Mercat Cross (literally meaning a meeting/market place in old Scottish towns) was formed in 2010, mainly as a result of a demand in Alberta for quality, live Scottish dance music for country dancing. The members of the band frequently perform for Scottish Country Dances and Contra Dances, but also perform a wider variety of music at numerous other events in communities throughout Alberta.
Graham Tait (accordion, vocals, feet, bones) and Chris Gregg (piano, vocals, fiddle, Northumbrian pipes), hope to be joined by Chris’s brother, Andy Mckay, who is a musician and is visiting from England. Together you can be sure that they will rock the house.
Graham hails from Scotland and has lived in Canada for almost 20 years. A native of Edinburgh, Graham was introduced to the piano accordion at a young age, and has been a guest musician on several albums of traditional music. Graham has a love of French Canadian music and has had the pleasure to play music with the likes of Benoit Bourque (La Bottine Souriante), who taught him the art of bones percussion and ‘le gallope’ (foot percussion)!
Originally from Northern England, Chris is a multi-talented jack of all trades who can build or fix almost anything! Chris has studied the art of piano tuning for several years with some of Canada’s master piano tuners, so gets to spend a lot of time playing beautiful pianos! A great piano accompaniest, Chris also likes to play the fiddle, Northumbrian pipes, and sing some Northumbrian and Geordie (Newcastle Songs)!
