Look out, Ed Shearin’! Meet the singing crofter who’ll swap tending sheep for US stardom
DURING the winter lambing season, Colin MacLeod can be found out in the rain-lashed fields at four in the morning, tending to his ewes.
But now the crofter from the Isle of Lewis is about to get his big break as a singer on one of the most popular TV shows in the US.
Having put the finishing touches to his first album, the 33-year-old singer is to follow in the footsteps of stars such as Adele, Stevie Wonder and Ed Sheeran by guesting on James Corden’s Late Late Show.
‘Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol likes my music,’ Mr MacLeod explains. ‘He told James Corden that he had to let me on the show and he couldn’t say no. It was really nice of him.
‘I am due to be on the show in June and I can’t wait. It’s best not to think about how many people could be watching me, otherwise I’ll be having panic attacks.’
But he does not plan to give up crofting, which was his childhood dream. Taking a break at the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas, he explains: ‘Being a crofter came first. I was going to be a gamekeeper when I left school. I wanted to take people salmon fishing and work on my croft like a good Highland boy, but after taking people out I would jam on my guitar.
‘I started writing songs and playing in the pubs. I got discovered in Aberdeen when a guy from a record company saw me playing.’
His first major album Bloodlines, recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in Wiltshire, will be out in May. He says: ‘The songs are about growing up on Lewis. But despite being an island boy, my music is Americana and that is the music I was influenced by.’
With his father looking after the sheep back in Lewis, he reflects on the crofting life: ‘It’s a hard way to make a living for sure.
‘For all the idyllic Instagram moments you have another six days of sideways gales, but that makes it for me.’