Music like Dick Gaughan

Richard Peter Gaughan (born 17 May 1948 in Glasgow) is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters.

Gaughan was born in Glasgow's Royal Maternity Hospital, when his father was working in Glasgow as an engine driver. He spent the first year-and-a-half of his life in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, after which the whole family moved to Leith, a port on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

The eldest of three children, Gaughan grew up surrounded by the music of both Scotland and Ireland. His mother, a Highland Scot who spoke Gaelic, had as a child won a silver medal for singing at a Gaelic Mòd. His Leith-born father played guitar, his Irish grandfather played the fiddle and his Glaswegian grandmother played button accordion. The family experienced considerable poverty, but the area they lived in possessed a strong community spirit and many of Gaughan's songs celebrate his working-class roots. In his teens Gaughan served an apprenticeship at a local paper mill, but had wanted to be a musician since he first started playing guitar at the age of seven. He got involved with the local folk music scene and, with two others, started a club called the Edinburgh Folk Centre. He turned professional in early 1970 and moved to London.