Mac Na Galla create original Scottish music based on the songs, poems and tales of singer songwriter Andy Jamieson. From a family of Irish immigrants on one side and Shetland fisherman and evicted highlanders on the other these places and narratives of resilience and community spirit influence the songs. Themes concern Celtic history, politics, literary figures, pubs, love, friendship, family and diaspora to name a few.
The name Mac Na Galla means 'son of a bitch' in Scottish Gaelic and was chosen since Andy was born in Linlithgow where the local populous are titled 'black bitches' after an infamous black dog, banished to live out the last of its days on an island on the local loch.
The band are a mix of Celtic immigrants living in diaspora, Swedish fishermen, janitors, brewers and everything in between. They find themselves outlawed to the woods of western Sweden for the time being. Most live concerts occur in local kitchens and barns and their music appeals more to bad livers and broken hearts than the masses or the charts.
A revolving line up of musicians including whistle player, saxophonist and producer Olof Bäckersten, banjo and mandolin player Nick Johnson, female vocalist and whistle player Lina Blomstrand, drummer Claes Fredholm, bassist Filip Darj, harpist Gunn Gustafsson, fiddle player Jonas Nilsson, bagpiper and bodhran player Jonas Lindgren on pipes and live guitarist Erik Alm enliven these mumbled, gutter poems to become foot tapping, bar swaying 'choons'.
