Wednesday 11th Februrary 2009


Mike (fiddle, vocals) and Ali (piano, vocals) are two of the best young exponents of traditional music in Scotland.

Playing a varied mix of traditional and contemporary tunes, songs with close vocal harmonies and footstompin' jigs and reels, Mike and Ali's performances are bursting with energy, drive and vitality. Their inventive arrangements are communicated with style and great technical command, seamlessly matching an empathetic feel for the genre with a contemporary, innovative approach. They display the instinctive musical understanding often found among close family members and are a real duo, not a fiddle player and an accompanist. Hailing from Nairn in the NE of Scotland, Mike first learned the fiddle at school and was subsequently taught by Ian Hardie (also from Nairn). Mike regularly teaches fiddle throughout Scotland with the Feis movement. Mike and Ali have been gigging in Scotland for the best part of a decade, appearing at Celtic Connections, the Fringe, Eden Court Theatre Inverness, Bute Folk Festival, Albert Hall Stirling, The Tron Theatre Glasgow, Hootannany Inverness among others. Ali is studying for her third degree in law, (the first two being philosophy, then music).

Mike was twice a finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award.

"Most invigorating, however, was the sparklingly mobile pianism and fiddle fluency of Ali and Mike Vass. Not so much a rivulet of the carrying stream as a raging torrent of strathspeys, jigs and reels, the youthful Nairn siblings play with great understanding, warmth and personality." Rob Adams, The Herald

"The White Stripes of the folk world" Paddy Bort

"The best thing to come out of Nairn since Morganti's ice cream and The Games" John J "

http://www.myspace.com/vasstwins

Venue: Pleasance Cabaret Bar - 8:00pm
Admission: £7.00 (£6.00 concession)