New Zealand born musician Jamie McClennan has many strings to his bow – performer, composer, producer, graphic designer and is a bit of a coffee fanatic. (flat whites apparently)
He has over ten years experience as a touring musician, primarily with award winning Scottish singer Emily Smith.
2009 sees the release of his long awaited first solo recording ‘In Transit’, a collection of tunes Jamie has written over the years travelling and touring around the world. Jamie became well known on the Glasgow music scene playing sessions and ceilidhs and as a founder member of ‘Quarter Mile’ with whom he won a Danny Award at Celtic Connections festival in 2002. Also in 2002 he met
Emily Smith.
Emily had recently won the ‘BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award’ and was putting a band together. Jamie joined Emily’s band initially on fiddle and whistle but through the years has become her lead guitarist and an integral part of Emily’s sound. With Emily he has toured worldwide, performed on all three of her albums as well as co-producing her latest ‘Too Long Away’. Performing on stage with the like of The Waifs, Beth Neilson Chapman, Phil Cunningham, Brian Finnigan and John McCusker, Jamie’s style is a melting pot drawing on influences from his ancestral roots of traditional Scottish and Irish fiddle music, but also from a love of bluegrass and blues.
His versatility and passion for music comes across in his infectious energy on stage and it’s clear that every part of him is affected by his performance.
“He puts one in mind of the sort who'd at least contemplate selling his soul for fancy fiddle licks”. SING OUT!
