News

Over the past few months I’ve been busy collating and writing arrangements of tunes from the Isle of Man, both old and new, and finally I’m excited to finally release my second volume of “Claasagh – Manx music for celtic harp”, ready for you to buy via the website shop.  The first volume of Claasagh contained only traditional tunes, but this …

I’m uber excited to say that I’m returning to Germany in a few days time to teach and perform at the wonderful Harfentreffen festival. I first taught and performed at the festival a few years ago so I’m so pleased that I’ll be able to catch up with old friends, and hopefully also make some new ones! I’ll also be …

It’s been a long time coming, but at last the Rachel Hair Trio have arranged a concert on the Isle of Man. We’ll be appearing at the Peel Centenary Centre, this coming Saturday (3rd October), at 8pm. Support will be from the fantastic local fiddler, Isla Callister. Tickets cost £12 and can be bought on the door or online at …

Finally, after many months in the making, I’m pleased to announce that the new Rachel Hair Trio album, Trì, is officially released! Jenn, Cammy and I are really chuffed with the record, so we really hope you enjoy it. If you want to listen to it, there’s a wee soundcloud section on the homepage of this site where you can listen …

Keep your eyes peeled as over the coming weeks a new website for will be revealed… in time for the launch of the new Rachel Hair Trio album “Trì”.

Pre-order for the new Rachel Hair Trio album “Trì” is now open on the shop page. When you order you’ll soon be emailed a download link to 2 of the tracks. Pre-ordering will allow you to have the actual CD 3 weeks in advance of it’s official launch date of the 15th of June AND there’s lots of great goodies …

The new Rachel Hair album “Trì” is now complete! Pre-orders will begin on the 1st of May so be sure to get your order in then…

The Rachel Hair Trio are recording a new album! We’re almost finished recording album no. 4 for Rachel, and album no. 2 for the actual trio. Release date is currently looking to be late May this year…

Hello and a belated Happy New Year! Many of you will know that January for musicians living in Glasgow means Celtic Connections, which kinda has a habit of taking over your life! So that’s my excuse for this late blog…. We’re currently back in Norway in the middle of another schools tour. This time the trio are in the city of …

Ahhh… the first blog post… Ok folks, so I’ve decided to start a blog.  My trio is in the midst of preparing a new album to record so I figured it would be an interesting thing to start a blog about the whole process so you can see what all is involved in it. I really wish it was as …

I’m very excited to announce that we have a new member of the Rachel Hair Trio, double bassist, Cameron Maxwell! Cammy has been playing off and on with us for a while now, and, well, he’s such an awesome musician that it was only right that we made him an official member. We’re loving the fresh take he has on …

I was thrilled to be commissioned by Culture Vannin and the Archibald Knox Society to write the piece “The Deer’s Cry” to celebrate 150 years since the birth of the famed Manx art nouveau designer Archibald Knox. I performed “The Deer’s Cry” last week on Knox’s 150th birthday, together my student harp ensemble “Claasagh”, to a sell-out crowd at St Germans Cathedral, on …

Harpy New Year! 2014 is looking to be a busy year with a number of new projects on the go for Rachel, some trio gigs and lots of harp teaching throughout Scotland, Europe and the USA! Check out the gig page for more details.

Summer is here, and for once, it really is proper summer weather! Rachel was tutoring last weekend at Cottingham Harp Weekend, alongside fellow Scottish harpist Fiona Rutherford. They had a great weekend teaching Scottish tunes to the Yorkshire harpists.  This week she heads off for the 35th “Stage International de Harpe Celtique… the International Celtic Harp Festival in Dinan, Brittany. …

Rachel has just published a new book ‘Claasagh – Manx Music for Celtic Harp’. She was commissioned to write the book of elementary – advanced level arrangements of traditional music for the Isle of Man by the Manx Heritage Foundation. This is the second ever sheetmusic book on Manx Harp music. The first (now out of print) was written by renowned Manx …

We were overjoyed that our headlining Celtic Connections gig sold out before the doors even opened. Many thanks to all who came along! After our performance we quickly ran over to the Concert hall to play a few sets live on BBC Radio 3’s “World on 3” show which came live from the Green Room and featured sets from other …

The trio took a wee trip to BBC Scotland here in Glasgow to film a video for their Celtic Connections mini site. We decided to film “Cancro Cru”, a beautiful tune written by Anxo Pintos that we recorded on “No More Wings”. Check it out by clicking HERE

We have a mini 4 date trio tour about to kick off so check out the gig page for more info! We’ll be in Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man.