Heidi Talbot & Toby Shaer

Heidi Talbot

Heidi Talbot was born in Ireland became a folk star in the USA as a member of the Irish American band Cherish the Ladies, and now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a background like that, it's hardly surprising she should develop a style that switches easily between Celtic and Americana, but Subtlety is Talbot’s magic ingredient. From her gossamer voice to the delicate re-working of traditional and contemporary material that has earned her rave reviews for her records and Live performances. The girl from Co. Kildare, who spent several years in New York, slips effortlessly between musical worlds but retains a personal modesty rooted in traditional folk.

Over the past twenty years Heidi has performed all over North and South America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand performing in the finest Concert Halls and International Festivals. She is equally at home in front of a Symphony Orchestra, a Performing Arts Center, a Folk Festival or even at the White House.

Heidi has been nominated for Folk singer of the year and Best Traditional Song by BBC Radio 2, Best Live Act by the Scottish Traditional Music Awards and Best Female Vocalist at The Irish Music Awards.

She has shared the stage and recorded with Mark Knopfler, Graham Coxon(Blur), Eddi Reader, Idlewild, Matt Rollings, King Creosote, Kris Drever, Tim O'Brien and Jerry Douglas.

Heidi has had extensive Radio play on BBC Radio 2 (Simon Mayo Drivetime, Mark Lamarr), BBC 6 Music (Gideon Coe, Cerys Matthews, Tom Robinson, Marc Riley) and performed live sessions for Bob Harris, Janice Long, Loose Ends, In Tune and Mark Radcliffe.

Television appearances include RTE's Late Late show in Ireland, BBC Hogmanay Live, CBS This Morning, NBC, and Imus In the Morning in the United States.

Heidi recorded four solo albums while signed to Nashville based record label Compass Records. In the last 6 years she has recorded four more solo albums/Ep’s self released and distributed by Universal Records including her latest release, the critically acclaimed Sing It For A Lifetime.

So far 2023 has saw Heidi working with multi award winning composer, Christian Henson on an upcoming series for TV while completing her degree in composing for Film & game with the Film Scoring Academy of Europe.

Heidi won Composer Of The Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in December 2023.

Toby Shaer

Toby Shaer is an up and coming folk musician from Leigh on Sea, Essex. He is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who has worked and shared stages with some of the finest musicians in the folk/country music scenes.

Born in 1994, he started to play music from an early age, picking up Flutes and Whistles at the age of 7 and Fiddle when 12 years old. He began his first band at the age of 14 fusing Irish tunes with Jazz, Rock, Reggae etc. The Toby Shaer band continues to gig with a long list of different resident and session musicians.

He has worked with several bands over the years, the most recent being renown Scottish fiddler John McCusker on his 25th Anniversary Tour and BBC Horizon award winner 2016 Sam Kelly with this band The Lost Boys.

Despite his age, Toby has already performed around the world at some of the most prestigious venues, including The Sydney Opera House, The Kennedy Centre and The Royal Albert Hall. He has also performed with numerous musicians from a wide variety of musical backgrounds from celebrated Scottish Hero Dougie Maclean to outstanding Blur guitarist Graham Coxon.

His future projects include his first solo album, concert and festival dates with Sam Kelly and The Lost Boys throughout 2018 and new projects with KerryPro Whistle maker Phil Hardy, fellow Lost Boy Ciaran Algar and genius Scottish songwriter Adam Holmes.