Findlay Napier

Winner of the MG Alba Composer of the Year Findlay Napier is widely regarded as one of the finest performers on the UK music scene. He is as comfortable on the main Stage of Cambridge Folk Festival with folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc as he is in an intimate acoustic show in the back room of a pub. This fact was further highlighted when Napier was the first solo act ever to be nominated for Live Act of the Year at the Scot’s Trad Music awards in 2018. Tirelessly creative he has been touring and releasing music since the early naughties. First with groundbreaking trad folk band Back of the Moon, then with Nu-Folk pioneers Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers and most recently as a solo act working under the guidance of legendary songwriter Boo Hewerdine.

In 2025 he was chosen, alongside Kate Rusby and Richard Thompson, to compose an original song for BBC Radio 2’s “21st Century Folk”. He performed his song “Firecracker” on live on The Jeremy Vine Show and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

His breakthrough solo album VIP: Very Interesting Persons, produced by Boo Hewerdine, was number 2 in The Telegraph’s top folk albums of 2014. He followed it with 2017’s Glasgow described by The Scotsman as “a paean to his adopted home town” which led to a number of high profile gigs including a five tours as the opening act for Eddi Reader. In 2021 he released It Is What It Is a collaboration album in all but name with producer and multi-instrumentalist Angus Lyon which Folk Radio UK called, ”A captivating, indispensable work; it is what it is and what it is, is magnificent."

Described as a “miracle lyricist’ by the Sunday Herald and “an original and engaging treat” by The Telegraph his skills as a songwriter and collaborator have led him to work on some surprising and interesting projects. In 2017 he was invited to take part in Greg Russell’s ‘Shake the Chains’ project with Nancy Kerr and Hannah Martin where they toured, recorded and released a double live album. After meeting award winning songwriter Megan Henwood at an EFDSS songwriting retreat he formed the duo The Story Song Scientists writing songs about science releasing two EPs and touring the UK. In late 2021 he joined folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc with Martin Simpson, Tom A Wright, Alex Hunter and Nancy Kerr performing on festival main stages and arts centres across the UK. Their debut album Glamour in the Grey, featuring three of Napier’s original songs including a co-write with Maz O’Conner was released in October 2022.

Findlay lives on the Isle of Arran with his family. His latest album Outsider was released in April 2025 as a CD and an incredible 154 page coffee table book featuring augmented reality content.

"... one of the finest songwriters and storytellers of the contemporary Scottish folk scene." - Folk Radio UK (Glasgow)

"He's good and he's really funny too! He's got that classic brilliant banter with the audience as well. Lovely to hear the storytelling in the songs as well as inbetween. A wonderful cacophony of bizarre and brilliant tales of real people." - Edith Bowman, BBC Quay Sessions (Live)

https://youtu.be/MqbimSYuyHU?si=K0ezTmbHZwh5GANN