Gary Innes
Gary was born and raised in the small village of Spean Bridge in the Scottish Highlands.
As a professional musician, Gary has performed all over the world with Mànran, The Gary Innes Band, and alongside other musicians. Just five years into his career, Gary was asked to perform in The Roman Amphitheatre in Amman, Jordan for a World Peace concert which was aired to over a billion people. In 2017 Gary was crowned ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.
Gary has released three solo studio albums to date and has collaborated with an array of other musicians, including joining Runrig for their final farewell concerts and recordings in Stirling.
Gary is an ex-Scottish Shinty captain and Internationalist who has won the coveted Camanachd Cup with Fort William Shinty club five times. Within his Shinty career Gary is one of the very few players to hold every senior medal in the sport. Due to his musical touring commitments, Gary hung up his caman in 2014 but can still be found in front of the camera or in the commentary box covering the live Shinty finals for the BBC whenever he can.
From 2016 Gary has also presented BBC Radio Scotland’s longest running music programme, Take the Floor further integrating him into the Scottish music scene with BBC Radio 2 presenter Mark Radcliffe saying, “Gary is a jack of all trades and master of all.”
Ewen Henderson
Ewen Henderson hails from Lochaber in the West Highlands of Scotland and has been naturally steeped in the traditional music and Gaelic culture of the area from an early age. Ewen started learning the fiddle at five years of age and has since then mastered an impressive array of instruments, having had the privilege of learning from many of the true masters of West Highland traditional music - Aonghas Grant Snr. on fiddle most notably - whilst also being influenced by his strong family musical heritage.
Though most commonly found performing with Mànran (the band he co-founded in 2010), Ewen has also been fortunate enough to play all over the world with a host of top Scottish and global cross-genre artists including the world-renowned Battlefield Band, with whom he toured for several years, and the World Music pioneers the Afro-Celt Sound System.
Over the last few years, Henderson has amassed a great variety of professional recognition and awards including five Scots Trad Music Awards in five years and the MacDonald of Sleat Prize for Gaelic poetry. When not touring and performing live, Ewen is in demand as a session musician, has composed soundtracks for film and television, and has recently enjoyed working as musical director of live concerts and television series.
Ross Saunders
Ross’ musical career began at age 10 after an impromptu ‘listening test’ in primary school resulted in 7 years of classical violin and piano lessons.
Although classical training had a crucial effect on his musical learning, it didn’t come with a ‘cool factor’ attached to it and as a result his hunger for learning the guitar took hold. However, there was a slight issue. Every 13 year old boy wants to play guitar when they start a band at high school; but who’s going to play bass?
Horrified by the prospect of ‘only 4 strings’ and root notes to play, he wasn’t keen to say the least, but thankfully a chance event occurred. The drummer in his first band decided it was time to show him the most important musical clip of his life; a video of John Entwistle from ‘The Who’ playing his infamous bass solo in their hit ‘My Generation’. Having just witnessed the ‘coolest’ thing he’d ever seen in rock, he started to beg his parents for a 4 string bass on a daily basis.
Despite being so fortunate to obtain a decent musical education from an early age, music had always been a major priority in Ross’ life thanks to his father David’s impressively eclectic taste in bands. Through David’s endless musical boot camps, Ross incorporated many styles into his own playing; everything from progressive rock, to Scandinavian nu-jazz, to 70’s P-funk.
Upon finishing high school and earning a place on Strathclyde University’s B.A. Applied Music course, Ross began to focus his efforts solely on bass guitar and audio production as endless projects of varying genre were beginning to pour in. The course also graced its students with an extensive network of musicians from all backgrounds, stretching from Classical to Folk.
Ross graduated from the B.A. Applied Music Course with Honours in 2005 specialising in bass guitar and recording and sound production. However, that was merely the beginning of his musical journey…
As of 2010 Ross has performed with many Scottish acts including ‘The Bluebells’, ‘Lou Hickey’, ‘Eoghan Colgan’, ‘Skerryvore’, ‘The Easy Orchestra’, ‘Federation of the Disco Pimp’, to name but a few. Through these projects he has supported the likes of ‘Martha Wainwright’, ‘Edwin Collins’, ‘The Cat Empire’, ‘Nizlopi’ and ‘Imelda May’.
Ross also works as an in house engineer at one of Glasgow’s best loved studios, GloWormRecording, as well as operating under the alias Dusty Reel for mixing and mastering services. Asides from recording and mixing for the band over the past 3 years, Ross has also recently worked for other local traditional artists such as Calum Stewart, Rura, Project Smok, Benedict Morris, Sarah Markey and TRIP, to name but a few!
