I’m very honoured that NBC San Diego have highlighted me as one of San Diego’s Top 12 Singer / Songwriters amongst some serious music royalty (Tom Waits, Jewel, Jim Croce et al) and here’s me thinking that no one understood a word I was singing! 
Check out the full list:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/blogs/sounddiego/SDs-SingerSongwriters-205690611.html
I’ve just recently finished up recording the tracks for a new studio album out at Analog Chew in Santee, California. I hope to have this album released later in the year once it’s been mixed and mastered.
Keep checkin’ back folks!
C X
PS More on this in my blog section!
Just a wee (or BIG actually) shout out to my friends over in Nashville, TN at Stone Owl Music. They (Ryan Poole) have been involved in my recent live EP ‘Doon Tae The Wid’ and also involved in capturing sound at various gigs and festivals over the last couple years for the Doricana tour DVD we are working on. I hope to have Ryan involved in the new album in some capactiy also! (talks are on). Recording starts April 2013 in San Diego, CA.
Once again I find myself back in ol’ Blighty for a few weeks, I will be here a lot more soon, more on this later
Where do I start with regards to the last few months…..well, I finished recording my brand new studio album out at Analog Chew Studio in Santee, California. Once again, Mr Alan Sanderson is on Production and Engineering duties and did a terrific job. Alongside him we had the Brazilian Wizard Pedro Talarico who is a very valuable member of the team (it truly was such a great team effort). Actually, before we pop the corks, throw this bad boy in shrinkwrap and start selling it to the masses at StarBuck’s we have a few very small things to record / tweak (blah blah blah) in an overdub sense but it’s pretty much done.
Thanks to Jerry Sisti and Zach at Analog Chew who were incredibly hospitable and profesional. Special shout out to his brother (John Sisti), who took some amazing photographs of the session (will air some soon). Everybody involved did an amazing job. The general consensus is that we have created something emotional, something special, however…thats not really for us to decide, is it!? Much chest bumping, high fiving, whisky cracking etc has been had but we still have a lot of work to do in a mixing and finessing sense. Also, I’m working on a special guest or two! More later.
I won’t say too much about the new album at the minute other than we recorded 11 songs, a couple have been in my set for a while but most are new. The album title is also the title of one of the songs…….. I know, I know, I always feel that it’s a bit of a cop out when acts do that but the title just fits the general vibe of the album, plus the title is great and the track is really great too………hmmmm, well that’s really not up to me either (right?), the wife has told me to rein it in a bit (as always….she’s Scottish) as I get too excited (not visibly of course being Scottish) and tend to bump my gums about it, more with regards to what a great job everybody did than anything else. One more thing I shall say is, I stepped out of my comfort zone for some of these songs and I left everything in the studio……….I was knackered for about 2 weeks afterwards:)
OK, the main reasons I can’t say too much about the release of this new album yet is that I first have the ‘small’ matter of moving from San Diego, California back home to Aberdeen, Scotland. After several years myself and the family are heading back to our homeland. I’ll be posting a date and venue for a ‘See you soon’ soiree of sorts in San Diego, CA for all our Southern Californian friends.
Finally, Mr Craig Rian continues to follow me about like Paparazzi to Kim Kardashians arse, he filmed the whole recording process and we continue to capture great stuff for the mooted DVD release. What can I say? It will be done when it’s done!!!
I hope to see you somewhere down the line sometime, somehow…….. soon.
Love
C x
Apologies for the lack of blog action on here of late. Life has been something else for sure!
Well, 2012 was a hell of a year for me and I don’t mind telling you that it’s been the best year of my life so far. As you may or may not know, I became a Father for the first time back in March and that came with it’s own set of challenges. My time has become very limited and precious. So, it was my intention to take the foot off the gas a wee bit in 2012 and as you may have seen, that didn’t quite happen.
I managed to maintain some kind of live presence albeit in a much more regional sense throughout California. I was also blessed to win another San Diego Music Award for Best Acoustic Act in August, it was particularly special as my wife and daughter were both there to share it with me. We also captured it on film, this will be featured on my upcoming tour DVD that I’ve been working on with Craig Rian since 2010, we are excited to share this with you later this year……..oh I also release a limited edition live EP called ‘Doon tae the wid’, this was taken from a gig Idid in Sacramento during the 2011 Sacramento and Woodland Highland Games and Celtic Festival. This was also used as further promo for the upcoming DVD.
2012 was finished off nicely with an appearance at the New Year party in my hometown of Stonehaven, Scotland. I was the opening act for Scotland’s ‘Red Hot Chili Pipers’ in front of 6000 folk, it was a brilliant night all round with the exception of the long lines for the bar, the guys will get that sorted for Hogmanay this year, that I have no doubt of. Special thanks to Michelle Ward and June for their support and drive.
