John Carnie has just released a debut album of Scottish flatpicking traditional tunes played on the guitar and released in April 2008.

John Carnie at Newhaven, Edinburgh January 2008

It will be the first album of its type to feature entirely Scottish material on  flatpicking acoustic guitar and it covers the entire spectrum of Scottish fiddle and traditional tunes and adds a jazzy and bluesy twist to many of the compositions. Recorded at Castlesound studios near Edinburgh the album celebrates the traditional roots of Scottish music and the acoustic guitar. The album also features the jazzy double bass playing of Brian Shiels and some bluesy twists of long time cohorts, Dave Moir & Spider Mackenzie, on a number of tracks on guitar and blues harp. 

He says of the album: "In Scottish (and Irish) traditional music circles, the guitar is usually found as rhythm instrument and there is no long history of it in the Celtic tradition as there is with the fiddle or the pipes. There are even some purists who say the guitar has no place in the music! On the contrary, the guitar can be a superb instrument to play tunes on. There is a lot that can be done with the guitar either solo or if you treat it like an orchestra - creating a whole palette of sounds".

John Carnie has long been involved in the music scene in Scotland - both traditional and blues. Leaving Edinburgh in 1985 to move to Aberdeen to take up a job, he quickly also found himself playing in two critically acclaimed groups - Off the Tracks and Desperate Danz Band.  Along with Janice Clark and Spider Mackenzie he founded the acoustic blues trio Off the Tracks and they soon found themselves in demand at folk clubs and festivals throughout the country. The band was also versatile enough to be able to throw into its set North- east bothy ballads and Donegal slip jigs. 

Around the same time John joined Desperate Danz Band as lead guitarist and recorded their debut album  in 1990. The outfit proved to be a popular electric ceilidh rock band who played at festivals and concerts throughout the country and recorded a popular album. 

These bands cemented John’s reputation as one of the top guitarists playing in the traditional & folk scene in Scotland and allowed him to draw on his love of playing traditional tunes on the guitar. He cites major influences as being Dick Gaughan, Richard Thompson and Rory Gallagher as well as the more traditional and jazzier flatpicking guitarists from the States.

More recently he was involved in teaching and was a guitar tutor at the Scottish Culture and Tradition classes teaching flatpicking guitar. He also formed the Mountain Blues Ramblers an acoustic trio featuring Dave Moir on guitar and Spider Mackenzie on harmonica.  This group played at venues throughout Scotland culminating in 5 nights at 2005’s ‘Cork Rocks for Rory ‘Festival in Ireland.

The new CD features an eclectic mixture of old and new traditional tunes from Shetland, the West Coast, the Borders and the North-east.  John Carnie adds: "I've absorbed a lot of influences over the years and even taken up the fiddle to give a deeper understanding of fiddle tunes.  Many great guitarists have been flatpicking jigs and reels for years and  I wanted this one to have an entirely Scottish feel to it.  The tunes come from the treasure trove of reels, pipe tunes and harp tunes that form the backbone of the Scottish musical heritage".