Cailean MacLean was born into two families of tradition bearers. He is the grandson of Johnny Washabuck of the Red Rory MacLeans and a direct descendent of Lachlan MacLean, a Culloden veteran who immigrated to Cape Breton in 1817. On his grandmother’s side, he is the great grandson of piper Paddy Currie and the grandnephew of Alex Currie. The Curries, from South Uist, had generations of ear-learned pipers. Cailean was raised in a household steeped in traditional music, especially the pipe music of his father, John MacLean. As a young boy, Cailean often accompanied his father on visits to Alex and he’s probably one of a very few musicians of his generation to have met and listened to Alex Currie in his own home. Cailean has been playing guitar for ten years and has developed a passion for traditional “Scotch” music. He takes great care to emulate the repertoire and Gaelic style of the great masters of former generations, like Mary MacDonald, Bill Lamey, and Johnny Wilmot and Doug MacPhee. Cal’s early teachers were Adrian Downey, Trevor Kellock, and Allie Bennett.