The Tannahill Weavers are a band which performs traditional
Scottish music
Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which remained vibrant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. In spite of emigration and a well-developed con ...
. Releasing their first album in 1976, they became notable for being one of the first popular bands to incorporate the sound of the
Great Highland Bagpipe in an ensemble setting,
and in doing so helped to change the sound of Scottish traditional music. In 2011 the band were inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.
The band was formed in 1968
and practised in a back room of the McKay family's rented
council house
A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...
at 41 St. Ninian's Road, Hunterhill,
Paisley. The band first performed at St. Peter's Folk Club,
Glenburn, Paisley
Glenburn is a large suburb situated to the south of Paisley, close to the Gleniffer Braes. Glenburn has three primary schools (Bushes Primary, Langcraigs Primary and St. Peter's Primary). A public library and many shops can be found at Skye C ...
which was run by Pat Doherty, father of Weavers' founding member
Neil Doherty.
As of 2021, they continue to tour and release new recordings. They are named after Scottish poet
Robert Tannahill, known as the 'Weaver Poet,'
and have recorded several of his songs.
Members
The current members of the band are:
*
Roy Gullane (
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, vocals)
*
Phil Smillie (
flute,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s,
bodhrán
The bodhrán (, ; plural ''bodhráin'' or ''bodhráns'') is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from in diameter, with most drums measuring . The sides of the drum are deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or oth ...
, vocals)
*
Malcolm Bushby (
fiddle)
*
Iain MacGillivray (
Highland bagpipes,
fiddle,
Scottish smallpipe
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
s,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
)
Past members have included:
*
Lorne MacDougall (
Highland bagpipes,
Scottish smallpipe
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
s,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
)
*
John Martin (
fiddle, vocals)
*
Colin Melville (
Highland bagpipes,
Scottish smallpipe
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
s,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s)
*
Leslie Wilson (
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
,
keyboards,
bass pedals
Bass pedals are an electronic musical instrument with a foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a pedalboard and analog synthesizer tone generation circuitry packag ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, vocals)
*
Alan MacLeod (
Highland bagpipes,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s,
mandola
The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...
,
organ, vocals)
*
Bill Bourne (vocals,
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
,
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
,
fiddle,
keyboards, bass pedals)
*
Dougie MacLean
Dougie MacLean, OBE (born 27 September 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Described by AllMusic as "one of Scotland's premier singer-songwriters", MacLean has performed both under his ow ...
(
fiddle,
mandolin, vocals,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, tenor
banjo)
*
Duncan J. Nicholson (
Highland bagpipes,
Scottish smallpipe
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
s,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s)
*Struan Thorpe (
Highland bagpipes,
Scottish smallpipes
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
,
flute,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
)
*
Gordon Duncan (
Highland bagpipes,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s)
*Hudson Swan (
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
, vocals,
fiddle,
glockenspiel,
mandolin)
*
Iain MacInnes (
Highland bagpipes,
Scottish smallpipe
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
s,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s, vocals)
*
Kenny Forsyth (
Highland bagpipes,
Scottish smallpipe
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-bl ...
s,
tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria ...
s)
*
Mike Ward (
fiddle,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, vocals)
*
Ross Kennedy (
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
,
fiddle, bass pedals, vocals)
*
Stuart Morison (
fiddles,
bones
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, a ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
)
*
Willie Beaton
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...
(
fiddle, vocals)
*
David Shaw (
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
,
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
)
*
Willie Beag (
fiddle)
*
John Cassidy (whistles, vocals) - founding member
*
Stuart McKay (vocals, guitar, penny whistle) - founding member
*
Neil Doherty (vocals, guitar, mandolin, penny whistle) - founding member
*
Jim McGowan (vocals) - founding member
Timeline
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bar:Morison text:"Stuart Morison"
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bar:Bushby text:"Malcolm Bushby"
bar:MacLeod text:"Alan MacLeod"
bar:MacInnes text:"Iain MacInnes"
bar:Forsyth text:"Kenny Forsyth"
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bar:Nicholson from:01/01/1996 till:31/12/2001 color:bagpipes
bar:Melville from:01/01/2002 till:31/07/2014 color:bagpipes
bar:MacDougall from:01/08/2014 till:31/10/2018 color:bagpipes
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at:01/11/1983 color:black layer:back
at:01/04/1986 color:black layer:back
at:01/10/1987 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1990 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1992 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1994 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1996 color:black layer:back
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at:01/09/2006 color:black layer:back
at:31/08/2018 color:black layer:back
Discography
Albums
*''Are Ye Sleeping Maggie'' (1976)
*''The Old Woman's Dance'' (1978)
*''The Tannahill Weavers'' (1979)
*''Tannahill Weavers IV'' (1981)
*''Passage'' (1984)
*''
Land of Light'' (1986)
*''Dancing Feet'' (1987)
*''Best of the Tannahill Weavers 1979 - 1989'' (1989)
*''
Cullen Bay'' (1990)
*''The Mermaid's Song'' (1992)
*''Capernaum'' (1994)
*''Leaving St. Kilda'' (1996)
*''The Tannahill Weavers Collection: Choice Cuts 1987-1996'' (1997)
*''Epona'' (1998)
*''Alchemy'' (2000)
*''Arnish Light'' (2003)
*''Live and In Session'' (2006)
*''Òrach'' (2018)
Contributing artists
*''
The Rough Guide to Scottish Music'' (1996)
References
External links
Tannahill Weavers(official site)
MySpace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tannahill Weavers, The
Musical groups established in 1968
Scottish folk music groups
Green Linnet Records artists
Compass Records artists