Brian McNeill


Brian McNeill is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and musical director. He was a founding member of Battlefield Band which combined traditional Celtic melodies and new material.

Biography

McNeill learnt music on the violin before taking up other instruments including guitar, fiddle, viola, mandolin, bouzouki, cittern, concertina, and hurdy-gurdy, as well as singing. He played fiddle with Battlefield Band from its formation in 1969 until 1990. In 1987, he won the UK National Songsearch competition for amateur and professional performers, having been runner-up in 1986.
From 1996 until January 2008, McNeill was head of the traditional music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.
As a novelist he has published three books, The Busker, To Answer the Peacock, and In the Grass. He has also produced an acclaimed audio-visual show about Scottish emigration to America, The Back o' the North Wind.
Apart from his visible contributions, McNeill is influential in Scotland and abroad as a producer. He has many production credits in the UK and North America including "Emigrant and Exile" for Eric Bogle with John Munro.
McNeill's songs often feature lyrics based on Scottish historical themes, and he continually has celebrated the culture of his fellow Scots, including those who have emigrated to North America. His album The Back o' the North Wind features songs about industrialist Andrew Carnegie and the man who initiated the conservation movement in the United States, John Muir.
Brian McNeill won the inaugural Fatea Lifetime Achievement award in 2007 and was the producer of 2017's instrumental album of the year, "Matt Tighe", the eponymous debut album of the young English fiddler that Brian had inspired at one of his many Cambridge Folk Festival appearances.

Books

  • The Busker, Macdonald, 1989,
  • To Answer The Peacock, Black Ace Books, 1999,
  • In the Grass, Author House, 2012,

    Discography

With Battlefield Band

  • 1976 Farewell to Nova Scotia debut studio album
  • 1977 Battlefield Band studio album #02
  • 1978 Wae's me for Prince Charlie studio album #03
  • 1978 At the Front studio album #04
  • 1979 Stand Easy studio album #05
  • 1980 Home Is Where the Van Is studio album #06
  • 1982 The Story So Far 1977-1980 compilation album #1 of the 3 first studios albums released on Topic label
  • 1982 There's a Buzz studio album #07
  • 1984 Anthem for the Common Man studio album #08
  • 1986 Music in Trust Vol 1 Soundtrack album #01
  • 1986 On the Rise studio album #09
  • 1987 After Hours: Forward to Scotland's Past compilation album #2 of the five last previous albums
  • 1987 Celtic Hotel studio album #10
  • 1988 Music in Trust Vol 2 Soundtrack album #02
  • 1989 Home Ground – Live From Scotland live album #1
  • 1998 ''Live Celtic Folk Music''

    Solo albums

  • 1978 Monksgate
  • 1985 Unstrung Hero
  • 1985 The Busker and the Devil's Only daughter
  • 1991 The Back O' The North Wind
  • 1994 Horses for Courses
  • 1995 No Gods
  • 1995 Stage By Stage
  • 1999 To Answer the Peacock
  • 2000 Live and Kicking
  • 2009 The Baltic tae Byzantium
  • 2010 The Crew o' the Copenhagen
  • 2015 ''The Falkirk Music Pot''