BRÒGEAL, TUESDAY PAPER CLUB

Brògeal’s story starts with vocalist and guitarist Daniel Harkins and multi instrumentalist and singer Aidan Callaghan on the bus to Celtic games, sharing rough song ideas and bits of melody that carried the sound of nights in Falkirk, Scotland. Those early exchanges turned into their first band, then a folk leaning trio with accordion player Sam MacMillan as they worked out simple tunes. After the pandemic, drummer Luke Mortimer and bassist Euan Mundie joined the trio and Brògeal came to be.

Scottish identity forms the center of everything for the five, shaped by language, pride, the feeling of growing up in a town pushed to the margins, and their country's music. The band's name Brògeal is drawn from tales of wandering clans who traded songs for shelter. Since their early days, they have refused to soften their accents or write toward any outside expectation, choosing to speak from where they stand. The Scottish referendum sharpened their sense of direction, and their songs circle around nights out, closed pubs, limited options, lingering grief, and the rhythms of local life.

Now the band has released their debut album Tuesday Paper Club. Recorded on the Isle of Lewis in an isolated studio, the album channels the raucousness of their live sets and the quiet of the Scottish surroundings, blending noise and melody. Their songs sit comfortably beside older folk material without trying to mimic it, and they treat that older material with care. Songs like Go Home Tae Yer Bed reflect that care and the quieter side of the band, shaped by Callaghan’s memory of his father and lifted further by Scottish folk singer Josie Duncan’s Gaelic vocals. The band also keeps pride and their commitment to being openly Scottish at the center of the album, especially on The Lonesome Boatman, which closes the record and anchors its spirit, a tune tied to their Celtic supporter roots.

I’m not Scottish, but I like to think I carry a little of the band’s spirit in me. My wife and I met when we were studying at the University of Glasgow, and the country’s rhythm and music have stayed with me ever since. Perhaps that is why I've become so drawn to Tuesday Paper Club. The band captures that Scottish spirit in a way that brings me back to the artists I have listened to for decades including The Proclaimers, The Pogues, Runrig, and The Waterboys with Fisherman’s Blues. Yet the band is no knockoff. Brògeal’s writing and music feel freshly minted, carrying pride, humor, and weight for a new generation of Scots to love and embrace.