John McCusker: Fiddler, composer, producer, trio regular, podcaster and masterclass teacher
SCOTTISH fiddler John McCusker is joined by virtuoso multi-instrumentalist and singer Sam Kelly and flute, whistle and guitar player Toby Shaer in his folk trio to perform a thrilling combination of instrumental dexterity, heartfelt songs and live energy on the eve of the York Festival of Ideas 2026.
“It was a really lovely surprise to learn it’ll be part of the festival,” says musician, composer and producer John. “I think it will influence what we’ll put in the set-list. It makes you look at the gig through a different lens, thinking about it being part of a festival of ideas.
“I always love coming to York. It feels like I’ve played everywhere there! It’s 36 years of touring now, where one of the lovely things is how places feel very familiar, like the NCEM in York, where we’ve made many friends and the stage feels very comfortable.”
Born in Belshill, fiddle, tin whistle, cittern and guitar player John began touring with the Battlefield Band at the age of 17. Now 53, he says: “One of the things I’ve always strived to do over those 36 years is to keep myself creatively stimulated, after working with many musicians that have inspired me.
“I feel lucky in having done things like bumping into Eddi Reader, who said she’d fallen in love with the songs of Robert Burns and then doing that record with her, or making a record with Kris Drever and Roddy Woomble [2008’s Before The Ruin].
“I’ve never had a plan. I’ve just bumped into people and ended up working with them, touring or making records, and hopefully they’re drawn to me by the magic that happens between us.”
John continues: “Like working with Michael McGoldrick and John Doyle [in an acoustic folk trio rooted in contemporary Celtic and roots music], when we didn’t want the magic to stop after doing Celtic Connections together.
“We’ve just done 40 gigs this year where what we play is barely discussed. We just go on stage and the creativity happens, the chemistry clicks.”
Now John’s attention turns to the John McCusker Trio with Sam Kelly and Toby Shaer, where their fusion of original compositions, traditional melodies and contemporary folk bursts with innovation, joy and soul.
“We’ve just made an EP that’ll be available at the gig – it was being pressed last week,” he says. “With Sam and Toby, it feels like we’re not just copying the other trios. This trio has its own qualities, developed by touring together several times.
“What we’ve discovered is that if I were to play what I play with McGoldrick and Doyle, it doesn’t sound right with Sam and Toby, so instead we try to play to our strengths, not doing something the other trios would, but thinking about what tunes would suit Sam and Toby. I’m loving the discovery of that, albeit I’m trying to do less travelling now.”
“After 36 years, I feel I still have so much to learn,” says John McCusker. Picture: Elly Lucas
John, who now lives in Perth & Kinross, has turned his hand to hosting a podcast, The Fiddle Line, interviewing the likes of fellow Scottish fiddlers Ali Bain and Duncan Chisholm. “The premise is that, as musicians, we meet at festivals, in recording studios or at concerts halls, where we’ll give each other a hug, play tunes together, but I didn’t know what Duncan’s back story was until I interviewed him for the podcast. I’m really enjoying doing the shows.”
John is also hosting fiddle weekends, “having shied away from teaching until I went to the Belfast Trad Festival”. “I did five days solid, teaching five hours a day, as well as concerts, where beforehand I was thinking ‘why am I doing this? I don’t like teaching’, when usually I’ll just do a two-hour masterclass at the Cambridge Folk Festival, but I so enjoyed it that I started teaching last year in the local village hall, in Crook of Devon, just outside Kinross,” he says.
“One of the teaching sessions was with Duncan [Chisholm], where he gave a masterclass and we recorded the podcast live.”
From differing trios to podcasts and fiddle-teaching weekends, John is keeping himself “creatively happy”. “It’s this love of still learning, learning how to get better at teaching and podcasting,” he says. “After 36 years, I feel I still have so much to learn.
“I remember when I used to play in folk clubs at the age of 12, then joining the Battlefield Band at 17, then touring the world with Mark knopfler, playing arenas where the crowds got bigger and bigger, feeling out of my depth working with these genius musicians from all over, thinking how did I get here?
“But you learn so much by soaking it all up – and there are so many sides to it. I remember a chat with John Doyle and Michael McGoldrick, when we were playing at 100 miles an hour and feeling we were not getting anything back from the audience.
“We had to learn about the pacing of our gigs, when we were getting faster and faster. Or learning by talking to Ali Bain about what it was like in the early days.
“Or feeling that when I started playing with the Battlefield Band, I remember being young and touring with older musicians and observing the way they talked to the audience and set up a set of tunes or a song. That had a huge impact on me; how, after telling a joke, you can play anything because you have the audience right there.”
John returns to his statement of “sometimes wanting to travel less”, then qualifies what he means. “One thing I’ve never got tired of is how, when someone plants a creative seed, it blossoms into a record or into touring,” he says.
This applies to working with Sam and Toby. “We’re thinking, ‘what can we do with all these sounds?’; ‘how can we bring in as many influences as possible to the sound?’. I’m really buzzing off working with them, having been a fan of Sam for years, when I had no idea of his love of old songs.”
Tomorrow’s gig has sold out. Box office for returns only: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.