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Mairearad and Anna - Best Day - At Lyth Arts

21st March 2016

Photograph of Mairearad and Anna - Best Day - At Lyth Arts

After the stunning success of their November tour, two of Scotlands most revered multi-instrumentalists, Mairearad Green and Anna Massie follow up their critically acclaimed, third album, Best Day with another tour!! This time, a 9-date UK Tour, in APRIL - taking in venues from London to Plockton and beyond!!!

Website - mairearadandanna.com

Best Day was recorded at Gran's House Studio in Lamington in the peaceful and picturesque Scottish Borders. Remaining true to their live sound, the album is performed entirely by Mairearad and Anna themselves. Their pairing combines Mairearad's deft and lyrical accordion style, as well as her masterful piping, with Anna’s unparalleled versatility on guitar, fiddle and banjo. After over twelve years playing together, in the last few years, both have introduced songs to their live set, demonstrating the pair’s seemingly infinite abilities as musicians, but also the symbiotic synergy of performing together. ‘Best Day’ is the duo’s first album to include songs, and it will be available, for sale, on the tour!

Mairearad and Anna are renowned for their formidable technical skill, alongside playful delivery and the sheer joy of making music together, which mirrors their cheerful album title ‘Best Day’. The title comes from one of the fiddle sets on the album including Aidan O’Rourkes tune ‘Best Day of my Life’.

The album, as well as the tour, features many of Mairearad’s new compositions, Bottle Island, Julia, Simon’s and The Red Poppy Reel, and including, for the first time ever, a tune written together, ‘A Lovely Bottle of Botanist’. It would not be an Mairearad and Anna album without a pipes and banjo set on three lively Reels, and on the perhaps more emotional end of the album scale, Anna sings a beautiful take on ‘She Loves Me, (When I Try)’ by Dougie Maclean.

Nominated for Live Act of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards - alongside Lau, Breabach and The Outside Track Mairearad and Anna’s love of making music together evidently reflects in their performance. Leading world music and travel magazine Songlines proclaimed that the camaraderie and sheer fun of musical collaboration is plainly evident and infectious., whilst they have also garnered five-star reviews in broadsheets such as The Scotsman, and a fan-base featuring KT Tunstall, who saw them by chance at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival, and took to Twitter to praise the duo; and You guys were killing it...amazing playing!

April 2016 Tour Dates

Apr 14
Lyceum Folk Club
Newport, United Kingdom

Apr 15
Downend Folk Club
London, United Kingdom

Apr 16
Llandeilo Folk Club
Llandeilo, United Kingdom

Apr 19
Lyth Arts Centre
Wick.

Apr 20
Plockton High School
Plockton, United Kingdom

Apr 21
Eden Court Theatre
Inverness, United Kingdom

Apr 22
Ceilidh Place,
Ullapool.

Apr 23
Finzean Hall
Banchory, United Kingdom

Apr 24
Drouthy Cobbler
Elgin.

Apr 26
Perth Folk Club
Perth, United Kingdom

Apr 27
The Witham
Barnard Castle, United Kingdom

Apr 28
The Barn,
Baston, United Kingdom

Apr 29
The Ram Club (Surrey)
Thames Ditton, United Kingdom

 

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