Career
McCusker was born in Bellshill, 15 May 1973 near Glasgow, Scotland, to an Irish mother who encouraged him to learn to play the fiddle beginning at age seven. He became a regular in local youth orchestras and ceilidh bands and formed the band Parcel O'Rogues (named from Robert Burns' Sic a Parcel o' Rogues in a Nation) with some schoolmates when he was 14. A couple of years later he gave up a place at the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow to go on the road with the Battlefield Band.
McCusker spent eleven years as a member of the Battlefield Band. By the time he left he had composed a catalog of songs, and had become a highly regarded traditional musician. McCusker also guested on albums with many musicians including Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller, Teenage Fanclub, Danny Thompson, Eddi Reader, Tim O'Brien and Linda Thompson. By then he was already involved with folk singer Kate Rusby. He joined her band, became her producer and married in August 2001. They later divorced.
McCusker is equally in demand as a multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. Born in Bellshill, near Glasgow, he began playing whistle and fiddle as a child, and joined the long-standing folk outfit Battlefield Band at age seventeen. During his 11 years with the band, he also released his first two solo recordings, 1995's eponymous titled debut and 2000's Yella Hoose, and began a long creative partnership with folk singer Kate Rusby, producing several of her award-winning albums.
McCusker has long been recognised for his skill at transcending musical boundaries. As a live and studio guest he has shared stages with Bonnie Raitt, Patti Smith, Steve Earle, Rosanne Cash, Paolo Nutini and Jools Holland, and has been featured on recordings by Mark Knopfler, Paul Weller, Teenage Fanclub, Ocean Colour Scene, and many more. Film and TV work include soundtracks for the movie Heartlands (2002), Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand and the Jennifer Saunders sitcom Jam & Jerusalem. His most recent solo album, Goodnight Ginger, was released in 2003. McCusker won the Spirit of Scotland award for music in 2001 and the BBC Radio 2 folk musician of the year in 2003.
McCusker's expanding portfolio as a producer includes debut albums by Kris Drever and Roddy Woomble. He's also manned the controls for singers Eddi Reader, Linda Thompson and Eliza Carthy, and is currently at work on the forthcoming solo release from Radiohead drummer Phil Selway.
After a 6 month world tour with Mark Knopfler, McCusker has just released a new record along with Orcadian singer Kris Drever and Idlewild front man, Roddy Woomble. The album Before the Ruin was released in September 2008, and features members of Teenage Fanclub, Radiohead, Michael McGoldrick and Heidi Talbot.
In 2007, McCusker was jointly commissioned by the Celtic Connections festival and Cambridge Folk Festival to compose Under One Sky, uniting Scottish and English musicians of different genres, from Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis to ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon. He toured to support Under One Sky in the UK in November and December 2008.
McCusker now lives in Edinburgh with his wife, Irish folk singer Heidi Talbot.
Read more about this topic: John Mc Cusker
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