So, currently I’m in the middle of demoing new songs for my new album, I have loads of songs but I’m in the whittling down process where I decide what my best 15 are, then we demo them and then whittle them down to 10. I’m also on the look for some funding, so, if anyone is interested in possibly coming in on an executive producer basis give me a shout, I’ll bring the beer…..if not then I guess I best crack open my piggy bank again!!! 
Love
Colin
PS, I promise to update this a tad more this year.
I’m going to start this blog with a disclaimer. I have never (knowingly) heard any of Justin Bieber’s music and up until yesterday I had never been on his Twitter page.
Anyhow, I was having my usual Saturday root about on Twitter, looking for football stories, seeing what is ‘trending’ and of course, coarsely attempting to punt (give away) my music to the masses via t’interweb (naturally)! Usually, Mr Bieber is trending in the US and worldwide, you can see that on the ‘trending’ list next to all the other pertinent info and useless gossip of the day!
So, I decided I was going to come up with a brilliantly ‘funny and clever’ idea of tweeting something along the lines of ‘…Would everyone stop mentioning @JustinBieber as he is always bloody trending on my bloody Twitter feed………….AH, DOH…’!
Now, I thought this might be quite amusing (in my own little sad way), albeit, probably too long for your standard Tweet (answers on a e-postcard) and quite likely to cause me to be the subject of serious online abuse from the more fervent of his ‘Beliebers’. I have no idea, how I know this term (Beliebers) and unfortunately I can’t use my 6 week old daughter as an excuse either.
Actually, light dawns on Doonie Point…….. we give a little bit of light hearted abuse to the wife’s young cousin Cameron, who is in the incredibly fortuitous position of being an 18 year old Justin Bieber ‘lookylike’, so much so, he was actually mobbed on a school trip to Peru by the locals who thought he was that very song and dance man!!! Cash those chips in son, cash those chips in!
Anyway, I decided to go and look at his page and see what his ‘digits’ are and more importantly to see if this guy actually ‘tweets’ his own crap or if it’s all corporate pish being fed to the wee lassies around the globe.
So, I’m pleasantly surprised to see that young Beaver actually does tweet and he supports the Lakers, good man, so do I……………..I then clock the amount of people that follow him or the amount of ‘followers’ he has! IN THE NAME OF WORLD DOMINATION!!! This guy has nearly 22 Million people follow him on Twitter, read again, yes……22 MILLION. Infact, at the time of looking he had 21,984,452 people actually following and hundreds of thousand of re-tweets to his various ‘Go Lakers’ and various other blah, blah, blah tweets!!
Let’s put this into perspective. If Justin Beiber’s Twitter followers were actually a Country, they’d be the 52nd most populated Country in the world between Australia and Syria, I can’t help wonder if there might be some kind of significance to these Countries, however allow me to soldier on. Oor wee Justin has 0.53% of the World’s population at his very mercy with one mere tweet……….‘…hey guys I love you, buy my new single…’, BOOM, 0.53% of the Worlds population have been instantly spoken to in the space of a few seconds and a few pressed buttons on his gold plated iPhone!
As a relatively newcomer to the ways of the tweet and as a shit kicking, grass roots, 35 year old folk singer who is happily married with one beautiful child, naturally, I have a fairly paltry looking 202 followers. So, if we compare my ‘digits’ in the same way we compared Bieber Vs The World, I am competing with………. The Isle of Jura, which is described as ‘one of Scotland’s last wildernesses’. A little over 200 people are outnumbered by 5000 deer on this stunning wee Scottish island.
Now, this, I wouldn’t change for the world………. not one bit, but maybe, just maybe…….. if Justin were to tweet “…Hey guys, check out my new Skatch Homie fae Stoney. Colon Klyne’s new dope cut, Stonehaven Radio Station and Me, drops today man, buy it here, most amazing song I’ve ever heard about Aberdeen Football Club, the way he rhymes Park with Billy Stark is frikkin siiiick dude…” …………………………………………………..STOP!
Naturally, you’re probably thinking that Justin would have run out of space by now, and yes, he quite probably would have run out of characters if he was indeed wielding your standard twitter account, but no no no, not my main man Beiber, he’ll have one of these wee extended tweet things so he can actually tweet the whole bloody message including lyrics, where to buy it, my website, my ‘digits’ and possibly an obligatory showbiz apology for quite clearly getting my name wrong, citing either exhaustion or non inhalation as the reason, he better give his homie Snoop a call!
Upon refreshing his page; which took all of about 30 seconds, due to my current location being on a boat (working for the man), where we have a slower than Dave ‘Donkey’ McPherson running in a vat of treacle Internet service (sat link), it became apparent that another 200 twitterer’s had succumbed to Young Beiber’s prose like charms, which infact doesn’t sound like a lot. However, he accumulated more new followers in 30 seconds than I have in 35 years, quite bloody impressive I’d say!
