Greentrax Recordings | |
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Founded | 1986 |
Founder | Ian Green |
Genre | Scottish traditional music |
Location | Cockenzie, Scotland |
Official website | www |
Greentrax Recordings are a Scottish record label that specialises in Scottish traditional music.
The label was founded in 1986 by former police inspector Ian Green, who played the bagpipes and was responsible for arranging folk music at the police social club. [1] He was also involved with the magazine Sandy Bell’s Broadsheet. [2] Prior to his retirement, Green had been selling an increasing number of records at the Edinburgh Folk Club, at festivals, and via his Discount Folk Records mail order service, and continued this on retiring. He invested some of his pension into setting up the label, and the name came from a competition run by BBC Radio Scotland. [1]
On 11th of March 2024. Greentrax announced that the founder, Ian Green. Had passed away at the age of 90.
The Greentrax catalogue include releases by Gordon Duncan, RURA, Barbara Dickson, The McCalmans, Paul McKenna Band, Jean Redpath, Catherine-Ann MacPhee, Adam McNaughton, Archie Fisher, Aly Bain, Brian McNeill, Judy Small, Shooglenifty, Tony McManus, Fiddlers' Bid, Chris Stout, Willie Hunter & Violet Tulloch, Bodega, Peerie Willie Johnson, Shoormal, Ceilidh Minogue, Dick Gaughan, The Whistlebinkies, The Poozies and the Peatbog Faeries. [3]
Blind Willie McTell was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues. Unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voices of Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. McTell performed in various musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music and hokum.
Tony McManus is a guitarist from Paisley, Scotland, who plays finger-style acoustic guitar arrangements of tunes from Celtic music, classical music, and other genres. He emigrated from Scotland to Canada in 2003.
Battlefield Band is a Scottish traditional music group. Founded in Glasgow in 1969, they have released over 30 albums and undergone many changes of lineup. As of 2010, none of the original founders remain in the band.
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The Peatbog Faeries are a largely instrumental Celtic fusion band. Formed in 1991, they are based in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
The McCalmans were a Scottish folk trio. Formed on 6 October 1964, they recorded and toured without interruption until they disbanded in December 2010. Their performance was based on three part harmony, humour and a deep love and respect for the folk tradition in Scotland. They performed all over Europe, and in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Kenya, Cyprus, Belize and the Falkland Islands. They had six television series and BBC Network Radio series and appearances.
Nick Keir was a Scottish musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, who is best known for his work with The McCalmans. More recently Keir emerged as a singer-songwriter, producing three solo albums and performing as a soloist with The Tolkien Ensemble. Keir regularly played in both Scotland and Denmark at folk festivals and on tours, both with The McCalmans and also at solo gigs.
Bernard Joseph "Benny" Gallagher is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, most famous as half of the popular duo Gallagher and Lyle.
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Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley are an international folk music duo playing fiddle (Jennifer) and guitar/piano (Hazel). They are twin sisters, born 16 August 1974, who grew up in Orkney, Scotland. They started to play when given instruments on their 8th birthday and soon joined the Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society in Kirkwall. In their early teens they were playing, often with their older sister Emma on accordion, at local concerts and ceilidhs around Orkney. There they were spotted by Orkney's only recording studio who launched them into Dancing Fingers, their first album, recorded between the ages of 13 and 16 years and released in 1991 when they were 16 years old.
Malinky is a Scottish folk band specialising in Scots song, formed in autumn 1998.
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Faerie Stories is the second album by Scottish Celtic fusion group Peatbog Faeries, released in 2001 on Greentrax Recordings. The album was reissued in 2008 as a digipack. The album is large departure from the sound of their début album Mellowosity (1996), and sees the band explore a largely electronic sound mixed with their traditional Celtic fusion sound. Influences of electronic genres such as electronica, house, dubtronica and trip hop, in addition to even dub music and African music can be heard on the album fused with traditional Scottish Celtic music.
The Poozies are a British all-female traditional folk band formed in 1990. They were at the forefront of a wave that revolutionised traditional Scottish and Gaelic music in the 1990s. Throughout the years they have toured worldwide, attracting recognition and appreciation for their eclectic choice of material, unusual and exciting arrangements, and notable vocal harmonies.
The Paul McKenna Band are a five piece folk musical group from Glasgow, Scotland.
Mairi Campbell is a Scottish folk singer and musician. Campbell's songs and music have a rooted and powerful quality that range from the everyday to the universal, both in sound and subject matter.
The Wakes are a folk rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The band's sound is a mixture of Celtic traditional music fused with punk rock and funk. The band's lyrics embrace their culture, heritage and surroundings. They cover all manner of subjects from anti-fascist politics, immigration and unemployment to uprising and rebellion in Scotland, Ireland and beyond. Musical influences include The Pogues, Dick Gaughan, The Clash, Dropkick Murphys and Bob Dylan.
Eileen McGann is an Irish-Canadian folk singer, songwriter and traditional Celtic musician. Her album, Beyond The Storm, was Juno Award-nominated in 2002. She has released seven solo CDs and has established an almost 30-year career touring across North America and Great Britain.
Sandy Bell's is a bar in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located on Forrest Road, in the Old Town area of the city. It is known locally and internationally for its live traditional music sessions.