Folk Festival Artists 2012

Andy Irvine Andy Irvine is one of the great Irish singers, his voice one of a handful of truly great ones that gets to the very soul of Ireland. He has been hailed as "a tradition in himself." Musician, singer and songwriter, Andy has maintained his highly individual performing skills throughout his 45-year career. From Sweeney's Men in the mid 60s, to the enormous success of Planxty in the 70s and then from Patrick Street to Andy Irvine & Dónal Lunny's Mozaik, Andy has been a world music pioneer and an icon for traditional music and musicians.

The Outside Track A stunning synthesis of virtuosity and energy, The Outside Track's marriage of Canadian, Scottish and Irish music and song has been rapturously received around the world. Hailing from Scotland, Ireland, Cape Breton and Vancouver, its five members are united by a love of traditional music and a commitment to creating new music on its foundation. Using fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, flute, step-dance and vocals these five virtuosos blend boundless energy with unmistakable joie de vivre.

Rory McLeod and the Familiar Strangers Rory McLeod - ex-circus clown and fire eater. A one man soulband, poet and storyteller, singing his own unique upbeat dance stories. A modern travelling troubadour using tap shoes, acappella, harmonica, guitar, trombone, spoons, finger cymbals, bandorea, djembe and various percussion instruments!
Rory has travelled the globe for different reasons at different times, from Asia to the middle East from Gambia to Cuba, Central America, Australia, North America, Canada, Europe and other nooks and crannies of the earth.

The Dangleberries The Dangleberries are a band who add bagpipe influences into "rock" music with a unique blend of vocals, drums and guitars. Formed in September 2001, they have gone from strength to strength, proving a huge hit with crowds at festivals such as the Wickerman, the Tartan Heart Festival and Loopallu.

Diego Laverde Rojas Diego Laverde Rojas, from Bogotá, has played the Llanera harp since 1982. In Colombia, Diego taught in various music academies and was director of the Folkloric group of the Central University of Bogotá. He toured the world as a musician with the 'Ballet Folklorico Colombiano', and we are delighted to welcome him to Moniaive.

Bellevue Rendezvous Bellevue Rendezvous are an inventive Scottish based trio of Gavin Marwick (fiddle), Cameron Robson (cittern, jaw harp) and Ruth Morris (nyckelharpa), plundering Europe for strange and interesting tunes. The nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish instrument, a beautifully toned keyed fiddle in the viola register, rarely seen in the UK. With a collective CV that encompasses some of Scotland’s most fascinating outfits – including Unusual Suspects, Cantrip and Iron Horse – they draw on music and traditions as diverse as Serbia, Macedonia, Poland, Canada, France and Finland to create the quirkily alluring instrumental interplay that makes their Salamander CD one of the albums of the year.

Siobhan Miller Siobhan Miller is from Penicuik, just to the south of Edinburgh. She first appeared at the Traditional Song and Music Association of Scotland’s Auchtermuchty Festival when only 13 years old and won both the children’s and women’s singing competitions there. In 2007 she was nominated by the RSAMD to receive the silver medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Siobhan has appeared as a solo singer at several festivals including Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, Gigha Music Festival and with The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She has played support to various musicians including Karine Polwart and Bob Fox, and appeared as a guest singer with Jock Tamson’s Bairns at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall in 2006 and at Celtic Connections festival in 2008.