In the 1960s and 1970s, the Corries safeguarded Scotland’s traditional music. The duo comprised multi-instrumentalists, songwriters, and vocalists Roy Williamson and Ronnie Browne. While their core repertoire stayed rooted in traditional folk songs, lasting fame came through original material—Williamson’s “Flower of Scotland,” later adopted as Scotland’s unofficial anthem, and Browne’s “The Roses of Prince Charles.”
The act began as a trio when Williamson and Browne teamed with Bill Smith at Edinburgh College of Art in 1962. Paddie Bell joined as female singer the next year, creating a quartet that issued three albums—The Corrie Folk Trio with Paddie Bell, The Promise of the Day, and In Retrospect—before the lineup dissolved. Bell exited in 1965 to have a child; Smith departed the following year. Browne and Williamson then performed solely as a duo, shortening the name to the Corries.
Beginning in 1970, they employed the cambolim, a matched pair of instruments designed and built by Williamson. His model paired a basic guitar fingerboard with an attached bandurria and sympathetic resonating strings; Browne’s added a mandolin and four bass strings to a basic guitar.
The pair became regular presences on Scottish television shows and films. In 1983 they received a gold award from the International Film and Television Festival for the STV series The Corries & Other Folk. Their artistic summit arrived with the film The Bruce, which closed with Browne’s rendition of “Flower of Scotland.” Browne also appeared in the picture as Maxwell the Minstrel.
Williamson and Browne’s partnership ended with Williamson’s death from a brain tumor in 1990. Browne has since continued performing and recording as a soloist.
