Hanneke Cassel, Mike Block and Keith Murphy – CD Release!

Effervescent and engaging, Boston-based fiddler Hanneke Cassel is a performer, teacher and composer whose career spans over two decades. Her style fuses influences from Scotland and Cape Breton Island with Americana grooves and musical innovations, creating a cutting-edge acoustic sound that retains the integrity and spirit of the Scottish tradition. Cassel’s music is a blend of the contemporary and traditional, described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.” Cassel’s latest release, “Trip to Walden Pond,” features traditional Scottish and Cape Breton tunes and seventeen new pieces composed in the Scottish idiom. While her lively style is very much evident, this new album carries a deep, soulful sound with songs of celebration and farewell. “Trip to Walden Pond,” similar to Cassel’s five previous albums, offers arrangements of traditional fiddle music and original tunes that evoke humor and heart. This latest album also includes several compositions penned by Hanneke as commissions to benefit Many Hopes, a children’ s education nonprofit based in Kenya that she avidly supports. A native of Oregon, Hanneke started out as a Texas-style fiddler and went on to win the 1997 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, which awarded her the opportunity to study with Alasdair Fraser and introduced her to fiddle camps and the folk community – both of which continue to play an integral role in her life. The Hanneke Cassel Band features Mike Block on cello and guitarist/vocalist Keith Murphy. In addition to performing with her own band, Cassel has been featured on PBS with Boston-based fiddle band Childsplay and has performed with Baroque/Celtic group Ensemble Galilei at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Geographic in Washington, D.C. Hanneke and her husband Mike live in Boston and are active within many circles of musicians. Besides their involvement in the Scottish fiddle scene and at Berklee College of Music, they are frequent performers at Club Passim and are rooted in the thriving local music community.