All About Scotland

It was made by a little-known ceilidh group called Runrig, who took their name from the old Scottish oil field system of agriculture, and worked primarily in the backwaters of the Highlands and Islands. The thing, though, that stopped people in their tracks was the fact that they were writing original material in Gaelic. This was the first time any serious Scottish working band had achieved any sort of attention with Gaelic material, although Ossian were touching on it around a similar time, as were Nah-Oganaich.

Runrig marched on to unprecedented heights, appearing in front of rock audiences at concert halls around the world where only a partial proportion of the audience were Scots in exile. As their popularity grew the Gaelic content reduced, but they started a whole new ball rolling, chipping away at prejudices, adopting accordions and bagpipes, ever-sharper arrangements, electric instruments, full-blown rock styles, surviving the inevitable personnel changes and the continuous carping of critics accusing them of selling out with every new market conquered. They even made a concept album Recovery, which related the history of the Gael in one collection, provoking immense interest in the Gaelic language after years of it being regarded as moribund and defunct. They lost their main man Donnie Munro to politics during the 1990s but after an extended break made a powerful comeback in 2000.

Capercaillie, too, rooted in the arrangements of Manus Lunny and the gorgeous singing of Karen Mattheson, rose from Argyll pub sessions to flirt with mass commercial appeal, reworking Gaelic and traditional songs from the West Highlands and promoting Gaelic language and culture, primarily as a result of the songs learned by Mattheson from her grandmother. They even got into the chart with one ancient Gaelic song, an ironic development considering the fact that Karen was actively discouraged from learning the language and her grandmother was made to feel ashamed of her Gaelic culture after moving to the Scottish mainland. Others have subsequently come to the fore, like Margaret Bennett, while the culture has remained defiantly intact courtesy of Scottish roots families in Cape Breton, Canada. Mary Jane Lamond is just one who’s made the triumphant return journey back to Scotland with her repertoire of ancient Gaelic songs.

Of course, not everyone applauds. Critics point out that many singers using the language are not native Gaelic speakers and only learn the words phonetically, while further controversy has been caused by the 'sampling' of archive recordings for use in backing tracks. For many people these songs are important and personal, and in the case of some of the religious singing, they felt very strongly that this use was in bad taste.

Nonetheless, the popularity of Gaelic roots bands undeniably paved the way for 'purer' Scots musicians and singers: clarsach player Alison Kinnaird, for instance; singers Savourna Stevenson, Christine Primrose, Flora McNeill, Cathy-Ann MacPhee, Heather Heywood, and Jock Duncan; and the Wrigley sisters from Orkney – who started out as teenagers playing traditional music with technical accomplishment and attitude and are now the core of the band Seelyhoo.

And among the ranks of the roots or fusion bands, each with their own agendas and styles, have passed many – perhaps most – of Scotland’s finest contemporary musicians. Silly Wizard, especially, featured a singer of cutting quality in Andy M. Stewart (and did he need that M.), while Phil and Johnny Cunningham have gone on to display a pioneering zeal in their efforts to use their skills on accordion and fiddle to knit Scottish traditional music with other cultures.

Mouth Music, too, were innovative: a Scots-origin (but recently Canadian) duo of Martin Swan and Talitha MacKenzie, who mixed Gaelic vocals (including the traditional 'mouth music' techniques of sung rhythms) with African percussion and dance sounds. MacKenzie later went solo, radically transforming traditional Scottish songs, from which she clears the dust of folklore with wonderful multitracked vocals and the characteristic Mouth Music African rhythms.

Another development was the fusion of traditional music and jazz by bands such as The Easy Club and the duo of piper Hamish Moore and jazz saxophonist Dick Lee. Moore has since come full circle, now taking his inspiration from a parallel Scottish culture which has developed in Cape Breton. Scottish interest in Cape Breton music has also led to the more or less lost tradition of Scottish step dancing being reintroduced.