The Iron Horse

The Iron Horse was a Scottish Celtic music band formed in 1990. During the 1990s the band, along with others, broadened Celtic music from its traditional roots to the wider range of music now encompassed within the Celtic music genre. From slow airs and ballads to driving instrumentals, they wrote and performed a broad spectrum of Scottish folk music. Though the band split up in 2001, due to contractual recording obligations, they reunited briefly in 2004 to record a final album. The band was introduced to a wider audience when they created the music for the BBC TV documentary series, The Gamekeeper (1995). Five Hands High, one of their more notable albums, opened with "8-Step Waltz", in fact a reel. The band is best known for their album Demons and Lovers. They later added a drummer, Lee Agnew (also part of Dougie MacLean's band) to the band. In a further change, their 1999 tour included the accordion and keyboards of Brian McAlpine. Both had appeared on Demons and Lovers. Their last album in 2004, The Wind Shall Blow For Ever More was seen as a return of the band to an earlier sound. The band toured extensively, appearing at many festivals, such as Ely, Edinburgh, Tarbert and Arran. They headlined the 1994 "Celts in Kent" festival, playing two shows in Faversham and the Sassoon Gallery in Folkestone. In 1996 they headlined the Gosport Easter Festival, with their contemporaries the Old Blind Dogs sharing the stage for the finale.