Fife-born harp player returns to Kingdom for show in Crail

Karen Marshalsay is one of only a few players who specialises on all three harps from the Scottish tradition. She plays Crail Community Hall on Saturday, February 18.

She said: “I know the East Neuk of Fife quite well, having visited the area often, but I’ve never actually played in Crail before - so I’m looking forward to playing in the community hall and following in the footsteps of one of my favourite musicians, the French double bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons, who played in the venue a few years ago.”

Although she’ll be playing with just her harps for company in Crail – she’ll actually be bringing four harps, including the baby version of the wire-strung harp – Karen has played in settings ranging from duos to orchestras.

When not giving her “Three Scottish Harps” concerts she works with long-established Scottish folk band, The Whistlebinkies, and with the founder of popular Irish band Boys of the Lough, Cathal McConnell’s trio.

In Crail Karen - who was born in the Lang Toun but grew up in Ayrshire - will be playing traditional and original tunes, many of them drawn from her solo album, The Road to Kennacraig, which received glowing reviews.

She said: “Folk music audiences will be familiar with the gut-strung, levered clarsach as it’s the harp that has been at the forefront of harp playing on the traditional music scene in Scotland over the past 50 years.

“But there’s also the wire-strung harp from the Gaelic tradition and the harp that takes people by surprise, the bray harp.”

This instrument, although narrower, looks much like the other harps but despite dating back to the renaissance period, it has what amounts to its own built-in amplification system.

“Brays are small pieces of wood that sit against the harp strings and give the instrument this buzzing, almost sitar-like sound,” said Karen. “Bray harps were the harps that were played in musical gatherings in big houses back in the day.”