Sutherland-based singer-songwriter Geordie Jack, founder and lead vocalist of one of Scotland’s most successful-ever bands – Colorado – has caught the music industry entirely by surprise in making an unheralded comeback from retirement – as a solo act – just four months short of his 66th birthday.
Jack, whose concert on Saturday, February 6, at Eden Court, Inverness, in aid of the Highland Hospice, sold out within days, retired four years ago and was leading the quiet life in his home village of Golspie, although still writing songs.
However, the soft-spoken and very self-effacing Highlander sprang a major pre-festive-season surprise on the music industry by releasing a 10-track solo album, Choices, on the Wick-based Pan Records label, coupled with his first solo performance at a sellout charity concert in Thurso. His enterprise has been swiftly recognised by winning North Highland Radio’s award for Scotland’s favourite country music singer.
Jack’s first taste of performing in public was aged 14, as a drummer in the Sutherland Caledonian Pipe Band, but he stresses he was set on becoming a professional musician from the time he was a young child. Although entirely self-taught, he plays guitar, banjo, fiddle, accordion, drums, bass, mandolin and “a bit of piano”.
By the late 1960s, he was already a full-time professional with the Caithness-based band The Dynamos, touring the UK. Some years on, Jack cajoled four young fellow East Sutherland lads – Sandy Mackay, Dado Duncan, Gordon Davidson and the late Davy Duff – into forming a band playing country music. Colorado was born and their stepping stone to UK and international acclaim was in winning a national talent contest for country artists.
Colorado were to dominate the UK country music scene for more than a decade in the 1980s – voted the top British country band for nine years in a row – touring Europe and the US, making countless TV appearances and twice featuring on the bill at the famous Grand Ole Oprey in Nashville, Tennessee, where they recorded an album. The group disbanded in 1991, although they played a handful of foreign festivals on a part-time basis, while each carved out individual and alternative careers.
Jack formed a new band, The Jacks, with his two sons, Kevin, 42, and Trevor, 39, Dado Duncan and Bryan Coghill which was also very successful – touring extensively at home and abroad, twice headlining in Australia and releasing an album which sold more than 30,000 copies to earn a platinum award.
However, in 2012, Jack decided to retire and help out as a handyman and gardener for his wife, Irene, who, once all their musically talented family of four – Kevin, Trevor, Kim, 33, and Nicola, 29 – had flown the nest, had developed a successful upmarket B&B from their detached home overlooking the Moray Firth. Jack, who is articulate and urbane, continued songwriting and recording other folk’s music for his own pleasure until he was persuaded by family and friends to produce his album Choices, featuring three of his own compositions.
He said: “The title Choices reflects the many, sometimes difficult, choices of a travelling full-time musician – juggling music passion and demand, family responsibilities, financial pressures and all the social pitfalls of life on the road. I also wanted to record other people’s songs where the lyrics fitted my lifestyle views and sentiments. Although I am now approaching 66, the love of music, live performances and my urge to deliver strong lyrics to an audience has not diminished at all. The desire to take my material and find a ‘listening’ audience has been really rekindled.
“The thought of performing solo after all these years is very daunting. However, I have had a tremendous confidence-booster in the positive response to the CD album on social media and lots of other sources. It is very evident that people of all generations remember and continue to ask for what is known as Colorado material more than 25 years after the band stopped touring.”
The next major event on Jack’s comeback career is an invitation to a prestigious songwriters’ festival in Switzerland in April. The future looks bright for a tall, lean and gifted man with a musical mission as he celebrates his 50th year as a professional musician.
Although all tickets for the show on Saturday night have been sold out, it’s worth checking with the box office on 01463 234234 for returns.