Laird Brown

Laird had a great Celtic upbringing – there was always LIVE music being played. He danced for a number of years, both Country and Highland. Piano lessons started when he was nine.

In high school he played various instruments until, in the early ‘90s he joined The Scottish Accent band, taking his place as 2nd Accordionist alongside his father, Bobby Brown. Laird now leads an new band, Scotch Mist, and the music is wonderful!.

In 2014 Laird released the first Scotch Mist CD titled, Coast To Coast. It lives up to it’s name by including complete instructions for interesting and innovative dances devised by people from all across Canada. For these dances, Laird, with contributions from all members of the band, has put together wonderful sets of tunes. You can’t help but smile — and dance with your soul.

At the Toronto Workshop you’ll get a chance to dance to the music that has made Coast To Coast a best-seller on four continents.

Don Wood

Don began playing Scottish country dance music in high school. He played guitar in a Rhythm & Blues band, but he was exposed to Scottish music through his father, Bill, a fiddler.

Don was born in Nova Scotia, and grew up listening to his father play reels and jigs, then eventually accompanied him on piano. It gave Don a grounding in traditional music.

Don's family moved to London, Ontario where his father met Stan Hamilton, recently arrived from Scotland. They became good friends. In 1966, Stan suggested that Don audition on electric bass for his band, The Flying Scotsmen, which included an accordion player named Bobby Brown.

Don and Bobby became fast friends. "Bobby taught me how to play the piano. He taught me the Scottish vamp style. Everything I had played up to that point was just chording with three note triads. Bobby taught me music!"

Don joined Bobby in forming the Scottish Accent Band in 1976 and he travelled North America, playing bass and piano, and toured Scotland with the band and the Cape Breton Symphony Fiddlers in 1992.

Don is particularly pleased with the poignant and stirring Lament For Bobby Brown that Laird and he arranged. It’s one of the most commented upon tracks on Coast To Coast.

Don Bartlett

Don was born in Toronto. He inherited a strong musical legacy — his grandmother was one of thirteen siblings, every one of whom was a church organist.

Don grew up in Scarborough and attended Fallingbrook Presbyterian Church, where Hughina Wilson taught SCD to children on Saturday mornings.  He enjoyed the dancing, the music, and the sociability.  His favourite records were by Stan Hamilton & The Clansmen (later The Flying Scotsmen). 

Dancing was great; but Don wanted to play the music, too.  Hughina gave him the Graded Book with music, and he struggled to learn his first tune (a jig, Lord Cathcart). Jean Anderson, Bobby Brown's sister, gave him valuable tips.  Before long he learned his first strathspey, Mrs. Stewart Nicholson — the only tune he had both on paper and on a record (Stan Hamilton's).

It was at Fallingbrook church that Alex Jappy heard him play. Alex introduced him to Angus MacKinnon, leader of The Scots-Canadians band, who recruited the precocious teen.  

He played for dance weekends, workshops, and special classes, and with Angus McKinnon played for grand balls from New York to Montreal.

In 1972 Don formed his own band, The Scotians. Certain tracks on his Don Bartlett & The Scotians recordings are the gold standard for particular dances around the world (Don’s Davy Nick Nack is particularly famous).

These days the band is Don Bartlett & The Scottish Heirs, and it includes his daughters Jacquie (on fiddle) and Lesley (on electric bass), and old friend, accordionist Jimmy Darge. They play for selected Monthly Dances, and recently wowed the kids attending the annual Youth Ball.

Don finds great pleasure in passing the wonderful heritage of Scottish country dance music along to his daughters, and to dancers of all ages. At the Workshop he will put wings on your feet.

Fred Moyes

Fred has had a life of great variety, with an unbroken musical thread.

As a child in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, he heard Scottish country dance music on the BBC every Saturday evening and he danced to 78 rpm recordings of Jimmy Shand and Bobby MacLeod in the family kitchen. At age ten he bought a little accordion for ten pounds. At fifteen, he began playing in a local dance band. After two years in the Royal Air Force, Fred played piano with a local band and a year later had his own band.  He kept his band together throughout his four years at Jordanhill College where, in 1958, Miss Milligan herself awarded him his Full Certificate.

Professionally, Fred was a teacher and he taught at colleges and universities on three continents, ending up in 1969 at McMaster University in Hamilton. Wherever he was, Fred was involved in music.

In 1976 he wrote a satirical song about violence in hockey. The CBC loved it!  Fred got a contract to write a weekly satirical song, tweaking political and societal folly at all levels.

In 1989, Fred retired from McMaster and dedicated himself to a new musical career playing for Scottish country dance. He has played for dancing in many parts of the USA and Canada. He’s played often at the RSCDS Summer School at St Andrews and for a ball in Frankfurt. Five times (so far) he has been to Japan to play for dancers there and one of his three CDs, To Be A Wind, is a collaboration with Japanese musicians. 

Fred is delighted to be playing for the Toronto Workshop again this year  — and you will be delighted by his music.

© 2017 RSCDS Toronto
RSCDS Toronto is affiliated with the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. HM Queen Elizabeth is our Patron.

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