Donald Black, “the instrument’s foremost exponent in Scottish Traditional Music” (Scotland on Sunday), received his first harmonica from a kindly aunt at the tender age of four. He is totally self-taught and with his own unique style and mastery (using it as a lead instrument) has single-handedly been responsible for the harmonica having been given a new respect and acceptance, forcing afficionados, professionals and reviewers to sit up and take it seriously as a significant part of the Scottish Traditional Music scene.

Throughout the years of his recording career Donald has enjoyed extensive radio play and has made TV appearances both at home and abroad, has played many concerts and festivals to hugely appreciative audiences in his native Scotland, as well as England, Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Denmark, Russia and the U.S.A. – taking his Scottish Celtic Harmonica from Moscow to Kansas City, Chicago to Stornoway. He features strongly in the German TV harmonica documentary Imagination is Limitless and is mentioned in four books: The Encyclopaedia of the Harmonica by Peter Krampert, Harmonicas for Dummies by Winslow Yerxa, Die Mundharmonica by Cristoph Wagner and Fifty Cents and a Boxtop by Charlie McCoy.

Donald has thus far been the only Scot to be invited to perform at S.P.A.H. (the annual convention of the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica) held in the U.S.A. He has also twice guested at the U.K. National Harmonica League annual convention held in Bristol, England.