So, how about you help an acoustic guitar wielding, Guinness slurpin’, occasional house husbandry superstar, Father and twittering novice to at least surpass the population of the beautiful Isle O’ Jura??
Click here to see Colin's events calendar.
The articles below cover upcoming and past shows.
Myself and my band will be performing at the 2012 San Diego Music Thing conference and musc festival. We perform on the Saturday night (15th September), all details on my tour section.
Public Enemy’s Chuck D will be the main guest speaker.
http://www.sandiegomusicthing.com/
Hey folks,
I’m delighted to announce that I will be performing at the Carlsbad Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California on Friday the 3rd of August 2012. Tickets are $10 and you get some free pizza (Flippin’ Pizza Knockout) and a free beer (Stone brewery) with your ticket purchase.
For further info:
http://www.museumofmakingmusic.org/events/events/details/69-colinclyne
Cheers
Colin
Well as you may or may not have read in my blog section, my ‘Doricana’ promo tour (in Scotland) was a great success and I’m hoping as many folk as possible will have had a chance to listen to the album (hell maybe even buying it would be nice)!
I’m in the middle of a few things just now and I’m hoping to play some dates both in the US and Europe a little later in the Year……keep checking back and keep spinning that record!!
Colin
Click a song title below for complete song information.
My new album, Doricana, is available for download on DigStation at: DigStation.com.
Doricana is available in Europe through Amazon.co.uk
Click here to download Doricana From Amazon UK
Purchase DORICANA now on iTunes!
Physical copies of Doricana are available through CDBaby at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ColinClyne1
Click a Gallery or photo below for more detail.
Photos from the photo shoot for Colin's latest album, Doricana.
5 Photos
Paper clippings from stories over the years during the Songs from the Cold Store and Doricana tours
9 Photos
Photos of Colin from tours, shows, and other photo opportunities
5 Photos
Posters and Artwork from Colin's Albums
1 Photos
STV (Scottish TV) have picked up on my video for new single ‘Stonehaven Radio Station and Me’. They’ve ran a wee story on it through their website. Hell, we might just get some air play as well! The story can be read here:
http://local.stv.tv/aberdeen/news/31472-stonehaven-musicians-letter-from-america/
Stonehaven musician hitting the right notes from America
By Danny Law
Colin Clyne’s trips to see Aberdeen FC as a boy provide the inspiration for his new track.
A Stonehaven musician has penned a poignant track about his home town and the “famous Aberdeen” from a studio in the States.
Colin Clyne, who now resides in San Diego, has launched a new video for his latest single ‘Stonehaven Radio Station and Me’ from his album Doricana.
Stonehaven Radio Station was the last manned ship-to-shore radio station in the UK when it closed down in 2000 after over 100 years of service.
The radio station, along with the trips the 35-year-old used to make as a boy to see his beloved Aberdeen FC, have provided the inspiration for his new single.
Colin said: “I used to go to the Aberdeen games with my uncle Gordon who worked at Stonehaven Radio Station Ship to Shore. The inspiration for the song came from a memory I had when we had just beaten Hibs in the semi-final of the cup and a Hibs fan went to shake my uncle’s hand but instead head-butted him.
“I was only ten so it wasn’t the type of thing you would expect to see as a boy. I ran up and told a policeman but he just told me to go away!”
Colin says he still tries to keep up to date with how the Dons are progressing, saying: “I do get up early on Saturdays to watch some of the games. It hasn’t been as good the last few seasons so sometimes I’m back in my bed within 15 minutes of kick-off!
“I try to get to a few games when I’m back in Scotland. I tend to be back around the festive period and it always seems to be Dundee United who we play when I go to see them.”
Colin, who last year was named ‘Best Acoustic Act’ at the San Diego Music Awards, says he is hoping to release his next album later in the year.
He added: “My wife is due to give birth in the next couple of days so I think I will be laying low over the next couple of months. However, I have 30 new songs to ready to go so I’m hoping to get a new album out later this year.
“I have had some great feedback from people in Stonehaven about the songs and they particularly like the local references. There will be a few local references in the new album too.
Written by Bart Mendoza
Excellent acoustic guitar based tunes – a baker’s dozen – from Scottish / San Diegan, Colin Clyne. Doricana features production from Alan Sanderson (Rolling Stones, Burt Bacharach) and a serious group of San Diego All – Stars, including Flogging Molly’s Matt Hensley, Larry Grano and Rick Nash (Eve Selis Band), Tim Foley and Enrique Platas (Skelpin), session legend Dennis Caplinger and opera singer Victoria Robertson. It sounds amazing, with tunes matching production and musicianship. My favorites are the melancholic Neil Finn-ish ballad “Into My Garden,” and the lightly rockin’ “Pockets and Envelopes,” both as radio friendly as it gets, but this is a solid selection of tunes across the board..
http://www.sandiegotroubadour.com
Written by Frank Kocher
Folk-rocker Colin Clyne is originally from Scotland and though he has relocated to Southern California, the roots of his music remain in the green highlands. His new CD is Doricana, a title that says a lot – the style of the music and the sound of the singer blend elements from both sides of the pond.
