It’s not as if siblings Elizabeth and Ben Anderson were fated to be a musical act. Or maybe they were. 

Both took up their respective instruments when they were of elementary school age: Elizabeth the violin, and Ben the cello – after first trying his hand at violin for a couple of years.  As they grew older, they engaged in a few collaborations, including for a school talent competition (which they won) and a Broadway-themed variety show in which they performed an instrumental version of “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean,” from the Scottish-centric musical “Brigadoon,” tacking on some strathspeys at the end. Meanwhile, they’d been exploring Scottish traditional music in a variety of settings, from concerts to jam sessions to music camps.

“When you live together and both play instruments,” says Canton-based Elizabeth, “it’s hard to prevent it from turning into something.”

That “something” has turned out to be more than a decade’s worth of festival and concert appearances in Greater Boston and elsewhere, showcasing their lively, propulsive and intricate brand of Scottish music that draws on tradition as well as contemporary ideas and styles. The two have performed at BCMFest, The Burren (opening for the Battlefield Band), last year’s Boston debut of “The Pipes of Christmas” and at Old Sturbridge Village’s annual “Christmas by Candlelight”; they’ve also played for area Scottish country dance events, notably the Highland Ball. Their first album, “Over the Isles” (released in 2018), included their original strathspey, “The Laird of Franklin Park,” which won a tune-writing award from Scottish FIRE (Scottish Fiddling Revival).

On May 6 at The Burren’s Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series, the Andersons will officially launch their second album, “While the Sun Shines,” which also marks a new direction for the duo – it’s now a band, with the pair joined by guitarist Conor Hearn and string bassist Noah Fishman, as well as the album’s producer, fiddler Jenna Moynihan. The Burren show will kick off a six-stop New England tour.

With Hearn and Fishman, the Andersons’ sound is more expansive and deeper. Hearn’s guitar accentuates the rhythmic facets while Fishman’s plucked or bowed bass extends the tonal qualities – notably on tracks like “Wet and Cold” (which also includes some top-notch flatpicking by Hearn), Elizabeth’s “Merry Mac” and “Lament for William the Bloody,” the latter a pair of compositions by Elizabeth and Ben.

“Noah and Connor are, musically and personally, so easy to mesh with,” says Elizabeth. “They're low-key personalities, but also just really on it professionally.”

Putting together “Over the Isles” was a learning experience in many ways for the Andersons. Certainly, there was the challenge of making their music achieve recording-studio quality, listening carefully to each track for any missteps or hiccups and, if necessary, redoing them. But the plain fact is, making an album costs money as well as time and effort.

“The more studio days you have to book and the more time you have to book with your producer and your other musicians, if you have them, the more expensive it is – it really adds up,” says Ben. “So, the more you do in advance, the smoother it goes on the few recording days that you have. You have to practice more than you think you need to, prepare more than you think you need to, plan more than you think you need to.”

Then there’s the matter of exactly what you choose to record, the Andersons note. If the material is traditional and in the public domain, or your own work, that’s one thing; recording someone else’s copyrighted material – regardless of whether you know the person or not – is another expense. Of course, the Scottish music tradition is full of choice selections, the Andersons had some compositions of their own in hand, so with these and a few copyrighted tunes they had no trouble filling out the CD.

Time marched on, the Andersons continued to perform and widen their circle of musical friends and acquaintances, and then a couple of years ago they began to think about recording another full-length album. While hardly dissatisfied with their body of work, they felt something different was in order. Recalling instances where performers they knew had added other musicians for recordings or performances, they felt that doing so could bring another dimension to their sound.

“I remember sitting down with Ben and the two of us making a vision,” says Elizabeth, “and when we were talking about what else we should add, we both said ‘bass.’”

Ben, meanwhile, had long thought – at least subconsciously, he says – about what it would be like to have a guitar in the mix, and in fact often tried to simulate a guitar-type accompaniment in his playing. 

Elizabeth had met Fishman at the Maine Fiddle Camp and been impressed by his musicianship but also his willingness to jam and perform with others: “Noah just was very versatile and super creative.” Hearn was certainly well known to the Andersons, through his duo Rakish – with fiddler Maura Shawn Scanlin – and his numerous other short- and longer-term collaborations; they also felt he shared their interest in devising creative, even challenging, arrangements. 

“Even before any rehearsals with Noah or Conor, we did a lot of writing out of arrangements and figuring out what it would be like playing with other people,” says Ben. “Then it was just a matter of getting our imagination to sound like reality.”

“I remember the first time we had Conor over, we just put the chart in front of him and we played it, and it was like we had always imagined it sounding; we were thrilled,” says Elizabeth. “We had been anticipating it for so long and really knew what we wanted to get out of our guest musicians. And they just came and delivered.”

“William the Bloody” was a signal achievement for the partnership, she adds: “It's a very long, very complex track, with a slow section at the beginning, then a faster part near the end and then it goes back to the slow part. When Ben and I first came up with it – even before the idea of a CD – we had this idea of ramping up, but there's only so much you can do with two instruments. We wanted to have more there to help us feel that beat and feel it speed up.”

Since Hearn wound up doing a few overdubs, the piece sounds more like it’s being played by a septet or octet, notes Elizabeth. 

“It was a difficult process to come up with the arrangement for that, given that we couldn't hear the whole thing at any one time. But once we got it all recorded and put together and heard it for the first time, it was extremely satisfying.”

The Andersons have equally high praise for Moynihan. 

“Jenna helped a lot with just getting the band to engage together better, and in fine-tuning some of the arrangement details,” says Ben. “She brought a great outside perspective and an objective third-party ear.”

In addition, Moynihan contributed fiddle on “Ruairidh” – an original by Ben in tribute to the siblings’ namesake corn snake, of whom they share custody – and the closing track, “The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow,” a medley comprising the titular tune and others composed by Dave Weisler, Máire Breatnach and Jack Chisholm.

“To have Jenna play with us, too, was really amazing – I wish there could’ve been more of it,” adds Elizabeth. “Well, maybe on the third album.”

For more about Elizabeth and Ben Anderson. 

For tickets to the Andersons’ show at the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series