SHOORMAL' - Shetland dialect- for 'where the shore meets the sea'. The group first emerged as a band at the Shetland Folk Festival in 1998. Freda Leask, Joyce McDill and Donna Smith joined forces in 1997 to create a three-part-harmony-sound that has become a Shoormal trademark. Accompanied, initially, by Trevor Smith, an outstanding and creative guitarist, and Gregg Arthur, a versatile, skilful piano and accordion player, these five musicians maintained a fairly low profile while quietly honing their skills.
Later May Gair, well-known in Shetland traditional circles for her double bass accompaniment, joined Shoormal. Accompanying a vocal group was breaking new ground for May and her interest in jazz added a special dimension to the group, Christopher Anderson then added his percussive style to the group. More recently the band added Gordon Tulloch, another very talented guitarist, further strengthening the instrumental section.
With this mix of musicians, Shoormal's music has developed to blend traditional and contemporary styles in an acoustic manner with songwriting an integral part of their work- Joyce McDill and Freda Leask are the principal songwriters of the team, although Donna Smith also writes, with Trevor Smith contributing at the composition stage, with rhythm, style and melody.
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