The Shee are:

Amy Thatcher
Amy Thatcher is an Accordionist and clog dancer from Greater Manchester. Based in Newcastle, she works regularly with the prodigiously talented local scene. Kathryn Tickell and Sting have ensured Amy’s reputation as one of the most talented young musicians, not only in the North East, but the rest of the country. Recently, Amy has been busy touring the world with the Monster Ceilidh Band, adding a tour of Russia and playing at the internationally renowned Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia to her already long list of achievements. You can see Amy performing on Sting’s latest DVD release ‘Winter Songbook’.

Laura Beth Salter
Laura-Beth is a mandolin player and vocalist from Lincolnshire who is now based in Scotland. Her background is in the Blues, Oldtime and Bluegrass music that her parents play, but after studying the Traditional Music Degree in Newcastle she became heavily involved in the folk scene and has since toured with bands such as Frigg and Shooglenifty. Laura-Beth has also appeared on BBC Alba’s Ceol a Country and performed music for ‘Traces and Graces,’ an outside theatre/dance production. She is now teaching mandolin, focusing on a solo project returning to her American influences as well as touring with The Shee.

Lillias Kinsman Blake
Lillias is a flautist from the Scottish Borders. A founder member of The Shee, Lillias has gained a reputation as a versatile musician performing both within the traditional music scene and for theatre, storytelling and classically inspired projects including Blair Douglas’ Gaelic Mass. In 2009 she received a CATS award for ‘best use of music and sound in a Scottish theatre production’. Lillias founded the traditional music education company Focal Music, tutors for Newcastle University, Folkworks and The Sage Gateshead and is currently involved with the Scottish youth music project: Love Music Festival. Lillias is also a graphic design artist.

Olivia Ross
Olivia is a string instructor working in schools in her native
Highland region. Taking up the violin at the age of 9 Olivia was
taught both traditional and Classical styles and techniques which has
made her a versatile musician. Whilst leaving Scotland to study at
Newcastle University in 2002 Olivia discovered she had an unknown love
and talent for the Scots Ballad tradition. This has led her to
performing and collaborating with many musicians such as Chris Wood,
Kathryn Tickell and Corrina Hewat.

Rachel Newton
Rachel is from Edinburgh with family ties to the North-West Highlands. She became involved in traditional music mainly through the Feis and went on to attend the City of Edinburgh Music School and then the BMus Folk and Traditional Music degree course at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. In 2005, Rachel was a finalist in the Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award and with the Rowantree Theatre Company she was awarded a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best Use of Music in 2009. Her singing appears on the British Independent Film Award winning film ‘The Inheritance’.

Shona Mooney
Borders fiddle player Shona Mooney is one of Scotland’s leading traditional musicians. Sincewinning the prestigious BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2006, she has appeared at international festivals such as: Tønder (Denmark); Celtic Connections; gone on tour with Scottish Folk orchestra The Unusual Suspects; The Shee; and recorded her debut album, ‘Heartsease (viola tricolour)’. It fuses musical agility with thematic concept, traditional Borders style with contemporary flair, and has gone on to have plenty of positive feedback, including ‘Top of the World’ (editor’s choice) in Songlines magazine, 5-star reviews in The Herald and multiple broadcasts on BBC’s Late Junction.