Ryan Murphy
‘How does he do it?’-Seán Laffey (Reviewing Cara’s Album, Long Distance Love), Irish Music Magazine, 2011
Ryan Murphy from Cork in the south of Ireland is one of the most talented young musicians to emerge on the vibrant Irish trad music scene in recent years. His main instrument is the uilleann pipes, but he also plays flute and saxophone. He has won an impressive total of seven All-Ireland and two Oireachtas titles on the pipes. Apart from playing with Mànran & Cara, he is also a founding member of the young Irish band and powerhouse that is ‘Éalú’. Ryan holds a Diploma in Traditional Irish Music Performance from the London College of Music and is currently in his final year of studying at the Irish World Academy of Music in Limerick, under Dr. Niall Keegan
Mark Scobbie
Originally from Dundee, Mark began playing drums at the age of 13, playing in various school ensembles and bands such as orchestras, funk bands, big bands and a steel pans band. Mark progressed rapidly and won various awards at Dundee Schools Music Festivals while also performing outside of school in various other bands and projects. Accepted onto the BA Applied Music course at the University of Strathclyde in 2009, Mark really began to push himself and further his playing. Exposed to various styles of music on a daily basis Mark’s musical pallet grew immensely as he began performing in various bands and ensembles in Glasgow. This led him to perform in some of Scotland’s largest venues such as the Barrowlands Ballroom, O2 Academy, HMV Picture House, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and King Tuts Wah Wah Hut as well as many others. Mark graduated with a 1st class honours degree from the BA Applied Music course while also receiving an Alexander Stone Award for excellence in his final recital. Shortly after graduating Mark found himself performing live on BBC Radio Scotland as a competitor in the BBC Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year 2013.
Aidan Moodie
Aidan Moodie, a guitarist and singer from Kirkwall, Orkney, is one of the newest in a long line of traditional musicians steeped in the unique heritage of Scotland’s northern isles.
Since moving to Glasgow in 2015, Aidan has made a name for himself as one of the scene’s most sought-after accompanists, touring with award-winning names such as Siobhan Miller, Iona Fyfe, Claire Hastings, and Hannah Rarity.
He is also a founding member of four-piece folk band Gnoss, who released their album Drawn From Deep Water to critical acclaim in May 2019 (“Impeccable, exemplary playing and interplay” - Folk Radio UK). Their touring schedule has brought them to many of folk’s most exciting festivals - Festival Interceltique De Lorient (France), CELTICA (Italy), Wickham (England) - and earned them their role as guest musical directors of the Orkney Folk Festival’s celebrated ‘Gathering’ project, cumulating in a sellout reprise at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket during Celtic Connections 2019.
Aidan graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s ‘Bachelor of Traditional Music’ in 2018 with first class honours.
Kim Carnie
Kim Carnie commands the stage with unmistakable charm, her inherent expression holding the attention of anyone in her presence. Her intricate vocals are infused with intriguing vulnerability and delivered with the sincerity of someone well beyond her years. Kim is the incarnation of emotion - she speaks to you through lyrics that challenge the mind and with a voice that comforts the soul.
Kim’s solo career began in 2017 which saw the release of her debut EP In Her Company: a tasteful collection of traditional Gaelic and self-penned songs with accompaniment from some of the finest musicians on the Scottish music scene. The recording was produced by Euan Burton and was well received by radio stations, audiences and reviewers alike: fRoots Magazine comparing her voice to that of the late Eva Cassidy and the tracks accumulating regular airplay on BBC Radio 2.
Since then, Carnie, with her ‘velvet voiced authority’ (The Scotsman) has become a regular session vocalist, working with producers Jim Sutherland, Ged Grimes and Donald Shaw. She is featured on Netflix’s Outlaw King (2018) and the computer game soundtrack for Black Mirror (2017), as well as The Bard’s Tale, alongside Deacon Blue’s Gregor Phillips. Kim has recently been involved with writing the soundtrack for another production with one of Europe’s leading computer games companies.
Kim has performed extensively across the UK, having made appearances at Cambridge, Orkney and Sidmouth folk festivals as well as Celtic Connections, where, in 2018, a televised concert, celebrating the ‘crème de la crème of Contemporary Gaelic singers,’ highlighted Carnie’s effortless ability to deliver a poignant vocal in a performance elevated only by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. No stranger to the screen, Kim is also a TV presenter in high demand and the host of Na Trads, Scotland’s Traditional Music Awards.
With recent tours taking in venues and festivals throughout mainland Europe and Scandinavia, 2020 looks to be a momentous year for the singer who has new horizons in view. In an exciting recording project with Emmy award-winning and Grammy-nominated producer, composer and musician, Tyler Duncan, 2020 will bring the release of Kim’s highly anticipated debut album.
Breathing ‘light and beauty into every note,’ Kim Carnie is most certainly ‘a voice to watch out for’ (The Living Tradition).
