About Capercaillie
Capercaillie are a Scottish folk band, founded in 1984 by Donald Shaw and led by Karen Matheson, and which performs traditional Gaelic and contemporary songs in English. The group adapts traditional Gaelic music and traditional lyrics with modern production techniques and instruments such as electric guitar and bass guitar, though rarely synthesizers or drum machines. Capercaillie demonstrate "astonishing musical dexterity" and feature "the peerless voice of co-founder Karen Matheson. Universally recognised as one of the finest Gaelic singers alive today".
They have sold over a million albums world-wide, including "three silver and one gold album in the UK". The BBC notes that the band has "achieved enormous global success both as a group and as individual musicians."
Originating from Argyll, a region of western Scotland, the band is named after the western capercaillie, sometimes called a wood grouse, a native Scottish bird.
Their first album, Cascade, was recorded in 1984. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the band gave their last performance on 17 August 2019 at the Festival des Filets Bleus in Concarneau, Brittany, France. They performed live for the first time in two years on 6 August 2021 at the Wickham Festival in Hampshire.
After a further nine months off the road the band resumed touring, and between April and August 2022 performed in France, including Paris, Condette, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, Lorient in Brittany, and on the Tatihou islet in Normandy. They also performed concerts in Inverness and Glasgow.
They performed on 26 August 2023 at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England.
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