Band Members

John Davidson

John has been making music and singing for most of his life - oboe, guitar and choirs as a teenager, leading to him singing folksongs in the mid 1970's at The Forum Folk Club in East Kilbride. In the 90's John joined "Talisker", playing to folk clubs around Scotland, including Crail, Stirling, Falkirk and Dunfermline. Talisker supported the Poozies at The Doune and Dunblane Fling in 1995. John has won TMSA competitions for unaccompanied traditional singing at Killin and Penicuik. In addition to working with Tarneybackle, he has worked as a solo performer since 2004.

John sings and plays guitar (Lowden and Guild), mandolin (Fylde), octave mandola (Moon), flute (Ormiston) and whistles (Shaw).

Sandy Marshall

Prior to the formation of Tarneybackle, Sandy tended to focus on solo performance for charities, at local events and had an occasional appearance on Sunday morning television. He was (and still is) a regular performer at Burn's nights across central Scotland.

He is responsible (guilty) for the formation of Tarneybackle as in 2000 he asked John to join him in a performance to a caravan club. This led to offers of three bookings on that night and with the huge fee of £25 (between them) the path to a life of music (and poverty) was set. (Please note - we charge significantly more than £25 per gig now!!!)

Sandy works as a solo artist, performing traditional and contemporary folk with additional material from Harry Chapin and John Denver.

Sandy sings, plays guitar (Taylor), bouzouki and bodhran.

Lorna Davidson

Lorna started to play percussion at the Blackford sessions in 1997. Lorna plays an ever-growing range of "World" percussion, including djembe, bongos, chimes, claves, shakers and tambourine, and sings.

Lorna has introduced a number of new songs to Tarneybackle's live act.

A selection of venues that Tarneybackle have played at

The Scottish Parliament

Grangemouth High for BBC Radio Scotland - "The Reel Blend"

Devonvale Hall for BBC Radio Scotland - "Take The Floor"

Orkney Folk Festival 2005

Drumbeat 2005 Festival

Stirling Folk Club

Dunfermline Folk Club

Dalgety Bay Folk Club

The Star Folk Club, Glasgow

Falkirk Folk Club

The Duchally Hotel, Auchterarder

Drovers Tryst, Crieff

Plockton Hotel, Plockton

The Seaforth, Ullapool

The Old Inn, Gairloch

The Applecross Inn, Applecross

Hootannany's, Inverness

The Royal Hotel, Portree

The Loch Inn, Gairloch

The Ardvasar Hotel, Armadale, Isle of Skye

The Dunollie Hotel, Broadford, Isle of Skye

The Lade Inn, Callander

Doune and Dunblane Fling

The Mishnish, Tobermory

The Ben Damph Lodges, Torridon

The Clachaig Inn, Glencoe

The Drummond Hotel, St Fillans

Stac Polly Restaurant, Edinburgh

Crieff in The Square

O'Donnell's, Oban

The Crieff Hotel, Crieff

Saucy Mary's, Kyleakin

The Royal Hotel, Comrie

The Urquhart Caledonian Hotel, Portree

The Foulford Inn, Sma' Glen

Falls of Dochart, Killin

The Invervey Hotel, Tyndrum