Gillian McPherson -

Gillian McPherson is an Irish singer/songwriter from Belfast who released the 1971 album Poets and Painters and Performers of Blues on RCA Victor. She reemerged in 1987 ‎with the single “Sweet Deceit,” released as Gillie on Gee Wizz Records.

Background

Gillian McPherson was born August 21, 1949, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She took up acoustic guitar at age fourteen and entered the Belfast folk-club circuit at sixteen. McPherson frequented the Ulster Folk Music Society and appeared at the Imperial Folk Club on Clifton Road.

McPherson joined Folk Union with pianist-guitarist Dave Shannon, guitarist John Boomer, and mandolinist-guitarist Colin Wilkinson. The quartet performed Irish folk, bluegrass, blues, and contemporary songs around Belfast. McPherson also appeared on the Ulster Television series Free and Easy. Emerald Records representative Peter Lloyd heard her at the Ferryboat Inn in 1968 and arranged a demo for the Belfast label, but company owner M.A. Solomon declined the material.

Pentangle manager Jo Lustig encountered McPherson at a Belfast concert by the group and subsequently heard her perform at the Ferryboat Inn. McPherson moved to Yorkshire in 1970 and worked the folk-club circuit, where she encountered Lustig again at the Yorkshire Jazz, Folk and Blues Festival. Lustig signed McPherson to his publishing company and took over her management.

McPherson moved to London and secured a recording agreement with RCA Victor. She entered Marquee Studios in 1971 with producer and Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson for the sessions that became Poets and Painters and Performers of Blues.

Discography: