I started out playing in jazz bands and folk groups, including my uncle Tommy Blackhall’s Ecclesbreach Ceilidh Band. That was a hard-drinking, powerful outfit aimed at dancers. The most important collaboration was with the songwriters Andy Shanks and Jim Russell in the Rattlebone Folk Group. In the early days of the group, the historian Craig Mair was the lead singer.
After that, I made the decision to concentrate on my own composing and performing. One of the first gigs I did on my own was as one of the support acts for the great steel-guitar player, Susan Alcorn at the 13th Note in Glasgow. This was promoted by Liam Stefani, who continues to produce and support live music, so my thanks to him. Some of my performance that night is included on Solo Guitar. This is available (name your price) from Liam Stefani’s label scatterArchive page on Bandcamp.
Here are the links:
Solo Guitar | George Burt | scatterArchive
A&B | Susan Alcorn & George Burt | Iorram Records
