The Lassies Reply - Pur (Scots singer and fiddler, Shona Donaldson and Gaelic singer Katie Mackenzie: An album featuring a selection of 12  songs of Robert Burns in both Gaelic and Scots. The album, the first of its kind,  was released  to coincide with the  celebrations of Burns in the Year of Homecoming and to demonstrate that the two cultures can co-exist  and complement each other very well. To emphasise this important point, both girls sing ‘their’ own language but also sing the ‘other’ to demonstrate the interchangeability and common ground of the cultures. Many of the songs featured here were composed by Burns on his Highland tour in 1787. The Highlands and Gaelic  had a profound effect on Burns, a fact which is often overlooked by audiences worldwide and  so Pur have included several of Burns songs inspired by the area itself. The songs are all arranged by producer Irvin Duguid in bright, fresh and contemporary style, to reflect the youth and vitality of the performers. The  exciting  new arrangements, which leave the original melodies entirely intact and completely familiar, are largely based on traditional acoustic instrumentation with beautiful embellishment from Mr McFall’s Chamber String Quartet and some of Scotland’s best traditional musicians including guitarist John Goldie, multi instrumentalist Anna Massie, harmonica player Fraser Spiers, clàrsach player Mary Ann Kennedy, percussionist James Mackintosh and accordion player Gary Innes.