The 13 songs on the disc were recorded local producer/engineer Alan Sanderson, a veteran whose board talents help Clyne achieve the most from his material. The overall sound is primarily acoustic, with steady guitar support by James Hood throughout and judicious use of percussion, keys, and Dennis Caplinger’s banjo and fiddle touches. Clyne wrote all of the tunes, with help on one from Hood, and they are a mix of stories, observations, and love messages – sung to country/folk ballads in his strong Celtish accent.
“Pockets and Envelopes” has interesting lyrics, about how the “tramps on the streets well known as lords,” but there are stretches where it is difficult to decipher the words – printed lyrics would have helped. On “Traditional Song,” Clyne sings about his homeland, following strong acoustic guitar figures by Hood to chant the chorus.
The structure on these tunes is similar to many of the others on the disc; after he sings a couple of verses over subdued guitar licks, the simple, repeated chorus line comes, sometimes with a “na na na” or a “la la la” melody scat. Repeat, and after repeating the third chorus, end. One problem with songs with a similar beat, structure, and vocal sound is that it can become like a visit to the ice cream store, getting many different minor variations on the same flavor. Thanks to Clyne and the musicians, that flavor isn’t vanilla.
The single on this disc is “Into My Garden,” and it is a catchy treat. This tune is about how Clyne has opened up his life to a new love, with good imagery. The sound is fuller and more robust than other tracks on the disc, thanks to organ and full band, and the hammered-home chorus sticks with the listener. While Clyne generally avoids using any Doric dialect on the disc, he comes closest on “Crying at the Sky,” which has a Celtish folk vibe. “Dance with Her” is slower, a folk lament that delivers a simple, haunting melody, and amounts to a sleeper highlight. “Hey I Miss You Too” comes after some slower filler tracks with cello and keys, turning things around with banjo and cajon-pounding percussion, as a studio crowd claps along.
Doricana has its feet in two worlds. It is Americana roots music, pleasant folk with country underpinnings. Add Colin Clyne’s distinct taste of Scotland to the music and the combination is unusual and distinctive.
http://www.sandiegotroubadour.com/content/cdreviews/cdreviews.aspx#Colin_Clyne
Colin Clyne – Doricana (Starving Dog)
Doricana is the mix of the Scottish Doric dialect with Americana. Simple. Nothing to be scared about, and you wont need a degree in Celtic languages to understand the songs. Clyne’s a Scottish-born singer-songwriter based in the USA. He combines his origins and present habitat by adding a large helping of passionate, Caledonian soul to his rootsy, acoustic songs, and for the most part it works just fine. He describes himself as the love child of Mike Myers ‘Fat bastard’ and Neil Young – harsh. 7/10
http://www.leicesterbangs.co.uk/aug10-34.html
The following review was taken from Northern Sky.
“Scottish-born singer-songwriter Colin Clyne returns with his second album, the follow up to his 2006 debut Songs from the Cold Store, intent on creating a new genre. If the album’s title attempts to describe a certain marriage between an ancient Scottish language and the more recent collective term for American roots music, then the songs presented here bridge the Atlantic suitably well. Colin Clyne’s prolific output has been narrowed down to thirteen songs, each produced and arranged with a crisp acoustic sound and clear vocal delivery; no need to consult the lyric sheet here.
Originally from the small coastal town of Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen, Clyne has traded the bitter North Sea for the much more conducive North Pacific Ocean, setting up home in San Diego on the West Coast of California. The songs chosen for this album lend themselves to this particular area of America, each one injected with warmth and accessibility, yet losing none of the inherent Celtic heart. Melodic in structure, the songs in the main are possessed of a memorable hook, which I would imagine should make for radio-friendly consideration.
Heartbreak and homesickness are just two themes running through the core of Doricana with Good for Something, Dance With Her, Hey I Miss You Too and In My Garden as good examples. The Pain of the Mississippi Queen in particular tells of a yearning for home, away from the superficiality of Hollywood and a longing to return to the land where the ‘deep fried Mars Bar’ was born. A nice image right there.
With a supporting cast of fine musicians including James Hood on guitar and bass, Larry Grano on drums, Rick Nash on bass and Enrique Platas on percussion, together with a bunch of guest musicians helping out on accordion, fiddle, banjo, keyboards and a variety of other instruments, the overall sound maintains a consistency throughout the thirteen titles, each song a snapshot of archetypal ‘Doricana’.
Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky”
Click here to view the original review on Allan’s website.
Colin Clyne in the Press