Celtic Music: Dougie MacLean

MacLean returned to his home area of Perthshire in 1981 to concentrate on his solo work, and he also toured in Europe and North America, and later in Australia and New Zealand. With his wife, artists Jennifer MacLean, e started his own label, Dunkeld Records with the release of Craigie Dhu.

During the 1980s, Dunkeld Records signed more Scottish artists including Hamish Moore, Sheena Wellington, Frieda Morrison, Gordon Duncan, David Allison and Blackeyed Biddy. By the early '90s, Dunkeld Records had its own studio, publishing company and retail outlet and expanded to manufacturing records in the United States.

MacLean himself kept composing, recording and touring and was working with musicians worldwide. In the 1990s he attracted the attention of the BBC, which did a special called The Land: Songs of Dougie MacLean and he was one of the artists invited to participate in The Transatlantic Sessions which brought together musicians from both sides of the pond. Meanwhile, "Caledonia," sung by Frank Miller, reached #1 on the Scottish charts. The song was also recorded by Irish singer Dolores Keane, and that version is still a frequent request on Internet radio station LiveIreland.com.

In 1998, with everything going strong, Dougie MacLean established MacLean's Real Music Bar in Dunkeld and it soon became the pub of choice for musicians in the area. It was still very successful when he sold it in 2003.

In May 1999, MacLean's suite in four movements, "Perthshire Amber," which has been commissioned by the Perth Festival of the Arts, premiered at that festival. It was widely acclaimed and was a sellout when it was performed the next year at the Celtic Connections Festival. In 2005, MacLean started the Perthshire Amber Festival, which has grown into a 10-day event with performances at many venues in the region. It will be a major part of the year-long Scottish Homecoming of 2009, which marks the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth.

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