TMSA Young Trad Tour 2019

Each year, the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year’s six finalists form a band with the previous year’s winner, play a series of gigs and make an album. The competition has become known for its participants’ camaraderie and there’s a unity here as everyone enjoys a spell in the spotlight while the instrumentalists combine naturally on ensemble tracks such as the opening ‘Big Set’.

Hannah Rarity (2018’s winner), Skye-based Catherine Tinney and guitarist Luc McNally provide the songs, including Rarity’s gentle ‘Go and Leave Me’, Tinney’s sweet ‘Ho Rò Chan Eil Cadal Orm’ and McNally’s suitably careworn reading of Michael Marra’s wry ‘Hamish (The Goalie)’. Youthful energy features strongly in the tunes. Stonehaven fiddler Cameron Ross’ rugged style lights up his strathspey-led set. Rarity’s successor, fiddler Benedict Morris takes ‘Bunker Hill’ at an invigorating clip. Flautist Sarah Markey leads off her set with an attractive waltz and piper Ross Miller bookends a traditional reel with tunes from by Blair Douglas and Gordon Duncan.