Jean Redpath was born in
Edinburgh, Scotland, Scotland, and later returned to Edinburgh, taking
medieval studies at the
University of Edinburgh. To help pay her way through her studies, she sang for beer money and undertook part-time work as a driving instructor and undertaker's assistant. The Scottish poet and folk-song collector
Hamish Henderson was working in the
School of Scottish Studies at the university and Redpath took a keen interest in the archive of tapes and discs of music and songs. She learned about 400 songs, together with the oral folklore that went with them. In March 1961, at the age of 24, she arrived in the United States with just eleven dollars in her pocket. Her first performance was in
San Francisco. Later she met up with
Ramblin' Jack Elliott and
Bob Dylan in
Greenwich Village. The natural warmth and power of her voice brought her to perform at
Gerde's Folk City. Starting in 1979, Redpath was a lecturer at the
University of Stirling, Scotland, with occasional trips to teach at
Wesleyan University. She gave courses for ten years in Scottish Song at the Heritage of Scotland Summer School at the
University of Stirling. She was awarded the
MBE in 1987, as well as being named a
Kentucky colonel by the Governor of
Kentucky. Redpath also received honorary doctorates from the
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,
University of Stirling and the
University of St Andrews, and was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame in 2008. In 1996, she launched the Burns International Festival. In 2009, Redpath made an appearance on the
Late Show with David Letterman, singing "Some Kind of Love" by the late
John Stewart of
The Kingston Trio. Letterman promoted her album
By Request during her appearance, although the song "Some Kind of Love" does not appear on that album. This led to some confusion for viewers who wished to obtain a recorded version of the song. In 2011, she returned to her
alma mater to become artist-in-residence at the
University of Edinburgh’s Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies. ==Death and legacy==