Bain and Cunningham

Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, August 4

“This is our 32nd year together,” says accordionist Phil Cunningham of his enduring performing partnership with traditional fiddler Aly Bain.

“So we’ve relaxed our show a little bit, we’re very open to suggestions from people if they want a particular tune and shout it out on the night.

“It’s still the normal Phil and Aly show, though, just us playing the tunes that we really want to play. It doesn’t matter if it’s Scottish, Swedish, Canadian... anything with a good, strong melody is what we enjoy.”

Bain first asked Cunningham to join him on his new TV showcase of Scottish folk music, Aly Bain and Friends, in 1986.

The pair began recording and touring together soon afterwards, and quickly established an unparalleled name for themselves in traditional music. They became mainstays of the Edinburgh Hogmanay broadcast, performed at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and at the funeral of Donald Dewar.

They were well known individually before. Edinburgh-born Cunningham performed with his brother Johnny in the 1970s Scottish folk group Silly Wizard, while Shetland-born Bain moved to Glasgow in the 1960s and was briefly in the Humblebums with Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty.

“I’m 58 now and Aly’s 72,” says

Phil.

“So we have a set routine now. We do up to 20 English dates in March and April, a small 10-date tour Scottish tour in May and then a full August and September tour of 35 dates. That’s perfect for us, we have so much more to work on elsewhere. These shows are us catching up and having a bit of fun.”

Although their collaboration is perhaps the pair’s most widely-known work, they have several full-time jobs between them outside of it.

Cunningham is a presenter of traditional music documentaries for the BBC, a writer and producer of music for others, artistic director of the traditional music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and programmes his own Christmas Songbook events around Scotland in December, while Bain programmes the Transatlantic Sessions gigs at Celtic Connections.

“The last few years, traditional music has been on the crest of a wave,” adds Phil.

“Scotland is like a great big cultural sponge and the younger groups absorb and incorporate all sorts of styles they encounter. The access that young players have to it is also huge nowadays, and the standard is astonishing.

“I see students arriving at the Conservatoire who are as good as the students who were leaving 15 years ago and they manage to carve their own paths in the world.” www.philandaly.com

Aly Bain, left, and Phil Cunningham are back on the road in their 32nd year together.