Alan Reid

Event Details

Event type: All Ages / Licensed

ALAN REID was born in Glasgow and has taken Scottish folk music all over the world since 1975. He joined Scotland’s Battlefield Band in 1969 and subsequently recorded almost 30 albums with this influential, innovative and enduring of Celtic band.

He began composing songs and tunes in the 1980s and from 1990 was the band’s principal songwriter. His songs are noted for their storytelling element whilst being strongly rooted in Scots folk tradition. His first songbook Martyrs, Rogues and Worthies was published in 2001 and in 2009 he was nominated in the ‘Composer of the year’ category in the Scots Traditional Music Awards. In 2010 he left Battlefield Band to concentrate on his duo with singer/guitarist Rob van Sante, recording a further five albums and continuing to tour at home and abroad. In 2016 Alan was inducted, along with his former Battlefield Band colleagues, into the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame, a recognition of the band’s contribution to Scots folk music. From achingly beautiful ballads (like The Riccarton Tollman’s Daughter and The Pleasure will be Mine) to an entire musical cycle centered on the life and times of Scots native John Paul Jones, Alan has long fostered a reputation for songs in English and Scots that are strong in melody and historical content.

He also contributed in Linn Records’ mammoth 12 CD recording of the entire Robert Burns song catalogue. Alan's writing was featured in the National Theatre of Scotland’s 2014 production of the musical The Glasgow Girls while his singing and speaking talents were utilized in The Life and Times of Scrooge, the solo album of Finnish rock star Tuomas Holopainen of the metal band Nightwish. That same year Alan and Rob van Sante's fourth CD Rough Diamonds was released and was followed by The Dear Green Place in 2017. The duo continued to perform in Europe, North America and Australia up till 2019 when they played a last tour together of the U.S. West coast. 

In recent years Alan has taught Scots Song at the prestigious annual “Swannanoa Gathering” in North Carolina, USA. He was also a guest artist in the Linn Records mammoth 12 CD recording of the songs of Robert Burns, Scotland’s beloved National Poet, whose poems, songs and music have endured over the centuries.

​As well as the recordings with Battlefield Band and with Rob Van Sante, Alan has released two solo albums, The Sunlit Eye and Recollection. 

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