Dick Gaughan - The Harvard Tapes

Dick Gaughan has been at the cutting edge of Scottish folk music for almost five decades. A guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor, musical director, arranger, record producer, engineer and goodness knows what else - he has been there and done it all. He is a brilliant singer with a passion in his wonderfully expressive voice which is allied to an amazing guitar technique which can leave you mesmerised.

In December 2009, Dick was honoured by being included in the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame and within a year he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards ceremony in London. He has received many other accolades but too many to mention here.

Dick has been a professional musician and singer since 1970. He has recorded extensively and his album Handful of Earth on Topic Records was chosen by a critics’ poll in fRoots as the Best Album of the 1980s. As well as a successful solo career, Dick was an early member of The Boys Of The Lough, the legendary Five Hand Reel and the founder member of the short-lived but quite extraordinary Clan Alba.

The first ten tracks on this album were recorded live in 1982 in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, next to Harvard University Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA by Brian O’Donovan, a broadcaster and journalist born in Ireland but then living in Boston.

Early in 2019 Brian came across the original tapes and sent a copy to Scotland to be used in any way to benefit Dick. Ian McCalman and Ian Green heard the recordings and agreed this was “vintage Dick Gaughan” and the recordings would make a wonderful live album. Dick Gaughan approved wholeheartedly, and Brian O’Donovan granted their use at no cost.

Some of Dick’s all-time greats are on these Harvard tapes: Erin Go Bragh, Now Westlin Winds, Song For Ireland, Your Daughters and Your Sons, The Worker’s Song, a three-reel instrumental and more.