The Electrics
Glasgow, United Kingdom11 reviews across 3 releases
The Electrics were a Scottish Christian folk-rock band formed around 1988 in Dumbarton, after Sammy Horner and Paul Baird brought together musicians from the Glasgow scene for a festival appearance. Their early material moved through several styles before settling into the Celtic-rock blend that became their trademark: driving rhythms carried by fiddle and mandolin, with pipes, whistle and accordion adding color around the guitars. Horner's melodic, story-led songs could turn from the comic vanity of "Two Buns" to the spiritual parable in "Pour Me a Pint," keeping pub-song energy alongside explicitly Christian themes. The 1997 album The Electrics, a re-recorded selection from earlier work, introduced that sound to a wider American audience. Livin' it Up When I Die then gave it a brighter, fuller studio setting, with Hammond organ, surf guitar and zydeco touches.
In 1996, The Electrics moved from Germany's Pila Music to Five Minute Walk's SaraBellum Records, beginning a period of American distribution and touring. Germany's Christmas Rock Night remained important to their European following and provided the setting for Danger Live, released by ICC Records in 1999. The live album captured the band's instrumental drive, Horner's humorous stage comments and the changing personnel around its long-standing core; Kenny McNicholl had departed, while Tim Cotterell received a mandolin feature. The Electrics never officially disbanded. Horner later relocated to Ireland and continued recording and touring, including work with his wife Kylie in Sweet Sorrows.
3 releases reviewed
Livin' it Up When I Die
Danger Live