Scottish Music ( Folk Revival)

Folk Revival

By the mid-1960s, many musicians were rediscovering the older Scottish instruments and songs and began to revive them, as well as experiment and mix the genres together. Below are several popular Scottish folk performers.

Corries

Hamish Imlach

Popular in US and Europe in the burgeoning 1960s folk music scene, he combined original songs with traditional Scottish folk tunes. His in-between rants were often more popular than the music itself.

Street Songs

Billy Connolly

Known primairly as a stand-up comic and actor (Boondock Saints, Head of the Class), he began as a folk singer, including with the Humblebums (see below). Here is a recent recording of his called "I Wish I Was in Glasgow."

Humblebums
Billy Connelly and Gerry Rafferty as a popular folk duo.

Red Hot Chili Pipers

A Scottish ensemble that plays modern songs on traditional instruments.

Clocks by Coldplay as done by the Red Hot Chili Pipers

We Will Rock You by Queen (performed in Edinburgh in 2014)

Clann An Drumma

 From Glasgow, their name means "Children of the Drum." They focus on the more "tribal" aspects of early Scottish music, with lots of drums and pipes. Their music was featured in another Mel Gibson film, We Were Soldiers. Several year, we have seen them performing in the streets of Glasgow.

Battlefield Band

A popular Glasgow-based Scottish traditional music band. They have recorded more than 30 albums.

The Clutha

A Glasgow-based Scottish folk band that formed in the 1970s. This track is "The Maids O' the Black Glen"

Silly Wizard

A Scottish folk band from Edinburgh that began in 1970. Their name comes form a children's book. Here is "If I Was a Blackbird"

Tannahill Weavers

Began in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland. Below is them peforming "The Geese in the Bog" live in Glasgow in 2015.