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Event
Duncan McCrone Band at EFC/Edinburgh Folk Club
Duncan McCrone is a Glasgow-born singer-songwriter with over 35 years' experience of live performance both solo and with a variety of traditional bands.
His first main gig was with Hot Toddy in the early 1970s which evolved into the acclaimed five-piece electric folk-rock band Dapplegrim, and featured Duncan's friends Billy Ross who went on to co-found and to front Ossian, one of the most influential traditional bands ever to emerge from Scotland and Cy Jack, who has been Duncans co-writer and main musical collaborator to this day.
Duncan had a brief and rather unremarkable career as a pop singer in the early 1980's as Duncan Aran, releasing a single for Pulsar Records a Glasgow-based independent label, and a spell playing bass with a couple of covers bands, before joining the well-established folk outfit The Clydesiders in 1982. That adventure lasted 18 years and involved six albums, several singles and countless radio and TV appearances, the most remarkable of which was an appearance as the musical guests on Terry Wogans TV chat show in 1985, alongside stars such as Sean Connery and Robert Powell.
During this time, Duncan and Cy were developing their songwriting and composition skills, having launched their own production company Ranza Music in 1981, specialising in roots-based music for film and TV. Ranza has grown rapidly over the years, and has a vast catalogue of material commissioned by a variety of broadcasters, TV & film producers and music library publishers. Three notable successes are the best-selling anthem Always Argyll, a huge seller for
Scots artist Valerie Dunbar and a top ten hit in Australia, which has now been covered by over 30 artists, Old Button Box commissioned as a biography of the legendary accordionist Will Starr and Absent Friends which was a big-selling single for Irish artist Dominic Kirwan.
Post-Clydesiders, Duncan initially decided to concentrate on writing, however a small Glasgow-based indie label, Downtown Records, offered to finance a live solo album if he was interested in going back to live work. It was too much to resist so Duncan brought together the Tron Band comprising some of his best mates, including world-renowned fiddler Chris Stout, Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw, acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Stevie Lawrence and, of course, Cy on bass and keyboards to play a concert in Glasgows Tron Theatre in February 2001. His old Dapplegrim band-mate Billy Ross came along to sing on a couple of the tracks too making it particularly special.
Promoting the CD got Duncan and Cy back seriously on the road again, along with Stevie Lawrence on bouzouki, whistles, guitar and percussion, and the trio have gained a reputation as one of the most entertaining acts on the Scottish scene, adding a wealth of stories and humour to an eclectic set of original songs, carefully-chosen covers and traditional songs and instrumentals. Whenever budgets and diaries allow however, the six-piece Tron Band still perform, with Duncan, Cy, Stevie, Chris and Ray now joined by world-class piper and whistle-player Finlay Macdonald whose phenomenal duet with Chris forms a show-stopping feature.
Duncan lists the highlights of his solo career (if you can call it that when surrounded by so many fantastic musicians) as the original Tron concert, a terrifying but amazing duet with colourful Pogues frontman Shane McGowan at a tribute concert for the legendary songwriter Matt McGinn, a half-hour live radio performance on BBC Radio Scotlands Iain Anderson Show during Celtic Connections in 2008, a follow-up studio album All You Need to Know co-produced by former Bay City Roller Stuart Woody Wood and countless concerts and festivals throughout Scotland.
With the release in May 2012 of Colourblind, his most ambitious and lavishly produced album to date, Duncan moved into a new phase in his career as an artist and writer. I think the years have made me much more confident as a performer he said at the time. When you get to this age and stage, you get a bit more relaxed about yourself, and experience gives you confidence to interact more with audiences. My songs are mostly story-based, focusing on my own life, my love of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, and my genuine love of meeting people and seeing new places. I try not to preach or to be overly political, and if there are poignant moments in some of them, I try to leaven this with a good chunk of humour.
All quite natural for someone whose signature song (and the title of his first album) is Just a Glasgow Boy. Its a beautiful love song to the city of his birth, and very successfully sums up Duncan McCrone.
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LocationThe Pleasance Cabaret Bar (View)
60 Pleasance
Edinburgh EH8 9TJ
United Kingdom
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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Contact
Attendees
Maureen A.
Loanhead United Kingdom
Oct 24, 2017 9:42 AM |
Robert A.
Loanhead United Kingdom
Oct 24, 2017 9:42 AM |
Frances A.
Loanhead United Kingdom
Oct 24, 2017 9:42 AM |
Adam A.
Loanhead United Kingdom
Oct 24, 2017 9:42 AM |
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