Scottish artists including KT Tunstall, The Proclaimers, Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild and Mogwai have joined forces for a new covers album in support of out of work music crew impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. The new digital album, Whole Lotta Roadies, will be released on Friday 11th December and is available to pre-order online at Bandcamp now.

The public have been able to vote for the songs they want to hear on the record; which will be performed by the original artists and their road crew. The latest tranche of tracks was unveiled on the Whole Lotta Roadies social media channels today.

The final track listing for the album has yet to be determined, but confirmed numbers include:

• Edinburgh acoustic folk-rocker KT Tunstall performing her 2005 hit single Black Horse and the Cherry Tree;
• Glaswegians Twin Atlantic performing Heart and Soul, which topped the official UK Rock chart in 2014;
• Honeyblood (aka Stina Tweeddale) performing 2014 single Biro;
• Belle and Sebastian and their crew performing their 2004 hit I’m A Cuckoo;
• Edinburgh punk veterans The Rezillos performing Top Of The Pops, a top 20 hit in 1978;
• Aberdeen alt-rockers The XCerts performing Shaking In The Water, the lead single from their 2014 album There Is Only You;

Further tracks are set to be unveiled later this week, with numbers from from Leith icons the The Proclaimers; indie rockers Idlewild; space rock merchants Mogwai; Falkirk outifit Arab Strap; Kilmarnock’s Fatherson; former Delgados singer-songwriter Emma Pollock and Inverness musician Kathryn Joseph all set to feature. On Monday the Whole Lotta Roadies Twitter account promised that “each tune is a nailed on beauty.”

The new LP has been put together by The Fruit Tree Foundation, a project originally formed in 2010 by Emma Pollock and Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones to create the multi-artist compilation album First Edition based around the themes of mental health and wellbeing. Jones told NME that the ongoing pandemic had given the organisation a new sense of purpose.

He said “The devastating impact Covid-19 has had on the music industry is well documented and few are far more affected than live crew. On speaking to members of our touring crew I realised how they were falling through the cracks in government funding and with no gigs and tours upcoming the outlook for them was bleak. I wanted to try and find a way to support them and the wider Scottish Live Crew industry.”

Jones added “Knowing how many crew members are also very talented musicians in their own right I thought it would be fitting for them to showcase this by covering songs of the bands they have been working with over the years, and releasing an album of this to create a hardship fund and also awareness of their situation.”