Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis are a Scottish duo known as The Cast. Their three albums, Greengold, The Winnowing and Colours of Lichen, have attracted generous critical acclaim. They bring a fresh approach to the most respected traditional material through their inventive use of vocal and instrumental harmonies and their own songs stand strong alongside the traditional material.
Since the release of their third album in September last year, The Cast are known for their subtle and deep approach to the tradition and have recently been awarded:
1. SCOTS SINGER OF THE YEAR '08, Trad music Awards.
2. BURNSONG WINNERS, 07 ( Smile of Cry)
3. FEMALE MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR '08- Liveireland
4. COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR '08- Liveireland
Mairi works in Scotland as a session musician, she has her own dance band ( Bella McNabs), teaches at home and runs a community folk choir.
She also enjoys free improvisation.
She and Dave have two daughters.
Dave is an eloquent writer and has written many lyrics, namely 'The Piper and the Maker' ( The winnowing), and Song for Cove (Greengold) and 'Smile or Cry'(Greengold), which are well loved works.
Anther main strand of The Cast's work has been their commitment to teaching and encouraging Scottish traditional music and dancing in schools and Dave's outreach programme of songwriting in schools in Banff has been nominated for Community Projects of the Year 2007.
Dave co-founded and directs a course of professional development for adventurous traditional musicians looking to develop their ideas in music. This is in it's seventh year and goes from strength to strength in both England and Scotland.
Mairi runs her own fiddle courses on the island of Lismore. Since 2006 both Dave and mairi have been tutors at the Coast String Summer music school in B.C | 
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