Profile: Dougie MacLean

One of Scotland's foremost traditional and folk singers.

Biography

MacLean started playing in school, forming a band with future Silly Wizard-ites Andy Stewart and Martin Hadden. In 1974, while busking on the street, Roy Gullane approached him and recruited him to the Tannahill Weavers, with whom he stayed until 1977, when he moved to Germany, playing solo and working with Alex Campbell and Alan Roberts. He replaced Johnny Cunningham as fiddle player for Silly Wizard for six months in 1980 and returned to tour with the Tannahills before going solo in 1981 and starting his own record company, Dunkeld, in 1983. Recently his songs have been featured in theatre and film (part of The Last of the Mohicans), and a 40-minute film of his life and music "The Land: Songs of Dougie MacLean") has been screened by the BBC.

Discography

1974  Are Ye Sleeping Maggie?  Hedera Recorde 101 (with Tannahill Weavers)
1977  Caledonia                Plant Life  with Alan Roberts
1979  CRM                      Plant Life  with Alan Roberts, Alex Campbell
1979  Snaigow                  Plant Life
1983 Craighe Dhu               DUN001
1984  Fiddle                   DUN002
1986  Singing land             DUN008
1988  Real Estate              DUN010
1989  Butterstone              Dambuster music
1990  Whitewash                DUN010
1991  The Search               DUN011
1991  Indigenous               DUN015
1993  Sunset Song              DUN017
1993  A Scot's Quair Destiny   (on Dunkeld label)
19??  The Plant Life Years     Plant Life
1994  Marching Mystery         DUNCD019
1995  Tribute                  DUNCD020
1997  RIOF                     DUNCD021

logo

For a good deal on all his albums, a video and even download free sound samples, have a look at CD Universe.

Notes on The Plant Life Years

(courtesy of Ann Mech). This is a compilation, taken from the albums Caledonia, CRM and Snaigrow, with appearances by Alex Campbell and Alan Roberts. Plant Life Records is now apparently Osmosys Reocrds (Unit 5, Cirrus, Glebe Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE18 7DX, England Tel: +44 0 1480 463677).

Track Listing: 

Plooboy Laddies
Johnny Teasie Weasle
Over My Mountain
Mistress MacKinley's Breakfast Surreals
Northern Cowboy
I Lo'e Nae a Lassie But Ane
Rattlin' Roarin' Wille
Mormond Braes
Caledonia
Jock Stewart
Leis a Lurigan
Rolling Home
Mill Braes/Lassies Trust in Providence/Bonnie Isle o'Whalsay
Ye Banks and Braes o'Bonnie Doon

Another record not mentioned above, which a reader of rec.music.celtic alerted me to is: 

Dougie MacLean
_On a Wing and a Prayer_
Side 1:1 Almost always failing (4:05)
       2 On a Wing and a Prayer (3:30)
       3 Cruising (2.50)
       4 Silver and Gold (3:00)
       5 More Fool I (4:35)
     2:1 The Long Road (4:13)
       2 Sandy Bell's Broadstreet (3:32)
       3 Let's Rock and Roll (2:45)
       4 You Don't Have to Cry (5:02)
       5 Get Me Out (2:30)
All songs written by Dougie MacLean
Plant Life Records PLR034
recorded Pace Studios, Milton Keynes, Sept. 1981
produced by Nigel Pegrum
There is now an email newsletter about Dougie; write to Alasdair Goold at agoold@cix.compulink.co.uk to be put on the mailing list. Subscribers to Compuserve's European service can chat about Dougie on their conference system. The conference is called 'The Land'.

More information

Copyright (c) 1993-1998 Ceolas.

Home | Artists | Feedback