Ewan Macpherson

Ewan has worked as a multi-instrumentalist in the vibrant Scottish music scene for 20 years, and was nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year at the MG Alba Trad Music Awards in 2014.

Born in Liverpool and raised in Wales, he trained at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts before moving to Edinburgh in 1999, and is now based in the Highlands. Ewan is a member of Shooglenifty, a founding member of Salt House, Fribo, and RoughCoastAudio, and has taken stages around the world with a wide range of other traditional and contemporary folk/roots artists. His song writing skills are showcased on his solo albums, Fetch! and Norther, as well as on his most recent release with Salt House, Undersong.

"I was brought up in a remote part of North Wales," he says "and spent a lot of time in my formative years running around the woods and hillsides. I could loosely describe myself as a lover of wild, magical things and places. I am not from a family of tradition bearers, but my forebears hail from all over the British Isles and music is in my bones. I think song is a great medium to tell a story and it’s an amazing thing listening to a good singer living out a song / story...not to mention a good storyteller letting loose. "

A chance encounter with a shadow on a train sparked Ewan's first song for the project: looking at ways that fairies might be present in our everyday lives, unseen. As he began to go deeper into fairy lore, his attention was caught by tales documenting the strong belief in fairies across the Highlands – a belief that diminished over time, during the Clearances and the rise of modernity. This disconnection from the fairies, he realised, echoes a disconnection from nature that has led to environmental crisis. And in that realisation, inspiration for a new piece of music was born.