From their homeland roots of Argyll in the highlands of Scotland, Capercaillie have been credited with being the major force in bringing traditional Celtic music to the world stage and inspiring the great resurgence so evident today.

Since the band's first innovative recordings of 1984, they have toured in 30 countries across the world (including South America, the Middle East and North Africa), released 10 award-winning albums (notching up over a million sales world-wide), performed and appeared in the United Artists movie 'Rob Roy' starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange, and had the first Gaelic top 40 single, 'Coisich a Ruin'.

Capercaillie includes some of the finest musicians on the scene: Manus Lunny on bouzouki, Charlie McKerron on fiddle and Donald Shaw on keyboards and accordion. While touring the band have Ewen Vernal on bass (ex-Deacon Blue), and the ubiquitous Michael McGoldrick, former BBC Young Musician of the Year, on flute and pipes, David Robertson on percussion and the glorious drumming of Che Beresford.

The line-up is completed by the exquisite voice of Karen Matheson. She has been called 'the finest Gaelic singer alive today' and most of the material recorded by the band she learned as a child from her grandmother on the Hebridean island of Barra.

The title of their most recent album - ‘Roses and Tears’ features many newly discovered traditional songs sourced from the Gaelic song archive at the School of Scottish Studies,along with self-penned material and a beautiful rendition of John Martyn’s anti-war song “Don’t You Go”.

This album re-affirms Capercaillie’s unfailing enthusiasm for the music they inherited whilst growing up on the Atlantic fringes of Scotland and Ireland. Their innovative approach to traditional sources and influences and the excitement they create through live performance explains the widespread esteem in which they are held in the current explosive folk scene.

PRESS

“Their seductively contemporary sound and production, their mastery of traditional instruments (along with a willingness to look beyond them) and the voice of Karen Matheson have helped Capercaillie re-model the Celtic landscape….nobody does it better....” Q