“THE godfathers of the modern folk-music scene in Scotland,” is how the Scottish Traditional Hall of Music describes the much-loved Corries. They introduced“huge audiences to traditional songs, composing songs in a traditional style, using innovative instrumental arrangements and pioneering practices which later became commonplace throughout the music industry.”
Roy Williamson and Roy Browne first met as students at the Edinburgh College of Art in the 1950s. The Corrie Folk Trio and Paddie Bell began in Edinburgh in 1962; by 1966 they had become The Corries, with Roy and Ronnie. As such, their first concert was in the Angus village of Cortachy - the Hall of Fame citation says “the audience response was rapturous and soon Roy and Ronnie were the public face of Scottish folk music, appearing on their own television series and building up an annual tour that took them the length and breadth of Scotland.” The Corries toured and recorded regularly (their shows were “boisterous occasions featuring much vocal audience participation and irreverent onstage humour”) and were familiar fixtures on radio and TV, and popular at home and abroad. Roy, composer of Flower of Scotland, died in 1990.
He and Ronnie are pictured above with artist Duncan Brown, who had included a portrait of the duo as part of an exhibition of 29 paintings of Scottish history from the time of Wallace.
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