ONE of Scotland's best traditional bands is heading for Galashiels.

Elephant Sessions, who were crowned as 2018 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards Live Act of the Year, will bring their legendary live show to the Volunteer Hall next month.

The band, who have transformed traditional music and shake the very foundations of expectation, are set to release their new album What Makes You in the next few weeks.

Hailing from the Highlands, Elephant Sessions exploded onto the indie folk scene to unparalleled effect with their last album All We Have Is Now.

The band have since appeared at some of the world’s most notable venues and festivals with audiences crowd surfing their way through the summer and marquee floors breaking under the weight of bouncing fans. Galashiels looks set to be no different.

Charting in the French download charts and selling bucket loads across Europe, with praise from the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine, All We Have Is Now firmly established this band as completely unique.

What Makes You promises to build on this success and sees the front line of mandolin and fiddle pushing their limits further, matching the percussive rhythm of drums, bass and guitar, whilst fusing with electronic dance beats. This is traditional music turned on its head, a re-invention of expectation, a brand new sound.

Mandolin player Alasdair Taylor told us: "We feel like our sound has matured and we’re playing and writing music that we really want to be playing.

“Composing and performing the material from this new album has been so much fun so far and we can’t wait to play to Galashiels crowds again and give them a performance to remember.”

2018 saw awards in abundance. Opening the year as winners of the ‘Album of the Year’ category at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards, they went on to be finalists as Best Group at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

In May, Belhaven Brewery got together with the band to award the first ever Belhaven Bursary for innovation in music.

bursary amount matches the Mercury Music prize and was awarded in recognition of their unique and outstanding sound. It was accompanied by the band's own beer ‘Elephant Sessions Ale’, which was launched last year.

In August, the band also found themselves shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year – an award covering every genre of music from indie, blues and rock to pop, folk and the individual sound that is Elephant Sessions.

Closing 2018 by picking up the coveted Live Band of the Year award (MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards) the band, who met on the Newcastle University Folk Degree, are set to do no less with What Makes You.

Elephant Sessions play Galashiels on Friday, May 24.