many years he was popular in folk clubs . When he sang " The Barnyards of Delgaty " at the 1951 Edinburgh People ' s Festival Ceilidh , the audience were rapturous . A number of the songs he sang has been passed on to singers involved in the early times of the Folk Revival in England and Scotland e . g . " The Keach in the Creel " and " Tramps and Hawkers " . Peter Kennedy ' s collection " Folksongs of Britain and Ireland " ( 1975 ) included 13 of Jimmy MacBeath ' s songs . His songs and interviews have examples of beggar ' s cant , a secret language . These words are Romany , and ultimately Hindi . He also sang songs in Doric dialect , such as " Fae Would Be a Fisherman ' s Wife ? " . For lovers of the occult , track 11 on CD 2 of " Two Gentlemen of the Road " , is of interest . He describes the initiation ceremony of " The Horseman ' s Word " , a kind of Masonic organisation for horsemen wanting to control horses using secret words . They met between midnight and 1 a . m . and asked the initiate as series of questions , including " Was the road crooked or straight ? " - " The Road was dark and crooked . I come by the light of the moon " . He would be harnessed and dragged through chaff — broken fragments of dry sharp stalks of wheat . The initiate would have to shake hands with a young calf . This might be interpreted as greeting the devil . The initiate wore a tricorne hat , and heard obscure words recited from a book . Alan Lomax ' s response is " Sounds like witchcraft to me " . MacBeath is very sceptical about the whole affair . There is no way of knowing whether this is a centuries - old ceremony , or a scam dreamed up in the 19th century to prevent outsiders from getting work as horsemen .