Musicians D E F

DÀIMH

Dàimh – Gaelic Supergroup and un-challenged champions of straight in the eye Highland music are based around West Lochaber and the Isle of Skye.

daimh.net

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📷 Photo by Archie MacFarlane


DALLAHAN

Dallahan is one of the most distinct forces in the international folk music scene. Forged in Scotland’s traditional music community, but drawing on the traditional music styles of the Balkans and North America, they create an original and seamless musical montage, blending their contemporary influences from jazz, funk, and pop music.

dallahanmusic.com

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📷 Photo by Beth Chalmers


DANCE BANDS

This is a link to the Box and Fiddle Magazine’s Scottish Dance Band artists directory.

Photo is the Susan MacFadyen Scottish Dance Band


DAVID FOLEY & JACK SMEDLEY

In 2017 long-standing colleagues and friends David Foley and Jack Smedley found themselves with an abundance of brand new, un-played music. Much of this music was created during the writing process of the three critically acclaimed albums they have released with RURA, an award-winning Scottish folk act of which they are founding members. Foley and Smedley officially joined forces in 2018 for a performance at the world famous Celtic Connections festival.

foleysmedley.com

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📷 Photo by Samuel Hurt


DEIRDRE GRAHAM

Deirdre Graham is a Glasgow-based Gaelic singer whose musical stylings reflect her family home on the Isle of Skye. Taking acontemporary approach to traditional Gaelic singing, Deirdre’s songs construct a rich orchestral soundscape around raw vocal performances to evoke the powerful themes in their stories.

deirdregraham.com

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📷 Photo by Magnus Graham Images


DONALD SHAW

Donald Shaw is an acclaimed Scottish musician, producer, festival director and award-winning composer. He has recorded and collaborated on over 100 albums with musicians in all styles of music, created Bafta winning soundtracks and directed large-scale live commissions.

donaldshaw.net

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📷 Photo by James Morrison


DOSCA

Dosca are a critically acclaimed 5-piece folk ensemble from Glasgow featuring Luc McNally on guitar, Charlie Stewart on fiddle, James Harper on pipes, David Bowden on bass, and Stephen Henderson on Drums.

doscamusic.com

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📷 Photo by Jamie Stone


DOUGIE MACLEAN

Dougie MacLean has built an international reputation as songwriter, composer and extraordinary performer on his own terms. His songs have been covered by hosts of artists including Scottish stars Paolo Nutini and Amy MacDonald, Irish greats Ronan Keating, Mary & Frances Black, Dolores Keane, Deanta and Cara Dillon, and Grammy award winning US country singer Kathy Mattea. His anthem Caledonia has topped the Scottish charts and become one of Scotland’s most popular contemporary songs. He has received two prestigious Tartan Clef Awards, a place in the Scottish Music Hall of Fame, a Lifetime Achievement Award from BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and an OBE.

dougiemaclean.com

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📷 Photo by Rob McDougall


DOWALLY

Dowally is an Edinburgh-based duo which has been making music together since 2015. Their sound is contemporary original folk; rooted in the Scottish and Irish traditions but influenced by jazz, Klezmer, American old time and everything in-between. Rachel Walker plays the fiddle, low whistle and sings. Daniel Abrahams plays the guitar, piano, double bass and also sings.

dowally.com

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📷 Photo by Graham Coe


DUNCAN CHISHOLM

Duncan Chisholm is one of Scotland’s most recognised and accomplished fiddle players and composers. Born and brought up near Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland, Duncan has spent most of his life developing his unique musical voice. 

duncanchisholm.com

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📷 Photo by Craig Mackay, Pictii


DUNCAN LYALL

Duncan Lyall is a musician, composer, and producer. “A wide and profound musical intelligence…progressive contemporary music at its best.” – The Living Tradition

duncanlyall.com

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📷 Photo by Lori Watson


EABHAL

Eabhal came together while based in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. Alongside traditional songs, contemporary and self-penned tunes, the band draws influence from other musical cultures and unites them with in their music.

eabhal.com

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📷 Photo by Keara Blackhall


EDDI READER

From touring with Gang of Four through to the mid-eighties, Number One’s with Fairground Attraction, and then her own successful solo career which has seen Eddi win Brit Awards for Best Female Singer, an MBE for services to singing and delight fans around the world with her incredible live shows. Eddi Reader celebrated 40 years on stage in 2020.

eddireader.co.uk

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📷 Photo by Genevieve Stevenson


EDDIE SEAMAN

Eddie Seaman is a bagpiper and whistle player originally from Edinburgh. Over the course of his professional life he has worked with a variety of musicians, bands and theatre projects and has had the opportunity to travel abroad to America and Russia, as well as countless concert dates throughout Europe. Now resident in Glasgow Eddie coaches the Preston Lodge High School Novice B pipe band and is in regular demand as a teacher and solo performer. 

eddieseaman.com

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📷 Photo by Samuel Hurt


ELEPHANT SESSIONS

Creating a progressive blend of intricate tunes, engulfing guitars, with a bass and drum heavy backline, their music combines the very best of trad, funk and electronica resulting in a new and exciting sound.

elephantsessions.com

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📷 Photo by Euan Robertson


ELÍR

ELÍR is a contemporary folk trio based in Glasgow who merge together a variety of folk traditions, genres and styles to create a musical landscape rich in colour and layers of sound.

