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Margaret Bennett, Forgaitherin and Dave Gibb at EFC/Edinburgh Folk Club

MARGARET BENNETT, your chair for tonight's concert-come-ceilidh, is a renowned folklorist, writer, singer and broadcaster who was brought up in a family of tradition bearers, Gaelic on her mother's side (from Skye) and Lowland Scots on her father's. School years were spent in Skye, Lewis and Shetland before studying in Glasgow when, in the mid-1960s, the legendary Hamish Henderson, singer, poet, folklorist and political activist, inspired her career choice. In 1968 she emigrated to Canada to study Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland and thereafter spent a year in Quebec as a folklorist for Canadas Museum of Civilization. From 1984 to 1996 Margaret lectured at The University of Edinburghs School of Scottish Studies and now teaches part-time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

As a prize-winning author, Margaret has written ten books, contributed to over 40 others, featured on media productions and several musical collaborations with her son, Martyn Bennett (19712005), including the National Theatre of Scotlands acclaimed production, Black Watch and is the recipient of awards for contributions to literature, folklore and culture. She recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Music (Glasgow, 2010), Le Prix du Québec (for contributions to Quebec cultural studies, 2011) and was made an Honorary Professor of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2012. Margaret is widely regarded as Scotlands foremost folklorist.

FORGAITHERIN
Formed in 2013, Forgaitherin - from North-East Fife - is a 4-piece folk group whose aim is to provide strong vocal entertainment with sympathetic instrumentation on guitar, accordion, keyboard, whistle and cajon. They have gained a very good reputation around the Scottish folk scene for achieving that aim! Their home-base is Glenfarg FC where all are members and resident singers/musicians with three also being on the club's management committee.

Forgaitherin entertain through a wide-ranging mixture of traditional and contemporary folk songs with choruses and harmonies, encouraging audience participation and craic!

The group comprises Lesley Toner and Hamish Grant as main vocalists, with Hugh Toner and John Reid as main instrumentalists but it is "the togetherness" of the group and its appeal to audiences which is the essence of their performance. Forgaitherin have produced two CDs.

DAVE GIBB
Completing the formal line-up of tonig ht's show is Dave Gibb from Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway. He describes himself as a left-handed, balding, middle-aged songwriting folky from Scotlands highest village but that rather plays down the talents of this superb guitarist whose style that is as distinctive as it is effective, with a voice that can carry traditional and contemporary songs and a songwriting ability that produces songs ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Lyrically Dave is a storyteller and is determined to maintain the art of storytelling through song. Musically he draws on both traditional and contemporary sources, especially the finger picking styles of the heroes.

Dave is an established performer throughout the UK's acoustic/folk club, festival and concert scene with eight CDs to his name.

"Gibb's warmly earthy voice also lent itself to a diverse handful of covers, among them a grittily immediate opening rendition of the traditional Twa Corbies, Mississippi John Hurt's Hesitation Blues and an affecting version of Cyril Tawney's Sally Free and Easy, its subtle intensity evoking echoes of Bert Jansch. Restive, fluently nimble acoustic guitar accompaniment completed the package, spanning blues, ragtime, fingerstyle and jazz - the last emerging in a touchingly simple understated love song for his wife." (The Scotsman).