Mike Vass - String Theory

(April 2011) 10 tracks: Cavers Of Kirkcudbright * Continents Apart * Man’s Search * Fairholm Road * It’s A Bar * The 35 Year Waltz * Waking Life * The Shoemaker * Calum James MacCrimmon * Three Trumpeters' Waltz.

High octane fiddle arrangements which are deftly handled and sympathetically orchestrated in an invigorating and lively performance.

Ali Vass (piano, vocals), Anna Massie (guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, vocals), Dave Wood (guitar, bouzouki, vocals),Calum MacCrimmon (whistle, bagpipes, vocals), Megan Henderson (accordion, fiddle, vocals), Stevie Fyvie (percussion, vocals), Mike Vass (fiddle, guitar, vocals), James Lindsay (bass).

Mike was nominated as 'Best Up and Coming Act' in the 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards, along with pianist/singer twin sister Ali, and as 'Best Folk Band' with Malinky in 2009. A runner-up in the 2007 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition, Mike was subsequently invited to tour with the 2008 finalists as an accompanist.

Although barely 5 years into his career, Mike has already featured on more than a dozen recordings, including Volume 1 of The Complete Songs of Robert Tannahill, produced by Dr Fred Freeman, and Malinky's acclaimed fourth album Flower and Iron.

Mike is regarded as one of Scotland’s finest fiddle players, in great demand as a performer, composer and teacher. He has toured extensively in the past few years with leading Scots Song band Malinky, in a duo with twin sister Ali, and with International super group Fiddle Rendezvous, featuring Bruce Molsky, Maryann Kennedy and Gerry O'Connor.