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Winner of The Scots Trad Music Award for ‘Composer of the Year 2010’, Iain Morrison is one of Scotland’s most inventive and exciting new contemporary musicians. A singer-songwriter and acclaimed piper from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Morrison’s music has been likened, at one extreme, to artists such as U2 or REM, set against the poignancy and longing that is the essence of Gaelic song. With a golden ear for strong melody and an engaging, expressive singing voice, he produces an enigmatic and truly original mix of creative elements capturing sonorous beauty with poetic and often witty observation. His performance at this year’s Glasgow Celtic Connections festival gained a 5 Star review for his 'New Voices' composition.
Stornoway-born, Morrison was for a time the frontman and guitarist of Glasgow indie band Crash My Model Car but with an alter ego as a piper. Taught by his musically-renowned Pipe-Major father at the age of eleven using canntaireachd (the ancient Gaelic verbal notation of music), there was an unspoken expectation that Morrison would follow into the family tradition. For a while he did, but in his late teens he picked up a guitar and his music took off in a wholly different and unique direction. In his hands, ancient music such as ‘Mackintosh’s Lament’ (the main theme of which was famously taken by Dvorak for his New World Symphony) becomes a raw and powerful music tour de force that was likened to the Velvet Underground when it was performed by his band at the festival.
Morrison has appeared once before at East Grinstead when, in January 2010, he provided solo support to a show by US artist Anais Mitchell - and wowed the audience with his singing, song-writing and piping skills. After joining her onstage, the two became musical collaborators and she made a guest appearance on his most recent album, Haunted Bird. He also played the part of Orpheus in Mitchell’s acclaimed folk opera, Hadestown, a production performed in Glasgow and London that included stellar folk names such as Martin Carthy, Thea Gilmore and Jim Moray. This year has seen him appear at major venues and on TV and radio, including a recent live session on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends. In this special one-off show, Morrison appears with his full band and is joined by the enigmatic singer songwriter, Wallis Bird. She was also in the cast of the Hadestown productions and has recently supported The Feeling on tour. Expect an evening of exhilarating, contemporary roots music when anything can happen. "Morrison concocted a spellbinding admixture of rock, folk and even classical stylings, by turns heart-rending and uplifting, at once timeless and modern...these were songs you instantly wanted to hear all over again” footstompin.com
"He's
someone who compresses music styles, life experience and emotion into a
uniquely crafted style both distinctive and impossible to classify."
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