Silly Wizard

Generally considered the world's finest performers of traditional and contemporary Scottish music -- and with good reason. Silly Wizard's music is at once driving and sensitive, powerful and poignant, at times hypnotic, often humorous, with sensitive group interplay and virtuoso-level musicianship, particularly from brothers Phil (accordion, keyboards, whistles, guitar, vocals) and Johnny (fiddle) Cunningham. Their repertoire includes centuries-old instrumental dance music along with traditional and contemporary narrative ballads: tales of joy and woe, of men and women, of time and travel, of love and loss. Silly Wizard is not just another folk music group; they rank with the greatest creators and performers from any country from any time.

Several members of the group, particularly the Cunningham brothers and vocalist Andy Stewart, have made solo and duo recordings and have performed and recorded with other artists, primarily Scottish traditionalists. These recordings are also well worth investigating, but get the Silly Wizard stuff first.

from Wikipedia:

Silly Wizard was a Scottish folk band that began forming in Edinburgh in 1970. The founder members were two like-minded university students—Gordon Jones (guitar, bodhran, vocals, bouzouki, mandola) and Bob Thomas (guitar, mandolin, mandola, banjo, concertina). The as-yet-unnamed band was sometimes joined by thirteen-year-old schoolboy Johnny Cunningham (fiddle, viola, mandola, vocals), who began more extensive touring with the band in 1972.

Career

Thomas credited the name of the band to a flatmate who was writing a book of children's stories, and the group first performed as "Silly Wizard" in summer 1972. Chris Pritchard (vocals) replaced Bill Watkins (vocals, guitar) in 1972. From September 1972 until March 1974, the band organized the Saturday night bookings, and regularly performed at, the Triangle Folk Club in Edinburgh. In February 1973, vocalist Chris Pritchard left the band and was replaced by Madelaine Taylor (guitar, bodhran, vocals). In October 1973, the band was signed to Transatlantic Records XTRA label. An album was recorded but before it could be released, Madelaine Taylor left the band in December 1973. The master tapes were subsequently lost and the album has never been released.

Bob, Gordon and Johnny began touring as a trio in January 1974, and went on the first of many French tours in April 1974.

The band added Neil Adam (bass, harmonium) in September 1974 and Andy M. Stewart (vocals, tin whistle, tenor banjo) in December 1974. In March 1975, Silly Wizard began work on their next album. The band was then joined by Freeland Barbour (accordion, bouzouki) and Alastair Donaldson (bass, flute), who replaced Neil Adam in July 1975 when the latter decided to return to university. Their first eponymous LP Silly Wizard was released on the XTRA label and the band began touring throughout the UK and Europe.

In late 1976, Freeland Barbour left the band and was replaced by Johnny Cunningham's younger brother, Phil Cunningham (accordion, tin whistle, harmonium, synthesizer, octave mandolin, vocals), then sixteen years old. At the same time Alastair Donaldson left and was replaced by Martin Hadden (bass, guitar, piano). This six-member lineup then recorded the band's second LP, Caledonia's Hardy Sons (Highway/Shanachie, 1978). Founding member Bob Thomas left just as the group began work on their third LP, So Many Partings (Highway/Shanachie, 1979).

Cunningham departed the band for New York in 1980 and was replaced for six months by Dougie MacLean of the Tannahill Weavers. MacLean had once been in a band with Andy Stewart and Martin Hadden, and contributed to Silly Wizard's fourth album, Wild and Beautiful (Highway/Shanachie, 1981) before returning to the Tannahill Weavers.

Silly Wizard played a variety of Scottish folk music, both instrumental and vocal, from fast jigs and reels to slow airs. While the majority of the items they played were traditional songs or tunes, the band did write many compositions of their own. Phil Cunningham generally wrote instrumental music centered on the accordion, and Stewart wrote several songs in a style often distinctly traditional. Once Andy's singing and the driving, impassioned instrumentals of the Cunningham brothers had established themselves at its centre, the group's overall sound changed little until their final album, A Glint of Silver, which introduced the synthesizer as a prominent part of the band, giving them a slightly New Age sound. It can be said, though, that certain albums (e.g. So Many Partings and Wild and Beautiful) show a thematic or musical development that makes them more than an arbitrary succession of tracks—in fact the last five tracks on Wild and Beautiful were often played as an opening set to their live performances.

They continued recording until the late 1980s, when the band decided to dissolve after performing for seventeen years and releasing nine albums. The band played its final performance in Voorheesville, New York in April 1988. Johnny Cunningham died on December 15, 2003 in New York.

In Scots Trad Music Awards 2003 Silly Wizard were nominated for the best folk band award.Members of Silly Wizard played at Celtic Connections in February 2007.Live Again is a potential digitally remastered set of Silly Wizard's live recordings throughout the 1980s, with a release date still to be determined.

"Silly Wizard is not just another folk music group; they rank with the greatest creators and performers from any country from any time."—Niles J. Frantz at Allmusic

Influence

The band have become a very influential band on modern celtic band such as Peatbog Faeries. Wolfstone covered the Silly Wizard song "The Queen of Argyll" on their album Almost an Island in 2002.