Scottish fiddle music with a touch of soul

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Traditional Folk, FOLK: Modern Folk



Details:
Sassanak Lassies

Lynn Rubier-Capron on Scottish fiddle Toni Elderkin on voice and guitar.

We are a Scottish fiddle and vocal duo. Audiences from Upstate NY to Canada have responded with enthusiasm to our performances and to our CD. Here is our first review in the Rochester City Newspaper from 2006:

Sassanak Lassies, SCOTTISH

"The Sassanak Lassies ain't Scottish. In fact the word "sassanak" (a non-Scottish person) is the Scotch equivalent to "gringo." So those in plaid must be mighty green when they hear this duo. Fiddler Lynn Rubier-Capron and guitarist Toni Elderkin play light-hearted, lilting Scottish melodies with a little added goose only a sassanak could give. The song titles on the group's debut disc, Fast & Dirty, like "Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of His Second Wife" or "Farewell To Whiskey" might lay out a storyline, but the music is beautiful and strong enough to withstand the application of the listener's own dreams and scenarios --- drunk, happy, or sad as they may be. Frankly, this band's music makes me very happy.
www.sassanaklassies.com --- Frank De Blasé"

Lynn Rubier-Capron
Lynn is the 2004 Scottish Fiddle champion of the Grandfather Mountain highland games at Grandfather Mountain, N.C. Her Scottish fiddle lineage flows backward through her fiddle teacher: John Turner, 10 time winner of the national Scottish fiddle Championship, to his fiddle master J.T. Hector MacAndrew, backwards through the generations to Neil Gow himself! Lynn won her championship because of the unique qualities she brings to all of her music: Beauty, Intensity and Swing!
Beauty:
Lynn learned to pull a deep, rich sound from her violin from her first mentor: Dr. Jerrie Lucktenberg, who graduated from The Curtis School of Music. Lucktenberg passed on to Lynn a passion for the beauty that only the violin can produce.
Intensity:
Lynn brings a unique intensity to all of her playing. Whether she is competing at the Scottish games, or performing with Toni, she constantly searches for the most effective interpretation of each phrase that she plays. Folk Arts Director of the Rochester Arts and Cultural Council, Susie Chodorow, finds Lynnâs approach to Scottish fiddle music especially moving because of its intensity and the clarity of her particular Scottish style.
Swing:
When Lynn plays a strathspey, march, jig or reel, âyou can almost see the kilts swinging in the air! Scottish music is unique in the Celtic tradition because of the way it swings. Lynn is able to bring this powerful Celtic swing alive in a way that cannot be described, but which you can experience for yourself whenever you hear her play.

Toni Elderkin
Self-taught musician, Toni first started playing guitar at a very young age. In fact, on any given day at one end of her house her mom would play Motown and blues records and at the other end her dad would have on country & western, and Toni could be found in her room blaring her little Panasonic cassette player with Rock & Roll she'd taped from the radio: She learned to play along with almost every record in the house on a little red & white guitar.

And then one day in the late seventies she was helping her brother move, and found herself going through his record collection of artists she'd never heard before: Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Joan Armatrading, Jim Croce, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, John Prine, James Taylor, etc...Well, she was hooked and fell in love with yet another style of music.

Toni has been busy jamming with other local musicians and playing around with several other instruments including electric Bass, Mandolin, Banjo, Concertina and Fiddle - which is how she met Lynn Rubier-Capron. In the Summer of 2004, she decided to take Violin lessons and Lynn was her teacher. One day months later, she showed up to her lesson with her guitar strapped on her back because she was going to another band's rehearsal afterwards. Lynn asked her to play something and the rest, as they say, is history!