Big Country

Big Country is a Scottish rock band, popular in the early to mid-80s, but still releasing material for a cult following into the present day. Canonically composed of Stuart Adamson (vocals, guitar, piano), Mark Brzezicki (drums), Tony Butler (bass), and Bruce Watson (guitar), though a variety a other musicians have been in the band during their long wanderings in post-popularity.

Their first hit was 1983's "Fields of Fire", which reached the UK's Top Ten and was rapidly followed by the album The Crossing. The album was a crossover hit in the United States, powered by the single "In a Big Country". The song featured heavily engineered guitar playing strongly reminiscent of bagpipes, and the band have spent every day of the next two decades answering the question "How did you make your guitars sound like bagpipes?" with slowly eroding patience.

Their second album Steeltown appeared in 1984, and was a hit out of the gate, but soon faded as fans and critics turned away from Big Country's bombastic sound. One more hit followed with "Look Away" from 1986's The Seer, but since then Big Country have been a minor act, popping up in the lower echelons of the charts in the UK and Europe every now and then while churning out mild-selling album after album.