About Us

TMSA Board Members

Douglas Craik: Convener
Douglas has been involved in folk music since the late 60s when he was a member of the folk group ‘Avizandum’ which was based at Dundee University. Since then he has performed with the revue group ‘Simply Burns’ and, as a solo artist, is a well-kent face in many a folk club.

He has spent almost 40 years in the financial services industry holding senior management posts. Although now ‘retired’, he is Chairman of UK Business Continuity Ltd, runs his own Business Continuity Management company, and is a Board Member of the Scottish Continuity Group. He therefore brings this sound business background to augment the board of the TMSA.

Alison Mackinnon: Vice-Convener
Born and brought up on the Isle of Skye with a Shetland mother, a Skye father, and an Aberdeen grandmother, Alison was lucky to have a number of musical cultures around her from a very early age. She started going to festivals in 1970 and after moving to Aberdeen in 1978 immediately became involved in Aberdeen Folk Club as a committee member including a stint as Organiser and was involved as a committee member of the Aberdeen Alternative Music Festival in its early years.

A move to Blairgowrie saw her involved in the attempted revival of Blairgowrie Folk Festival. Shortly after moving to Inverness in 2000, she became involved in the setting up of the Inverness and District branch of the TMSA as well as serving on the committee of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs in Inverness and Dingwall. Alison cannot imagine life without music, and she feels that we must continue to promote the traditions of our country forcefully.

Fiona Campbell: Treasurer
Fiona has been involved in the voluntary arts for a number of years in Scotland and New Zealand (where she hails from). She has been the Press and Marketing Officer for the National Association of Youth Orchestras (NAYO) and her last post was as Project Administrator for Scottish Education & Action for Development. Fiona has completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Cultural Policy & Management and is currently Executive Officer of Voluntary Arts Scotland.

Fiona is also the Edinburgh & Lothians Branch Convener - particularly working to organise the annual Northern Streams Festival (bringing Scottish and Scandinavian music, song, dance and storytelling together). She is a board member of Scottish Education & Action for Development (SEAD) and Neo Productions. Fiona teaches Scottish traditional dance, is a member of two Irish dancing groups and has performed at folk dance festivals in Slovenia, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Finland. She has also performed in and produced many musical theatre productions.

Clare Button: Secretary
Clare's interest in traditional music began over ten years ago and since then she has tried to listen to and learn about as much of it as possible! Originally from England but now settled in Edinburgh, Clare enjoys singing traditional songs from Britain and Ireland but also has a particular interest in the connections and relationships between musics of all world cultures.

When not working as an archivist, Clare is also on the committee of the Edinburgh & Lothians branch, with responsibility for co-organising the Northern Streams festival, and runs a monthly singing and tunes session (as well as attending as many others as she can!) Clare also writes for various traditional music publications. Having loved Scotland and its music, both Scots and Gaelic, for many years Clare feels privileged and excited to be working with so many equally committed people to encourage, facilitate and promote Scottish traditional music and song.

Liz Wilson: Director
Liz Wilson lives in Linlithgow where she has been on the committee of Linlithgow Folk Festival for eight years. She is also a member of the TMSA Edinburgh and Lothians Branch and is currently Vice Convener. The Branch is very involved in the organisation of traditional music events both in West Lothian and Edinburgh.

Liz hails originally from Wick, Caithness where she joined Wick Junior Choir at the age of eight but has also lived in Thurso and Kirkwall. She still enjoys singing and teaching traditional songs to her daughter Catriona. Liz actively participates in singing - mostly Scots song but not exclusively so. She currently sings with the Scots choir Sangstream in Edinburgh. She has also added storytelling to her activities and finds that traditional song and story work well together. She runs her own storytelling business and is very active in the world of storytelling.

Kay Thomson: Director

Kay can’t remember a time when she didn’t sing, and enjoys most genres of music. Her greatest love however is the songs of Scotland and Ireland, particularly the ballads and given minimal encouragement will give you the full twelve minutes of her version of ‘Tam Lin’. She feels that traditional music is at the heart of Scotland’s culture and should be supported at grassroots level to enable all to take part.

Born and brought up in Ayr, she joined Ayr Academy Folk Club and later became a regular floor singer at Ayr Folk Club. Moving to Edinburgh to attend university, she soon became involved in the busy folk scene in pubs and clubs, including Sandy Bells, the St Vincent Bar, White Hart and Royal Oak. A regular floor singer at Edinburgh Folk Club, she became one of the committee and occasional compère. At this time she devised her one-woman show ‘Ye Jacobites by Name’, which has been seen in a wide range of places including the Edinburgh Folk Festival, for two years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (in the Crown Folk Club), and for one Ormskirk Day of Folk in Lancashire. .......................................................................................

After many happy years in Edinburgh, she moved to Kilsyth and for several years attended the Star Folk Club in Glasgow and became a regular floor singer, occasional compère and occasional sound engineer – with particular memories of a St Patrick’s Night concert as sound engineer for Stramash and a group of Irish Dancers dancing hard-shoe. She has worked as Project Co-ordinator at Kirkie Kids Out of School Care, as Centre Manager and Development Officer for Croy Miners' Welfare Charitable Society, and National Director with the TMSA. She is currently the Treasurer of the Traditional Music Forum and Chairman of Kilsyth Town Twinning Association, twinned with Meulan near Paris. She is delighted to be a director of the TMSA.