Making a very welcome return to Hepworth, Findlay Napier set off on tour in April 2024 in support of his new album Outsider. Widely regarded as one of the finest performers on the UK music scene, he's 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 noughties. 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.
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 hometown which led to a number of high-profile gigs including 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."
The Outsider album project, which raised £11k in fundraising through Creative Scotland's Crowdfunded program in 2023, will be released by The Bothy Society on all formats including a deluxe coffee table book. Produced by Napier's long-term mentor and co-writer Boo Hewerdine and featuring performances from Liam Chapman (C-Duncan, Billy No Mates), Kevin McGuire (Eddi Reader) and Neil McColl (The Bible, Peggy Seeger) and Angus Lyon (Blazin Fiddles). Recorded in four short sessions between July and December 2023 at Saltwell Studio, Chem 19 and Gran's House it is Napier's most ambitious recording project to date. The deluxe version of the album, available only as a coffee table book, features sixteen original tracks celebrating outsiders in love and outsiders in life.