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anadian Celtic - the exciting music of SCANTILY PLAID
The Celtic harp, and the pure and beautiful vocals of Ruth Sutherland, the mixture of four different styles of bagpipes played as only expert bagpiper Bob Worrall can, and the robust vocals, and myriad of other instruments (including drums, guitar, harmonica, djembe, banjo and sitar) played to perfection by Doug Feaver, all add to create this varied and magical music. A remarkable and wonderful fusion of Celtic and roots, traditional and original, old and new, a hundred years of musical experience, played now, with joy, with respect, from the heart...acoustic and real.... Scantily Plaid has been playing festivals, highland games, Celtic festivals, concerts and clubs for 9 years. Their travels have taken them across Canada, the US, and to Scotland, France, and Uruguay.

Ruth Sutherland is a rare gem – she’s both a great harper AND a beautiful singer. Born and raised in Woodstock Ontario of Scottish parentage, she spent her childhood summers travelling the highland games circuit as a competitive dancer, while her parents ran their “Little Tartan Shoppe”. She holds a B.A. in Voice at Wilfrid Laurier University, and paid off her student loans by moving to Hamilton, singing jingles and doing studio work at Daniel Lanois' Grant Avenue Studio as a vocalist and harper. Ruth has travelled to Canada, Europe, and the United States. She has twice been invited to perform as a solo artist at the Festval Interceltique de Lorient, in France. Ruth sings not only traditional music, but also her own original compositions. She has released three solo recordings, ("Journeys", "rantin' and rovin'", and in November 2006,"bones & runes" ). Conductor Boris Brott of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra has four times featured Ruth in the Brott Music Festival, both as a solo performer and in front of the National Academy Orchestra. The College of Piping in PEI has featured Ruth on their Christmas CD entitled "Ancestral Voices" along with Michael Burgess. Ruth has performed in high profile concerts with the likes of Leahy, John Allan Cameron, John Renbourne, and a tribute to Stan Rogers. Ruth contributes her singing, songwriting, harp, and percussion talents to Scantily Plaid. She also assisted in the mixing of their first CD.

Prior to retiring from competitive piping in 1983, Bob Worrall won the North American Professional Solo Championship 7 times and the Ontario Championship Supreme title for 12 of his 13 years in open competition. He was also the 1977 winner of the March and Strathspey/Reel events in Inverness, Scotland. He now applies his renowned skill and knowledge of the bagpipes to adjudicating piping eventsand teaching the bagpipes all over North America and Europe. He was the senior piping instructor at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, from 1986 through 1999. Bob has judged at the the World Pipe Band Championships on more than a dozen occasions, and in 2006, he became the colour commentator for BBC's televised coverage of the Worlds. Bob has conducted piping workshops, and performed concerts and recitals throughout North America, as well as in New Zealand, South Africa, Brittany and Uruguay. His compositions have appeared in several contemporary piping collections. He has published "The International Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music", Books 1,2, and 3. He recorded "The Classical Bagpipe" and was featured in the Piping Centre's 1997 recording series. As well as the Great Highland bagpipes, Bob plays Scottish smallpipes in A and D, and Border pipes. He contributes his great piping, whistle playing, vocals, percussion and songwriting to Scantily Plaid.

Doug Feaver is well-known throughout Southern Ontario after having toured extensively for 25 years playing festivals, concerts and clubs, and he has a strong and dedicated following. Every show is a completely unique experience, and Doug's compelling story-telling is as much a part of his show as his music. He is a powerful and passionate performer who plays his songs straight from the heart. Feaver is famous for frenetic fret-work, his barnstorming harmonica attack, and for his amazing ability to break strings, change them at lightning speed, retune, and continue his song without ever stopping the music! Doug's innate musicality and wide experience of musical styles provide him with a large palette from which to work. Doug's strong, robust vocals and his proud Canadian spirit come through in his original songs. He also plays about a dozen instruments, and is in much demand as a studio musician. He contributes his great guitar and harmonica playing, his unique drumming and percussion, banjo, vocals, songwriting and arranging talents to Scantily Plaid. Doug mixed, co-mastered and is the producer of Scantily Plaid's first CD, "just checking in...".

Scantily Plaid is receiving critical and rave reviews. Individually and collectively they are festival veterans. Their first recording, "just checking in...." is now widely regarded as a classic, and the recording of their eagerly-anticipated second CD is now underway.