The aim of this project, which was spread over a number of years, was to record guitar tracks by some of Scotland's finest exponents of the instrument. Thankfully, the first artist to be recorded was the late Tony Cuffe, when, on a flyinging visit to the UK in 1994, four tracks were laid down. In 2004 the final recordings were completed. Like a good whisky, "The Clear Stream" was a long time maturing but the resulting album is comparable to a De Luxe Blend!

As might be expected, there is a wide variety of guitar styles and amazing sounds. Listen to the Tony Cuffe tracks and it is immediately apparent why he is held in such high regard by other guitarists; Jack Evans, ex-guitarist with Jock Tamson's Bairns and The Easy Club, plays his distinctive sounding Sobell guitar; Dick Gaughan, who led the field years ago with his "Coppers & Brass" guitar album, performs some of his own compositions from the orchestral suite "Timewaves" performed at Celtic Connections in 2004; Rob MacKillop has searched widely for the roots of the roots of Scottish music and recorded music from the medieval period on lute, mandour and cittern but here he returns to the guitar and has arranged some of the best tunes from his researches; the long time interest of Tony McManus in the music of Brittany is explored here with two of the most significant players in France's Celtic province, Alain Genty and Soïg Siberil; Brian McNeill came to the guitar in the mid-eighties while in the Battlefield Band and he immediately found that with a guitar in his hands he could arrange more than on single line melody instruments and now enjoys composing for the instrument; Innes Watson, at the tender age of nineteen and currently on the Scottish course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, is the youngster of this group of guitarists and his main instrument is fiddle but you would not think so when listening to his guitar playing.

By coincidence the track "Zagreb" was recorded on 11th September, 2001. Tony, Alain and Soïg watched events unfold on the television and the track is dedicated to the victims.