John Bald
Newbie
A good long time ago, I attended two of Douglas' summer schools, one in Edinburgh, one in Stirling. I've been trying to find more about Douglas, who was of course John Ellis' lead accordionist. Does anyone have any updates please?
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Douglas Muir
- Thread starter John Bald
- Start date
robinwaitt
Newbie
Hi. Send a request to the box&fiddle magazine web site or Pia Walker. do a search. The Highland Country Band was one of the best of it's time.
Walker
🪗
A long time ago, indeed...
The University of Stirling has hosted 'The Heritage of Scotland International Summer Schools' since 1978. The traditional music of the fiddle, pipes, clarsach, and accordion was studied, and some tutors even had books published by the University. One such book, published in 1985 by the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Stirling, is called 'Scottish Accordion' by Douglas Muir. It is described as 'a collection of traditional and modern Scottish jigs, reels, strathspeys, marches, hornpipes, and waltzes arranged for accordion'. It is one of the best books on Scottish dance music from an accordion perspective that I have seen. It is truly excellent.
Here's also a nice little piece of writing about the John Ellis Highland Country Band for those interested:
projects.handsupfortrad.scot
The University of Stirling has hosted 'The Heritage of Scotland International Summer Schools' since 1978. The traditional music of the fiddle, pipes, clarsach, and accordion was studied, and some tutors even had books published by the University. One such book, published in 1985 by the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Stirling, is called 'Scottish Accordion' by Douglas Muir. It is described as 'a collection of traditional and modern Scottish jigs, reels, strathspeys, marches, hornpipes, and waltzes arranged for accordion'. It is one of the best books on Scottish dance music from an accordion perspective that I have seen. It is truly excellent.
Here's also a nice little piece of writing about the John Ellis Highland Country Band for those interested:
John Ellis
From their first BBC broadcast in 1957, to their last in 2008, John Ellis and his Highland Country Band made their own small piece of history as the longest serving broadcasting Scottish Dance Band…
projects.handsupfortrad.scot
John Bald
Newbie
Thank you. I did indeed enjoy the CDs with John Ellis, which I still have, though "Fire in the Kilt" was perhaps open to misinterpretation. John sadly died some years ago, but Douglas was the same age as me, or perhaps a touch younger, and I wondered what he did later and how he was.
Dingo40
Been here for ages!
John Bald
Newbie
Indeed, wonderfully light touch, lilt and swing.
McSqueeze
Member
I grew up in Dundee and attended many dances in the region. Whilst there were many good bands, the best was John Ellis with Douglas Muir on lead accordion and Irene Dear on second accordion, both playing Ranco accordions. I have a Ranco of that vintage and it's the most Scottish sounding accordion of my rather large collection.
Following on from his career with The John Ellis Band, Douglas broadcast on radio Scotland with a group of musicians under the title “ The Craigieford Cooperative”. Their last broadcast was about 10 yrs ago and if I recall correctly the Ranco was used for pipe type stuff and a Vignoni for reels/hornpipes. The Ellis sound was terrific and perhaps their iconic track is Captain Cameron’s March ( William Marshall) followed by Scotlandwell(Douglas Muir).
boxplayer4000
Prolific poster
A band sound which I would describe as being like a breath of clean country air. I was lucky enough to see the band 'live' on only one occasion at the Edinburgh University Student's Union.
boxplayer4000
Prolific poster
I missed that broadcast of the 'Craigieford Cooperative' which was on BBC Scotland, Take the Floor programme of 14/4/12.
Here's a link, which I haven't tested yet:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g5zc4
Here's a link, which I haven't tested yet:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g5zc4
Unfortunately not currently available
OuijaBoard
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A long time ago, indeed...
The University of Stirling has hosted 'The Heritage of Scotland International Summer Schools' since 1978. The traditional music of the fiddle, pipes, clarsach, and accordion was studied, and some tutors even had books published by the University. One such book, published in 1985 by the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Stirling, is called 'Scottish Accordion' by Douglas Muir. It is described as 'a collection of traditional and modern Scottish jigs, reels, strathspeys, marches, hornpipes, and waltzes arranged for accordion'. It is one of the best books on Scottish dance music from an accordion perspective that I have seen. It is truly excellent.
Here's also a nice little piece of writing about the John Ellis Highland Country Band for those interested:
John Ellis
From their first BBC broadcast in 1957, to their last in 2008, John Ellis and his Highland Country Band made their own small piece of history as the longest serving broadcasting Scottish Dance Band…
I have been searching for the Douglas Muir book since making a note of your last recommendation here a couple of years ago, with no luck. Perhaps a re-print will materialize . . .
