Dougie Maclean

Folk music doesn't get much more soothing, or beautiful, than Dougie MacLean's. And few artists capture the essence of their homelands better than MacLean does his native Scotland. The silken voice and lilting guitar of the man from Dunkeld have the desolate appeal and calming power of a soft day in the Highlands. But MacLean, who apprenticed with the legendary Scots folk band the Tannehill Weavers, isn't resurrecting centuries-old material. He writes his own songs -- the marriage of tradition and modernity, they only sound like music someone's Scottish grandfather remembers from long ago. While MacLean's own discs are hard to track down, his compositions can be had at most any Scottish/Irish import shop, on CDs by such Celtic chanteuses as Mary Black, Dolores Keane, and Maura O'Connell. "Who Am I," issued in the summer of 2002, is the 18th solo album MacLean has released since embarking on a solo career 25 years ago.