Greentrax Recordings

The Glencraig Scottish Dance Band - Scottish Country Dances - Ah’m Askin’ (CD)

CDTRAX355 (released September 2010)

category: ceilidh bands

Lively dance tracks from the ever-popular Glencraig Band, led by Nicol McLaren. A fine six-piece band with lots of 'oomph' and plenty of lift, featuring two accordions, fiddle, piano, bass and drums.

This is the third album in a series of four, focussing this time on Scottish Country Dancing. Each of the different styles of Scottish Dance represented in this series (Ceilidh, Reeling, Scottish Country Dance and Old Time) requires a different nuance from the music to complement the dance. The Glencraig Band are masters of these styles and therefore popular with dance groups.

One of the busiest Scottish Dance Bands on the scene, in recent times the Glencraig Band has been to Tbilisi, Munich, Brisbane and Melbourne. At home, one of their biggest gigs has been playing for a ceilidh at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2009. They were winners of The National Association Of Accordion And Fiddle Clubs' CD Of The Year award in 2007, and were nominated in the Best Scottish Dance Band category (for the second time) at the 2009 Scots Trad Music Awards.

Instructions by June Templeman for all of the dances are given in the booklet.

The driving force behind the band is their leader Nicol McLaren (lead accordion), supported by Gordon Howe (fiddle), Neil Caul (second accordion), Isobelle Hodgson (piano), John Sinton (bass) and David Bell (drums).