Hailing from the ‘wild wild’ Western Isles of Scotland, Trail West are a young band causing a storm on the Scottish music scene.
Formed on the Isle of Tiree in 2008 by founding members Andrew Findlater (Drums/ Vocals) and BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Finalist Ian Smith (Accordion/ Vocals), the band has since added further Hebridean fire power with multi-instrumentalist and Young Traditional Musician of the Year Semi-Finalist Seonaidh MacIntyre (Whistles/ Bagpipes/ Tromb/ Vocals) from SouthUist and fellow Tirisdeach Alain Campbell (Guitar/ Bagpipes/ Vocals) to create a blistering sound that presents an exciting twist on the traditional ‘west coast’ ceilidh band style.
A Trail West gig is guaranteed great ‘craic’ and this has led to the band building a loyal following throughout Scotland as well as securing performances at key events such as the Cowal Highland Gathering, the Royal National Mod, Tiree Music Festival and Glasgow’s Shindig in the Square.
The band’s highly anticipated debut album ‘One That Got Away’ was released in April 2013 and within 24 hours had reached No. 1 in the iTunes ‘World Music’ Album Charts as well as No. 171 in the entire iTunes Album Charts.
Their 2013 success continued when Trail West were awarded ‘Scottish Dance Band of the Year’ at the Scots Trad Music Awards in Aberdeen in December.