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Nick Keir





"skillfully wrought songcraft. Appealing melodies,intelligent lyrics and flavoursome delivery. (Sunday Herald)
... a classy Scottish singer/songwriter. Hugely enjoyable (BBC Brand New Opry)


nick
Nick Keir was born in Edinburgh and studied at Stirling University , where he gained a degree in literature.

In 1973 he and Tony Ireland founded the now legendary Folk/Rock band Finn mac Cuill, whose vinyl LPs now change hands on Ebay at enormous prices.

In the late Seventies he had a spell with 7:84 Theatre (Scotland) writing and performing the bulk of the songs for the shows "Joe's Drum" and "Swings and Roundabouts"

In 1982 he was invited to join The McCalmans, Scotland's top folk music trio, and has recorded some 15 CDs and continues to tour all over the world with them. In 2004 , together with the group, Nick was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame on the occasion of being awarded the Lifetime Achievement Prize at the Scottish Folk Awards, and in 2005 the group received the Danish Folk Music Prize at the Skagen Festival

Away from the McCalmans Nick is in great demand as a soloist. In 2004 he was sought out by Danish Composer Caspar Reiff to join The Tolkien Ensemble performing to 26,000 people over 2 concerts and singing the role of Bilbo Baggins on the 4CD Box set of the Ensemble's repertoire with Christopher Lee as narrator.
In the same year, after taking a course at the New York Film Academy he presented his solo show "The Fires of Edinburgh" in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and will present it again this August.

His solo CDs Rumours of Snow (2001) and All Over This Town (2004) received glowing reviews and his latest Fishing up The Moon has just been released and has already been chosen as CD of the Week by Celtic Music Radio.
Nick plays guitar, mandolin, whistles and moothie, and his songs are a staple part of The McCalmans repertoire and have been widely covered by other singers. Nick lives in Edinburgh's Southside.