Scotland Introducing: Constant Follower & Firelight Trio

Constant Follower

Constant Follower is the band formed around Scottish songwriter Stephen McAll. Their debut album for legendary New York indie label Shimmy Disc was shortlisted for the 2022 Scottish Album of the Year Award (SAY) and found its way onto the top of multiple ‘Best Albums of 2021’ lists, leading to a string of notable performances including Austin’s SXSW 2022 and SXSW 2023, and a spellbinding set from the crown of Scotland’s National Wallace Monument. A triumph after tragedy, the album was McAll’s first work many years after an unprovoked attack in his late teens left him with catastrophic head injuries, partially paralysed and unable to write or play guitar. The following decade was spent recovering on the West Coast of Scotland, learning to live, and eventually picking up the guitar to allow the songs that form his acclaimed debut ‘Neither Is, Nor Ever Was’ to emerge.

Released on 28th February 2025 via Scottish label Last Night From Glasgow, their latest album, The Smile You Send Out Returns To You, marked a significant step forward for Constant Follower. Mixed by Dan Duszynski (Loma, Sub Pop) in Austin, Texas, the album builds on the dream-folk and slowcore textures of earlier work while opening new sonic space. It debuted at No. 2 on the Official Scottish Albums Chart, No. 3 on the Official Folk Albums Chart, and reached No. 1 on the Official Independent Breakers Chart. It also broke into the UK-wide Album Sales Chart at No. 14 - an ambitious release, warmly received.

McAll is now back in his Stirling studio, working on the third Constant Follower album alongside a close-knit group of collaborators. Continuing to evolve the project’s sound while staying rooted in the reflective, melodic core that defines it, the new work is already taking shape - quietly and purposefully - between the cracks of everyday life.

‘Hopelessly beautiful’ - CLASH Magazine

‘Gentle, understated, fully formed and utterly beguiling’ - The Scotsman

‘Gorgeous atmospheric Folk’ - KEXP

‘A gorgeous struggle, deeply human and complex with vivid moments that seem to carry lifetimes within’ - The Austin Chronicle

Firelight Trio

Firelight Trio is a mighty new group featuring Fatea instrumentalist of the Year 2023 Gavin Marwick (fiddle), groovily inventive accordionist/pianist Phil Alexander (Moishe's Bagel), and Ruth Morris (Outlander, HBO) on the beautiful Swedish nyckelharpa. They play European music that is evocative, inventive, wide-ranging, and endlessly exciting - a rich tapestry of lively Swedish polskas and Scottish reels, lilting French waltzes, toe-tapping klezmer, and dazzling original tunes.

'A veritable roots music supergroup' - RnR magazine

'Deeply expressive, impressively virtuosic and cheekily sardonic, all in perfect measure' - Songlines

'Simply splendid. Three musical giants' - RnR

'Achingly beautiful' - Fatea