About Me
Duncan's involvement in music goes back over thirty years. Starting out as a guitarist and singer in Hot Toddy, with Billy Ross and Cy Jack, this evolved into the five-piece folk-rock outfit Dapplegrim which played the folk and festival circuit for five years, finally amicably calling it a day in 1976.The next few years saw Duncan working as freelance guitarist and bass player, mainly in cover bands, and concentrating on setting up Ranza Music with Cy - songwriting seemed set to take over from live work.In 1980, however, Duncan signed to new Glasgow-based indie label Pulsar, releasing a single of a new ballad 'Teach Me How To Dance', written by Glasgow songwriter and author Frank Rodgers and produced by Cy Jack. It was what was called a 'turntable hit' in these days, with regular plays on Terry Wogan's Radio 2 programme, but sales were pretty grim, and the follow-up, a re-working of 'Rhythm of the Rain' was recorded, but never relaesed.Songwriting continued apace, though, and in 1982 a song co-written by Duncan and a friend of his, Jimmy Jamieson from Tighnabruaigh in Argyllshire, became a surprise Scottish hit for an established artist, Valerie Dunbar, the single selling tens of thousands of copies. The song was called 'Always Argyll', and though far from the type of material Duncan and Cy usually write, it became the launch pad for their writing, having been covered by over thirty-five artists now.The first cover of the song, though, was by the hugely popular Scottish traditional folk band The Clydesiders who, at the time just happened to be looking for a guitarist. THis resulted in Duncan joining the band for 18 years.....In April 2000, after seven albums, many TV & Radio shows and countless tours, concerts and festivals, the Clydesiders decided to call it a day, although they remain good friends and have played a couple of one-off gigs since. Ranza Music had grown over the years into a very substantial business, producing music for film and TV as well as composing songs on commission for a variety of artists, and Duncan & Cy decided to concentrate on building this rather than playing live. They also, together with old Dapplegrim band-mate Colin Jack, bought Jammy Music, the publishing company which owns 'Always Argyll', so busy times seemed to be ahead.In late 2000, though, fate intervened again. Glasgow label Downtown Records, owned by Iain Hunter (who had been a great fan of the Clydesiders) approached Duncan to record a live CD album. This would feature a mix of Duncan & Cy's songs and some traditional material, it would be recorded live in Glasgow's Tron Theatre, and Downtown would pick up all the costs if Duncan could put a band together.The concert took place at the Tron in February 2001 with Duncan fronting a scratch band of amazing musicians - the 'Tron Band' as it was to become.As always, stalwarts of the band were Duncan and Cy, but the line up was a 'Who's Who' of the folk scene. Former Dapplegrim colleague Billy Ross on guitar and vocals, Jim Yule on lead guitar, Fiddler's Bid frontman (and ex-Clydesider!) Chris Stout on fiddle, Stevie Lawrence (ex Iron Horse) on bouzouki, cittern and whistle and Duncan's great pal Ray Laidlaw from Lindisfarne on drums. The album 'Just a Glasgow Boy' was released in November that year, and sold quite well.Fast-forward to 2005, and Duncan signed to Edinburgh-based independent The Music Kitchen, who recorded his first studio album 'All You Need to Know', with production by the hugely talented Stuart 'Woody' Wood. Again, the Tron Band stalwarts put heart and soul into it, and were joined this time by Catriona McKay on clarsach and Fraser Speirs on harmonica - both also good friends of Duncan. Indeed, Catriona and Chris Stout's arrangement of the traditional Jacobite version of 'Loch Lomond' is one of the real stand-out tracks on the album.Duncan's band plays live nowadays as a trio usually, with Cy Jack and Stevie Lawrence, although he has been able on occasion to put together the full Tron Band, with Chris on fiddle and Ray on drums.As far as writing is concerned, Duncan and Cy keep working on various projects for production music libraries, and live in hope of the occasional commission for TV. New songs, for both the live set and for other artists, are always 'in production' , so to speak, and one of their latest songs 'Trick of the Light' has been recorded by the Macdonald Brothers on their latest album 'The World Outside'As he always says, though. playing live is the best bit - 'an itch you have to keep scratching'!!
