BÙRACH
Formed in Edinburgh in 1994, Bùrach are one of Scotland’s most popular and enduring folk-rock groups, having created their own style of ‘Heavy Folk’ music, performing mostly original songs and a mixture of traditional and contemporary tear-em-up tune sets.
Since the release of the band’s first album The Weird Set (1994), after spectacularly winning the Scottish Folk Band Competition in 1995, Bùrach have recorded three further albums: Born Tired (1997), Deeper (2000) and Unstoppable (2006), and toured a phenomenal number of countries. They have made more than ten tours of France, Germany, Holland, Italy, the Middle East, Russian and Scandinavia, as well as performances in Belgium, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Ireland, ex-Soviet Georgia, Hong Kong, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Wales.
Led by accordion ace Sandy Brechin and bass maestro Chris Agnew on vocals, the new band line-up includes banjo, pipes and whistles as well as the usual driving fiddle, powerhouse drumming and virtuoso guitar.
REVIEWS
“Instrumentally, the band packs quite a powerful punch…Further more in Sandy Brechin, the Jimi Hendrix of the box, they have a leader with star quality. They clearly have the capacity to follow Wolfstone and Capercaillie into concert halls” – Inverness Courier
“Their unusual and imaginative fusion of electric Scottish ceilidh, pop and modern dance rhythms is extremely effective-played with skill and brio, it’s good to listen to and great bopping music to boot. Deeper is that “difficult” third album, and probably their best yet.” – Folk Roots
“Bùrach are among the groups in the forefront of an extraordinary revival in the folk music of the British Isles, fuelled by a combination of deep knowledge and appreciation of tradition and a youthful rock and roll sensibility.That accordion virtuoso and frontman Sandy Brechin also plays with The Sensational Jim Shandrix Experience gives a good indication of the musical territory the group occupies.”
“The empathy between the accordion and fiddle was complete. Brechin and Borland played with and off each other with a tightness that can only be achieved by years of live performance experience. The music was faithful to tradition but extended it rather than focusing on the slavish recreation of old arrangements as they might once have been played. The message is that this is modern music – it just happens to have been around for a while.” – La Cremeria Theatre