celtic

Kathryn Tickell (b. 1967) is an English player of the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle. She has recorded eleven albums, and toured widely. Kathryn Tickell took up the smallpipes aged nine, inspired by her family - especially her father Mike, who was heavily involved in the local traditional music scene - and by the music of an older generation of traditional musicians such as Willie Taylor, Will Atkinson, Joe Hutton, Richard Moscrop and Tom Hunter.

John Doyle (b. Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician. For four years he served as acoustic guitarist with the Irish/American band Solas, and is also an active solo artist. He has written many traditional-sounding songs and has collaborated with Kate Rusby. Doyle has also producing credits, as well as performing, on the solo CDs of the singer from Cherish the Ladies, Heidi Talbot's, Distant Future, on which she sings his composition, "I dream of you", his current touring partner Liz Carroll's CDs, and his father Sean Doyle's CD, The Light and the Half Light.

Maeve Mackinnon is tipped as one of Scotland's leading young folk singers. An Honours graduate of the RSAMD's Scottish Music degree, her singing really started to come into its own prior to finalising for the BBC Radio Scotland "Young Traditional Musician 2005" award. Born into a political family, Maeve spent most of her infancy learning to walk and talk on peace marches in the 1980s, and remembers Dick Gaughan as being the first live singer she ever heard, and a major musical influence.