The Clutha were a traditional

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

band hailing from

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, that released a small number of

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s in the 1970s. The line-up on the Clutha's first album, ''Scotia'' (1971), was John Eaglesham (vocal, concertina), Erlend Voy (fiddle, concertina, vocals), Calum Allan (fiddle), Ronnie Alexander (vocals, guitar) and Gordeanna McCulloch (vocals). The same band members are credited on their 1974 album, ''Scots Ballads Songs & Dance Tunes''. By the time of their 1977 release, ''The Bonnie Mill Dams'', Jimmy Anderson had joined the group on chamber pipes and bagpipes, and Eaglesham had left the group.

History

In 1957,

Norman Buchan Norman Findlay Buchan (27 October 1922 – 23 October 1990) was a Labour Party politician, who was on the left-wing of the party, and represented the West Renfrewshire seat from 1964 until 1983 and the Paisley South seat from 1983 until his de ...

was a teacher at Rutherglen Academy. He formed a Ballads Club. Among the pupils who joined up were Gordeanna McCulloch. She fell in love with singing, and travelled to

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to attend one of

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the ...

's weekend seminars at his home in Beckenham,

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. She sang briefly with the Clydesiders a group formed at school, and in 1964 joined The Clutha. The name is the

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word for the Clyde. The band played traditional Scottish tunes and sang songs in Scots.

The Small Pipes

When The Clutha added Jimmy Anderson on the lowland pipes on "Bonnie Mill Dams" (1977) they were pioneers, in that the instrument had rarely been heard for 100 years, and not previously recorded. They won the Peter Cooke Cup for Scots ceilidh bands in 1971, 1972 and 1973. Although they did not record again until 2001, they have continued to host ceilidh dances. In 2001, The Clutha released an album entitled ''On the Braes'', with Ronnie Alexander (vocals, guitar), Erlend Voy (fiddle, concertina, vocals), Callum Allan (fiddle), Gordeanna McCulloch (vocals) and Tom Johnstone (pipes).

McCulloch solo

In 1965, McCulloch appeared on a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

on Topic Records. In 1978 she released her own solo album, ''Sheath and Knife'', on which she unearthed obscure Scottish songs. Since then she has appeared on six compilation albums and recorded another solo album. To cover McCulloch's absence during a Brittany tour by the band, they temporarily recruited

Heather Heywood Heather Heywood (born Heather Williamson on 26 December 1950), is a Scottish folk singer from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. She was voted "Artist of the Year" by Glasgow’s Star Club in 1993. Career Heywood's first performance took place around 196 ...

to stand in as a vocals singer. McCulloch died in 2019.

Norman Buchan MP

Buchan became a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament and was the organiser of the

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for several years.

Discography

The Clutha *''Scotia!'' (1971,

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ZFB18 stereo) *''The Streets of Glasgow'' (1973, Topic 12TS226 stereo

with other Glaswegian traditional musicians) *''Scots Ballads Songs & Dance Tunes'' (1974, Topic 12TS242 stereo) *''The Bonnie Mill Dams'' (1977, 12TS330 stereo) *''On The Braes'' (2001) *''Live from Harvard'' (2019 release of a 2018 performance) Gordeanna McCulloch *''New Voices From Scotland'' (1965, 12T133) *''Sheath and Knife'' (1978, Topic 12TS370, accompanied by the Clutha) *''In Freenship's Name'' (1999) For more on the discography, see.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clutha Scottish folk music groups Musical groups from Glasgow Topic Records artists