Brian McNeill

Brian McNeill (born 6 April 1950, Falkirk, Scotland) is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and musical director. He was a founding member of Battlefield Band which combined traditional Celtic melodies and new material.

McNeill learnt music on the violin before taking up electric guitar. McNeill now sings and plays a range of instruments including guitar, fiddle, viola, mandolin, bouzouki, cittern, concertina, and hurdy-gurdy. He played fiddle with Battlefield Band from its formation in 1969 until 1990. In 1987, he won the UK National Songsearch competition for amateur and professional performers, having been runner-up in 1986.

From 1996 until January 2008, McNeill was head of the traditional music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.

As a novelist he has published three books, The Busker (1989), To Answer the Peacock (1999), and In the Grass. He has also produced an acclaimed audio-visual show about Scottish emigration to America, The Back o' the North Wind.

Apart from his visible contributions, McNeill is influential in Scotland and abroad as a producer.He has many production credits in the UK and North America including "Emigrant and Exile" for Eric Bogle with John Munro.

McNeill's songs often feature lyrics based on Scottish historical themes, and he continually has celebrated the culture of his fellow Scots, including those who have emigrated to North America.His album The Back o' the North Wind features songs about industrialist Andrew Carnegie and the man who initiated the conservation movement in the United States, John Muir.

Brian McNeill won the inaugural Fatea Lifetime Achievement award in 2007 and was the producer of the 2017 instrumental album of the year, "Matt Tighe" the eponymous debut album of the young English fiddler that Brian had inspired at one of his many Cambridge Folk Festival appearances.

• The Busker, Macdonald, 1989, ISBN 0-356-17943-5
• To Answer The Peacock, Black Ace Books, 1999, ISBN 1-872988-32-6
• In the Grass, Author House, 2012, ISBN 9781467884594

With Battlefield Band

• 1976Farewell to Nova Scotia
• 1977Battlefield Band
• 1978Wae's me for Prince Charlie
• 1978At the Front
• 1979Stand Easy
• 1980Home Is Where the Van Is
• 1982The Story So Far 1977-1980
• 1982There's a Buzz
• 1984Anthem for the Common Man
• 1986Music in Trust Vol 1
• 1986On the Rise
• 1987After Hours: Forward to Scotland's Past
• 1987Celtic Hotel
• 1988Music in Trust Vol 2
• 1989Home Ground - Live From Scotland
• 1998Live Celtic Folk Music

Solo albums

• 1978 Monksgate
• 1985 Unstrung Hero
• 1985 The Busker and the Devil's Only daughter
• 1991 The Back O' The North Wind (Greentrax Recordings)
• 1994 Horses for Courses
• 1995 No Gods (Greentrax Recordings)
• 1995 Stage By Stage
• 1999 To Answer the Peacock (Greentrax Recordings)
• 2000 Live and Kicking
• 2009 The Baltic tae Byzantium (Greentrax Recordings)
• 2010 The Crew o' the Copenhagen
• 2015 The Falkirk Music Pot (Greentrax Recordings)