Iain Morrison

Iain Morrison

Iain Morrison is a musician from Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and he lives near Glasgow. He works across folk and indie, and his music draws on the landscape and traditions of the Western Isles.

Career

He is the writer and singer with the Scottish indie band Crash My Model Car, which signs to V2 and breaks up in 2009. Morrison also performs and records under his own name, releasing four albums on his own label: Empty Beer Bottles and Peatfire Smoke (2004), Skimming Stones…Sinking Boats (2008), Trust the Sea to Guide Me (2010) and Haunted Bird (2011), the last of these with poet and storyteller Daibhidh Martin.

Music and performance

Morrison plays a range of instruments, including several kinds of pipes. He learns classical Highland pipe music, or piobaireachd, at a young age from his father through canntaireachd. He also appears on the BBC series Transatlantic Sessions, singing “Broken Off Car Door”, “A Lewis Summer” and “Fire in my Hands” alongside musicians including Béla Fleck, Danny Thompson and Jerry Douglas.

In 2010, Celtic Connections commissions him to write songs based on those ancient melodies. The resulting work receives a five-star review from The Scotsman, and the songs remain unrecorded.

Recognition

Morrison wins Composer of the Year at the Scots Trad Awards in 2010. His work is also described in reviews as drawing on the bleak beauty of the Highlands and Islands, with a style that combines rural folk, indie and a strong sense of place.

Related work

He is associated with the title Skimming Stones…Sinking Boats, which is both one of his solo albums and the phrase used in connection with his output.