Roy Williamson is a Scottish songwriter and folk musician from Edinburgh, best known for his work with The Corries. Born in 1936, he performs and records as part of the Scottish folk scene that develops in the 1960s and remains closely associated with one of Scotland’s best-known folk duos.

Career

Williamson meets Ronnie Browne in 1955 at Edinburgh College of Art, beginning a partnership that lasts for 35 years. In 1962, he forms the Corrie Folk Trio with Bill Smith and Ron Cockburn. After Cockburn leaves a few weeks later, and with an Edinburgh Festival engagement already arranged, Williamson suggests bringing in Browne. The group then adds the Irish singer Paddie Bell and performs as the Corrie Folk Trio and Paddie Bell. By 1965, Bell and Smith leave, and Williamson and Browne continue under the name The Corries.

As part of The Corries, Williamson plays multiple instruments and Browne handles vocals. The pair perform at the Jubilee Arms Hotel in Cortachy, Angus, under the new name. Williamson is also a skilled woodworker.

Instruments and invention

In the summer of 1969, Williamson invents the combolins, a pair of combined instruments built to reduce the amount of equipment carried on tour. One combines a mandolin and a guitar with four bass strings operated by slides; the other combines a guitar with the 12-string Spanish bandurria. Williamson has played the bandurria since the early Corrie Folk Trio period.

The instruments are made from antique hardwood furniture and premium Tyrolean spruce, and Williamson decorates them with silver and mother-of-pearl. Ronnie Browne plays the guitar-mandolin instrument with bass strings, while Williamson plays the other combolin, which also has 13 sympathetic strings designed to resonate like a sitar. Browne’s album Strings and Things is designed to showcase the new instruments and includes detailed notes about them on the sleeve.

Songwriting

Williamson writes Flower of Scotland, which becomes one of the two unofficial Scottish national anthems. He is also possibly the first Scottish folk performer to use the bouzouki, doing so in the song’s first live performance at Ruthven Barracks for a BBC television programme in 1968.

Later years and death

From 1987, Williamson’s health declines, and he spends his final years living in Forres, near where he spends his school years. He dies there in 1990 from a brain tumour.