Hannah Rarity and Luc McNally Q&A

How did you both meet and start performing together?

We both met while studying Scottish Music are the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2013. Recognising one another’s interest in traditional song, we enjoyed playing and recording together as part of the course and soon built up a sizeable repertoire between us and began playing gigs in and around Glasgow as a duo. We were also both in the final of the 2018 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition.

Hannah Rarity and Luc McNally

What do each of you bring to the duo musically & what sort of influences do you draw from in your music?

Each of us brings song ideas and we regularly share recordings/new musical findings we would like to work on and develop together. Hannah has an extensive Scots song repertoire and this initially formed the majority of our set, but as we’ve performed over the years we’ve included songs from Irish, American and English song traditions, as well as covers of folk songwriters. Luc is influenced by his roots in the North East of England and is an experienced accompanist, great tune player and singer. Each of us also write our own songs and tunes. 

What are you planning to perform at the Cumnock Tryst Music Club?

Our set will include traditional and cover material from different regions, industries and people of Scotland and beyond, alongside some of our own compositions.

Why did you choose these pieces?

We performed as part of The Cumnock Tryst Festival Club a couple of years ago as part of trio ‘Kilda’ and had a fantastic time and enjoyed engaging with the audience and getting them singing along, so we will be including some similar repertoire. We adjust our sets between each performance in order to best suit the audience we’ll be performing for, whilst including new material we are enjoying playing at the time.

What do you have planned as a duo for 2020?

We are both heading on a 3 week tour of Germany alongside two other BBC Young Traditional Musician finalists in February and have performances and projects as a duo as part of the Live Music Now scheme throughout the year. We will also be on the next TMSA (Traditional Music and Song Association) Young Trad album and tour, taking place later this year.

Luc will also be busy with his bands Snuffbox and Dosca and Hannah has plans to record a second album and tour with her main band line up.