Nick Keir

Who was Nick Keir?

Nick Keir was a musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, who is best known for his work with The McCalmans. More recently he emerged as a singer/songwriter, producing three solo albums and performing as a soloist with The Tolkien Ensemble. He regularly played in both Scotland and Denmark at folk festivals and on tours, both with The McCalmans and at solo gigs.

Keir studied at Stirling University, where he founded Finn mac Cuill, a folk/rock band which for a while expanded into The Finn mac Cuill Folkshow, a small touring theatre group, for which he wrote the scripts. In the late 1970s he joined 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland as a writer and musician, and soon after joined The McCalmans Folk Group.

He later played with Stephen Quigg in a duo as well as solo. Other collaborations included work on The Complete Works of Robert Tannahill and appearing regularly with the Holbaek Ensemble in Denmark in a programme of Scots and Baroque Music. Keir mostly played the acoustic guitar and the penny whistle, although he was proficient in many other instruments.

He died on the morning of the 2nd June 2013, after a battle with cancer.