Profile:Barry Nisbet

A skilled guitarist, fiddler and songwriter, Shetlander Barry Nisbet is inspired by stories, both historical and contemporary. Performing in dialect and English, his songs give a sensitive, occasionally humorous take on past and contemporary events. Nisbet’s fiddle style derives from the local Cullivoe Fiddlers tradition.
As likely to be seen at the wheel of a tall ship as on a festival stage, Barry runs the Sessions and Sail voyages, exploring music and culture from a sailing ship on the Scottish and Irish coasts.
He has toured in the UK and Europe as a solo musician and as part of groups including Dundee punk-bluegrass explosion Wire and Wool, French Americana trio Tildon Krautz, and Shetland’s Rack n Ruin. In 2018 he released his first solo album, A Bright Ray of Sunshine, on the Rattled Rig label, gaining 5-star reviews in publications such as RnR magazine. He gained a Dundee Musicians Award in 2016.