Scotland has an amazing heritage for music with many super-famous musicians known worldwide such as Travis, Paolo Nutini, Amy Mcdonald, Lewis Capaldi, Runrig, The Bay City Rollers, Rod Stewart and of course The Proclaimers. Annie Lennox would be one of the most well known female singers (from Aberdeen!) for her amazing work on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
Music is in our blood and is a big part of our culture and traditions with fiddles, bagpipes, accordions at ceilidh dances and weddings around the country.
The bands I want to talk about in this article are lesser-known and lean more towards traditional / folk music sounds rather than hard rock or indie genres. I'd like to take you through many of my favourite musicians from Scotland below and have embedded a video of each for your listening pleasure.
Many of the musos mentioned here have played at Speyfest, a great local music festival in Fochabers, Moray and a fantastic event to hear the best the traditional music scene has to offer.
Talisk
Talisk are an amazing three-piece folk band from Glasgow who have racked up many awards in the last few years including Folk Band of the Year at the BBC traditional music awards.
While the fiddle (Hayley Keenan) and guitar (Graeme Armstrong) performances are rock solid the stand out instrument in this band is the concertina, played by Mohsen Amini. This man is a true genius on concertina, I’ve never heard anyone play notes so accurately and fit them into such a short space of time in their songs. Some truly next level musicianship.
Their songs have soul and meaning to the listener, even though there are no words. Check them out in the video below.
Karine Polwart
I truly love Karine Polwarts voice and performances, but the songwriting here is something special. She is incredibly inventive with her songs and often tells a story. She definitely pushes the envelope of traditional Scottish folk music.
The first time I heard Karine was on a compilation album of Scottish Musicians called the Ballads of the Book. This was a collaboration album of Scottish writers and musicians, led by the singer from Idlewild - Roddy Woomble. Karine's song here is very simple but captured my interest in her voice and music and drove me to seek out more.
One of her most creative projects is "A Pocket of Wind Resistance" which at a first listen might not appeal to everyone, but the stories, legends and history, expertly woven through its 14 tracks, soon win you over. The interwoven story of William and Roberta Sime in particular is both heartwarming and extremely sad, this album is a real work of art on many levels.
My favourite song by Karine is Ophelia as shown in the video below. Beautiful lyrics and melody with great guitar playing, a truly lovely track.
Kris Drever
I first heard Kris's music on Spotify with his cover of "It's Braw Sailing on the Sea". What an amazing voice he has with amazing control and tone... and his guitar playing is something else too. Digging into his backlog I discovered his debut album "Black Water" and I have been hooked ever since. Each subsequent album has been brilliant and is part of my daily listening while working.
Like most of the acts on this page, I feel Kris's exposure has been criminally minimal, for such quality of playing, singing in and songwriting he should be much more well known.
Tide Lines
A fantastic 4 piece band headed up by frontman Robert Robertson who used to sing with Skippinish. Robert has a great voice and really adds to the anthems Tide Lines seem to craft with ease.
Skipinnish
A very "Scottish" band, often singing in Gaelic and playing fiddles, bagpipes and accordions, Skippinish are very popular in Scotland and often sell out venues for consecutive days. Their songs are very upbeat and make you want to dance.
Skerryvore
If there's a band on this list guaranteed to get your foot stomping and your blood pumping, it's Skerryvore. Formed in 2005, playing venues along the west coast, they have grown into phenomena playing all over the world, including USA, Canada, Europe and even Australia.
Listen to the song below, the chorus doesn't hit until about 1 minute in, but it's a good one! Check out their track "Trip to Modera - Live in Edinburgh" too, it's fantastic. Very talented musicians.
Malinky
A really rich sounding band with both male and female singers, very traditional sounding and sung in Scots a lot of the time. A real feast for the ears with guitar, bouzouki, whistle, fiddle, bodhrán and cello.
Dougie Maclean
Dougie Maclean, one of Scotlands most famous sons, also remains a major force in the Scottish folk scene and has played countless free covid concerts on his social media, particularly throughout the lockdowns. Perhaps best known for his song Caledonia, I learned some of his songs while learning to play the guitar in the late 90s. A true Scottish treasure and probably the best known Scottish folk musician in the world.
De Rosa
An incredibly creative alternative rock band, De Rosa hail from Glasgow and aren't scared to show their roots in their songwriting. It sounds cheesy but I feel De Rosa are Scotland's answer to Radiohead, they have similar melancholic sounds, guitar riffs and songwriting, but with a very Scottish Glagweigan twist.
All the songs seem to have a story or theme or great meaning behind them, but clever melodies, guitar riffs and the song structure, in general, draw you in.
I feel this band have been very unlucky with their exposure, I think they would be huge if the wider public knew about them.
What famous Scottish bands have there been in recent years?
The biggest in the last 30 years is probably Travis, their album “The Man Who” must be one of the best albums of the 90s. Despite their first few albums being amazing, I feel they have lost their edge now... what is it about bands "making it" and not being as good anymore? I think without their struggles at the start of their careers, they have fewer life problems to fuel their songwriting.
Snow Patrol was another incredibly successful Scottish rock band with a string of hit songs including "Run" and "Chasing Cars".
Biffy Clyro would probably be the current kings of the Scottish alternative rock scene and are very popular in Scotland. My own band supported Biffy in 2004 (see the about page to hear my band)... our bassists claim to fame was eating lead singer (Simon Neil's) sausage he left on his plate!
A few other famous Scottish bands worthy of mention:
- Jesus and Mary Chain
- Franz Ferdinand
- Beta Band
- Average White Band
- Texas
- KT Tunstall
- Mogwai
- Arab Strap
- Primal Scream
- Idlewild
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed this quick foray into the Scottish music scene, I’m sure you’ll agree the talent of the musicians here is boundless. Have a listen to some of the videos above and let me know which you like the best!
All information was correct at the time of writing, please check things like entry costs and opening times before you arrive.
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Comments:
I think I will update this article soon with another artist - Uilleann Piper Calum Stewart.