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JIM REID

ARTIST INFO

Jim Reid - a man who many will consider as one of Scotland's finest folksingers - passed away on Monday 6th July 2009 after a long illness. His contribution to Scotland's singing tradition has been immense and, in 2005, he was voted Scots Singer of the Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards. At the first Blairgowrie Festival (in 1965) he met the traveller family, the Stewarts of Blair and became a lasting friend. He was one of the founders of the Traditional Music and Song Association's Keith Festival (in 1976) and was later given honorary membership of the TMSA. His love of the poetry of Tayside and Angus and, in particular, his inspired setting to music of poems by Violet Jacob and Helen Cruickshank have given us a lasting legacy. His setting of Violet Jacob's Wild Geese (or Norland Wind) has become a classic of the folk song repertoire.

The folk revival in Scotland sprang to life in the early 1960s and, when the first Dundee folk club was formed, Jim joined local group the Shifters, the name taken from the well-loved Jute Mill Song by Dundee poet Mary Brooksbank. He later joined the Taysiders, adding to his repertoire of Scots folksong and accompanying himself on guitar and concertina, along with traditional tunes on mouth organ and pipes. After working for G&P Barrie at their Dundee lemonade factory, Jim became production manager with Robb's of Arbroath. Robb Brothers' factory was near the now-famous Foundry Bar, the haunt of local musicians, where Jim soon became an accepted part of regular musical gatherings in the back room. It was at Jim's suggestion that some of the musicians from the regular sessions at Arbroath's Foundry Bar got together, entered and won the 1971 Ceilidh Band competition at the Kinross Festival - and so was born the hugely influential and highly enjoyable Foundry Bar Band who played at festivals, ceilidhs and dances for nearly another 30 years.

After a very successful debut album with the Foundry Bar Band, Jim went on to record his iconic solo album I Saw The Wild Geese Flee, firmly establishing him as one of the finest voices in the Scottish folk tradition. Jim leaves a considerable legacy of songs and music recorded with Springthyme, on his own Greylag label and with Greentrax. In 2004, he produced a book of his songs, tunes and anecdotes, The Better o a Sang, and most recently contributed to Linn Records' Complete Songs of Robert Burn

www.springthyme.co.uk/1015/

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