"Their music speaks to all age groups....their repertoire is timeless"
The man dubbed as Scotland's musical director, Phil Cunningham, has been honoured with an MBE for service to traditional music. The 'other half' touring partner of fiddler Aly Bain (MBE) was delighted with the award. 'I consider myself to be extremely lucky to be honoured for something I love doing'.

Aly and Phil are two of Scotland's most loved and best known traditional musicians. Their pedigree goes back many years and spans many horizons. Aly is regarded as Scotland's supreme traditional-style fiddler arguably the finest of all time. he helped to form Boys of the Lough and has performed and recorded with the band ever since. His work with TV is also well known, when he had his first series 'Down Home'; The Transatlantic Sessions' and 'Transatlantic Sessions 2' all on BBC2. Aly was awarded the M.B.E. for his servces to music in 1994. What more can we say! Phil is no less a memorable character, having been named in The Scotsman as one of Scotland's 25 most influential people. Trained classically in the accordian and violin he later joined his brother John in the highly acclaimed Scottish band Silly Wizard which became hugely popular world-wide. Apart from being a stunning accordian player, he is a much sought after composer and musical director for TV, film and theatre, where he was Musical Director for Bill Bryden's 'The Ship' and 'The Big Picnic'.

As a duo Aly and Phil are highly entertaining - two virtuoso musicians on stage and the gripping humour of Phil - an unbeatable duo.