Bruce William Watson (born March 11, 1961) is a Canadian-born Scottish guitarist, best known for being a member of Big Country.[1]
Watson was born in Timmins, Ontario, Canada. He moved with his family to Scotland as a toddler.
Prior to joining Big Country, Watson had been a member of several Fife-based new wave bands including the Delinquents and Eurosect.
Watson's role in the band was primarily as a supporting guitarist. He typically contributed rhythmic textures ("Wonderland", "Lost Patrol") and repetitive melodic fills ("In a Big Country", "Look Away") which underpinned verses, contrasting with Stuart Adamson's more straightforward chord work in these sections. During solos, as Adamson played the main melody, Watson often contributed a counter-melody. Watson also played slide guitar on some of the band's early material, including "Rain Dance" and "Red Fox." Later on, Adamson played much of the slide guitar work on the band's songs. Watson is also an accomplished mandolin player, and put this skill to use on several of Big Country's more country and western-influenced songs, including "Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)".
During recent tours, Watson has played many of Adamson's lead guitar parts live, while his son, Jamie, fulfils his old role.
Watson has played guitar on every Big Country album, and co-wrote many Big Country songs with Adamson. He also sang live backing vocals.
In the summer of 2007, Watson played with the Skids who had reformed to play two gigs in Dunfermline prior to a set on the main stage at T in the Park.
Also in 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, he reunited with founding members Tony Butler (now lead vocalist) and Mark Brzezicki to embark on a tour of the UK with dates in Scotland and England. Fellow band co-founder Stuart Adamson died in December 2001.
A partir de 2008, Watson comenzó a actuar con su hijo Jamie Watson, además de lanzar un álbum, The Portastudio Diaries (2009), que narra una serie de grabaciones en el estudio de grabación casero de Bruce Watson .
Bruce y Jamie, junto con el músico estadounidense Tom Kercheval, tienen un proyecto paralelo llamado WKW. WKW lanzó un álbum en 2019 llamado Men of Steel .