John Carnie

John Carnie has long been involved in the music scene in Scotland - both traditional and blues. Leaving Edinburgh in 1985 to move to Aberdeen to take up a job, he quickly also found himself playing in two critically acclaimed groups - Off the Tracks and Desperate Danz Band. Along with Janice Clark and Spider Mackenzie he founded the acoustic blues trio Off the Tracks and they soon found themselves in demand at folk clubs and festivals throughout the country. The band was also versatile enough to be able to throw into its set North- east bothy ballads and Donegal slip jigs.

Around the same time John joined Desperate Danz Band as lead guitarist and recorded their debut album in 1990. The outfit proved to be a popular electric ceilidh rock band who played at festivals and concerts throughout the country and recorded a popular album.

These bands cemented John’s reputation as one of the top guitarists playing in the traditional & folk scene in Scotland and allowed him to draw on his love of playing traditional tunes on the guitar. He cites major influences as being Dick Gaughan, Richard Thompson and Rory Gallagher as well as the more traditional and jazzier flatpicking guitarists from the States.

More recently he was involved in teaching and was a guitar tutor at the Scottish Culture and Tradition classes teaching flatpicking guitar. He also formed the Mountain Blues Ramblers an acoustic trio featuring Dave Moir on guitar and Spider Mackenzie on harmonica. This group played at venues throughout Scotland culminating in 5 nights at 2005’s ‘Cork Rocks for Rory ‘Festival in Ireland.