elirmusic.com

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📷 Photo by Samuel Hurt


EMILY SMITH

Multi award winning singer Emily Smith is a leading figure of the Scottish folk scene. For over a decade she has entertained audiences all over the world with her blend of traditional and original songs. Unshakeably Scottish but with farther, wider horizons, Emily’s music sees time worn texts weave beautifully alongside contemporary material, blurring the borders of old and new. Emily’s beautiful voice eases tired ears and lifts souls with its simple beauty. She also plays accordion and piano.

emilysmith.org

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📷 Photo by Laura Sparrow


EUAN MCLAUGHLIN

Euan McLaughlin is an up and coming multi-instrumentalist and composer from Leith, now based in Glasgow. Euan released his debut single ‘Askival’ in June 2020 featuring the talents of Tiernan Courell on Flute and Whistle and Stephen Henderson on Drums and Percussion as well as McLaughlin on Fiddle, Guitars, Bass and Keys. This was followed up with ‘Southside’ adding Angus Lyon on keys.

euanmclaughlin.com

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📷 Photo by Rory Barnes


EVIE WADDELL

Evie Waddell (she/her) is a Gaelic and Scots singer from Stirlingshire. She graduated with a BMus in traditional music and an HNC in contemporary dance. In 2020 Evie was part of the play MAIM by Theatre Gu Leòr where she performed in British Sign Language (BSL), acting, music and dance. She is HoH/deaf and directed ‘Failte Gu BSL’ which weaves together song, sign and dance. Evie was a Danny Kyle Open Stage winner in 2022.

eviewaddell.co.uk

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📷 Photo by Elly Lucas


EWEN HENDERSON

Ewen Henderson hails from Lochaber in the West Highlands of Scotland and has been naturally steeped in the traditional music and Gaelic culture of the area from an early age. Though most commonly found performing with Mànran, Ewen has also been fortunate enough to play all over the world with a host of top Scottish and global cross-genre artists including the world-renowned Battlefield Band, with whom he toured for several years, and World Music pioneers the Afro-Celt Sound System. 

ewen-henderson.com

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📷 Photo by Paul Jennings


FARA

Fara brings together four leading musicians at the forefront of today’s young Scottish folk scene. Kristan Harvey, Jeana Leslie and Catriona Price’s three fiddles combine with Rory Matheson’s piano to produce a fiery sound rooted strongly in their upbringing among the music of Orkney.

faramusic.co.uk

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📷 Photo by Euan Robertson


FINDLAY NAPIER

Findlay Napier is a singer, songwriter, and teaching artist.

“…one of the finest songwriters and storytellers of the Scottish folk scene.” (Folk Radio UK)

findlaynapier.com

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📷 Photo by David Boni


FINLAY MACDONALD

Finlay MacDonald has blazed a trail as one of Scotland’s finest exponents of contemporary and traditional Piping. His compositions and arrangements have been played by a wide variety of world famous musicians and performers. Always driven by collaboration and innovation, Finlay’s passion for the music he has grown up with has led him to the post of ‘Head of Piping Studies‘ at the National Piping Centre and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he continues to inspire and develop the very best of new Piping talent.

finlaymacdonaldmusic.co.uk

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📷 Photo by Sean Purser


FIONA HUNTER

Fiona Hunter is one of the leading voices in Scottish traditional music. Now an award-winning singer in her own right, Fiona first came to the wider folk music audience’s attention when she joined the Scots song champions Malinky in 2005, having learned traditional songs first-hand from the Perthshire-based Stewart family, as well as through formal studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

fionahunter.co.uk

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📷 Photo by Thomas Gavin


FOURTH MOON

​Fourth Moon unites four nationalities and four musical backgrounds into one creative force to be reckoned with. Their music is almost exclusively original, and is described as imaginative, innovative and virtuosic, spanning the bridge between a traditional folk group and a chamber music quartet.

fourthmoonmusic.com

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📷 Photo by Filippo De Dionigi


FRASER BRUCE

Despite having been involved with folk song since the early 1960s, Fraser Bruce is still performing and releasing albums, the latest on Greentrax was released on the 1st November 2020, ‘Every Song’s a Story’. Fraser is a ‘song’ man and believes it is the stories that folk songs carry which inform people of many subjects they might never have known about had they not heard the song. Stories put to music.

fraserbruce.co.uk

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📷 Photo by Rodger Shearer


FRASER FIFIELD

Fraser Fifield is a musician and composer living in Fife, Scotland, making original music featuring low whistles, bagpipes, saxophone and kaval.

fraserfifield.com

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📷 Photo by Douglas Robertson


FRED MORRISON

Fred Morrison was born and raised near Glasgow, but it’s the celebrated Gaelic piping tradition of his father’s native South Uist, in the outer Hebrides, that forms the bedrock of his intensely expressive, uniquely adventurous style.

fredmorrison.com

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📷 Photo by Oscar López


THE FRIEL SISTERS

Anna, Sheila and Clare Friel are traditional musicians born in Glasgow with their family roots firmly entrenched in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Derrynamansher). Being siblings, they achieve a close blend on fiddle, flute and uilleann pipes interspersed with songs sang in unison, many from their family and local repertoire.

frielmusic.com

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📷 Photo by Maurice Gunning