Rankin Robertson

Rankin Robertson
The Canvas Cafe, Brick Lane
Thursday 14th November
Doors 7:15pm, Live Music 7:30pm

A night of Celtic Song and Music with Mairi Rankin and Ailie Robertson

Winner of ‘Best Group’ in both the Live Ireland awards and the Tradition In Review awards, the duo are one of the top Celtic acts in the world. With their band The Outside Track, they were ‘Best Live Act’ nominees in the 2013 MG Alba Scots Traditional Music Awards, and won the German Radio Critics Prize 2014, for their latest album Flash Company. Live Ireland called them, ‘Among the top bands in the world – stunning on every cut!’.

Mairi Rankin – One of the hugely influential Rankin Family – legends on the Canadian music scene – she plays fiddle, sings and also step-dances up a storm. Born in Mabou, Nova Scotia, Mairi has been influenced by some of the best Cape Breton traditional musicians and instructors on the island. She has developed her own unique style by
being immersed in such a rich musical culture.

She has toured nationally and internationally as a solo artist, a sideman and is a member of the Cape Breton Celtic super group Beolach. She has performed with the Rankin Sisters, Unusual Suspects and Bruce Guthro to name but a few. Mairi has recorded one solo album, two CDs with Beolach and has been featured on numerous compilations and recordings.

Ailie Robertson – Ailie Robertson from Edinburgh is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s leading young traditional musicians. She is a musician in the broadest sense: composer, arranger, teacher, improviser and harp virtuoso. Her accomplishment on the clarsach is such that leading Irish flautist Niall Keegan said: “Ailie’s synthesis of Irish, Scottish and contemporary harping technique into an individual style represents the realisation of otherwise unimagined possibilities for the Celtic harp.”

Ailie grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was immersed in the harp world from an early age. She began playing the clarsach when she was eleven years old and through her piano and clarsach lessons she developed a love for both classical and traditional music. She has won a plethora of awards for her harp playing.