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Clare and Marianne are two great fiddlers who met each other through playing with Scottish traditional band Deaf Shepherd.
Clare's musical background lies in the dynamic cultural melting-pot of Glasgow, where she absorbed the tradition and learned the fiddle among the city's Irish community. Her widening experience of playing in sessions and at festivals coincided with the rising new wave of Scottish music in the run-up to devolution, and the inspiration she drew from this led to her joining Deaf Shepherd in 1994, a move she describes as the musical turning-point in her life. Clare's playing is renowned for both its joyously spirited attack and its expressive grace, vividly communicating her huge passion for the music.
Born into a family of Gaelic musicians and pipers, Marianne is a talented singer and pianist in addition to her prowess on fiddle, having grown up immersed in the traditional culture of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides. She joined Deaf Shepherd in 1995, where her twin-fiddles partnership with Clare soon became one of the band's strongest signature assets, expressing her deep appreciation of the tunes with equal parts lyricism and drive.
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