James Grant

Born in Castlemilk, in the south of Glasgow, James Grant has developed since the early 1980s a career rooted in Scottish pop, spanning new wave, melodic rock and folk-influenced songwriting. He first came to notice as a guitarist and writer with Friends Again, a new wave band active in the early part of the decade, before forming Love and Money in 1985 with Stuart Kerr and Paul McGeechan. With that group Grant honed a repertoire of sophisticated pop, nourished by soul, chiming guitars and a strong melodic sense, documented by albums such as All You Need Is... (1986), Strange Kind of Love (1988), Dogs in the Traffic (1991), Littledeath (1993) and The Devil’s Debt (2012) after the band's reformation. As a solo artist he moved towards a more pared-down, introspective style, often acoustic, on Sawdust in My Veins (1998), My Thrawn Glory (2000), I Shot the Albatross (2002), Holy Love (2004), Strange Flowers (2009) and James Grant & the Hallelujah Strings (2016). His work also intersects with film music and musical settings of poetry, featuring regular collaborations within the Scottish scene, notably with Karen Matheson and Donald Shaw. More recently Grant has shared the stage with Bernard Butler and Norman Blake in the project Butler, Blake & Grant, a natural continuation of a career focused on songcraft and collective playing.