Robin Williamson
Scottish musician
Robin Duncan Harry Williamson (born 24 November 1943) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and storyteller who was a founding member of the Incredible String Band, as well as having a solo career.
Career
Williamson lived in the Fairmilehead area of Edinburgh and attended George Watson's College before leaving at the age of 15 to become a professional musician. He performed in local jazz bands with Gerard Dott (later to be a member of the Incredible String Band) before turning to traditional music as a singer and guitarist. By 1961 he had met and begun sharing a flat with Bert Jansch, and in 1963 they travelled to London to play the metropolitan folk circuit. By 1965 he had returned to Edinburgh and formed a duo with Clive Palmer, specializing in fiddle and banjo arrangements of traditional Scottish and Irish songs. Joe Boyd signed them to Elektra Records in 1966, by which time they had hired a third member, Mike Heron. As resident band at Clive's Incredible Folk Club in Glasgow, they called themselves the Incredible String Band.
Between 1966 and 1974 the Incredible String Band, now led by Williamson and Heron, released some 13 albums. The group also included Williamson's girlfriend Licorice McKechnie.
Williamson released his first solo album, Myrrh, in 1971 when still a member of the Incredible String Band.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Robin Williamson” is scottish musician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Robin, Williamson and Scottish, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2696628. VIAF identifies the subject as 84212210. The Library of Congress control number is n79119376. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1961, 1963 and 1965.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robin Williamson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.