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Intrepid readers of this column may recall visiting the “Scottish fiddler’s house” some yearsago. The violin being so common throughout the world, it is easy for people to associatethe fiddle or violin (yes, same instrument!) with whatever style of music that comes tomind--Irish, Appalachian, classical. You might hear a Scottish fiddler play a jig and think

“Irish”, or hear Shetlanders playing their traditional backbeat rhythm and think“Appalachia”, or listen to a fiddler from the northeast of Scotland and think “classical”, with-out realizing that these playing styles have been rooted for centuries in Scotland. TheScottish fiddler’s house may seem like one among many, but if you stop in and listen, youwill experience a rich brew of musical culture.

The two masters of Scottish fiddling that we visited in the earlier column (spring 1997), AlyBain and Alasdair Fraser, are going strong, with impeccable virtuosity. Aly Bain has sinceput out another album with accordionist Phil Cunningham, called , which gives abit more of a chance to hear Aly’s playing than the previous duo album Still, toappreciate his solo playing, I recommend his or , or perhaps the

album, which has some unique tracks of Aly’s traditionalplaying, in addition to performances of Alasdair Fraser and some top Cape Breton fiddlersas well.

Alasdair Fraser recently made a beautiful and straightforward recording with guitarist TonyMcManus, called , with a magical selection of traditional tunes. Alasdairhas also explored new directions with his Skyedance band and its albums,

and , blending his fiddle with pipes, flute, piano, bass and percus-sion, in a mix of rhythmic Scottish/new age/soft jazz sound.

With the flourishing of fiddlers in Scotland today, it is a good time to peer into some otherareas of the Scottish fiddling house. John McCusker is a key player, prominent in the Bat-tlefield Band; their recent album, , was named after one of John’stunes. John also has made a self-titled album and a brand new solo album called

just out in September.

One of the hottest fiddle bands today comes out of the Highlands--Blazin’ Fiddles, with sixgreat fiddlers, piano and guitar. All are excellent players and together, they fire up boththe music and their audiences. Their first CD just came out this summer, called

One of the fiddlers, Catriona MacDonald, is from Shetland, and the remaining five areHighlanders: Duncan Chisholm, Aidan O’Rourke, Iain MacFarlane, Bruce MacGregor, andAlan Henderson. Blazin’ Fiddles is making a splash with fresh energy, traditional Gaelic

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melodies and modern compositions. They play fiddle and pipe tunes in unison or withweaving harmonies, plus innovative piano by Andy Thorburn.

Each of the Blazin’ Fiddlers can be heard on other albums. Catriona MacDonald’s newalbum is , with Shetland and contemporary tunes. Duncan Chisholm, formerly withthe Celtic rock band Wolfstone, made a compelling solo album called withWolfstone guitarist Ivan Drever. Aidan O’Rourke and his compositions energize thegroup Tabache on their latest album, . Bruce MacGregor plays severalfine fiddle sets on the debut album of Cliar, an excellent Gaelic band led by singer Ar-thur Cormack. Iain MacFarlane has played on a number of albums, including box playerFergie MacDonald and Gaelic singer Anne Martin, but we can look forward to his soloalbum with piper Iain MacDonald in the coming year.

The sixth blazing fiddler, Alan Henderson, is featured on , a CD that bringstogether three contemporary Scottish fiddlers in the spirit of a spontaneous jam session.Alan hails from the western fishing village of Malaig, while Julia Legge, another memberof this fiddle trio, comes from Montrose on the east coast. She is a member of the bandTannas. The third fiddler is Jennifer Wrigley, from up north in the Orkney islands.

not only brings together a varied trio of players, but also a broad variety of Scot-tish fiddle tunes.

Jennifer Wrigley and her twin sister Hazel, who plays guitar and piano, play in the bandSeelyhoo, and also tour and record as the Wrigley Sisters. The Wrigley Sisters have tworecent albums, and , both well played and creative, withmoods ranging from fast driving to dreamy.

Speaking of dreamy fiddling brings to mind a cut from west coast fiddler Eilidh Shaw’salbum, , on which she plays a beautiful pipe march very dreamily, accompa-nied by spare jazz chords that quietly and pleasantly surprise the ears. She also in-cludes quicker tunes on the album, of course, as in the long and wild ceilidh dancemedley.

A number of today’s Scottish fiddlers can be heard on , a live recordingmade at the Edinburgh Fiddle Festival. Alasdair Fraser, Aidan O’Rourke, and Eilidh Shawhave been mentioned above. Others on the album include the young Shetlander ChrisStout, northeast fiddler Paul Anderson, and Amy Geddes, who works with Julia Legge inthe band Tannas--a fine cross-section of fiddling styles, presented with the obvious ener-gy of live performance.

Chris Stout, like a number of Shetlanders (Aly Bain and the late Willie Hunter come tomind), has a solid violin technique put to the service of traditional Shetland and Scottishfiddling. He is a member of the 7-member Shetland band, Fiddlers’ Bid, a quartet of fid-dlers backed by harp, piano, guitar and bass. Their recent album, , is rooted

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in Shetland tunes, with a variety of moods but some especially memorable bursts of highspirits.

Paul Anderson is from Aberdeenshire, and offers what many listeners would regard as a“classical” sound, though this violin technique is part of the fiddle style of the northeast ofScotland. Paul’s album, , is a virtuosic and enjoyable tour of some tradition-al favorites in the Scottish fiddle repertoire.

Another Aberdeenshire fiddler not usually thought of as a traditional player is CharlieMcKerron, the fiddler with Capercaillie. Before joining that band, Charlie was a top com-petitive traditional fiddler, and a recording he made back in 1981 along with fiddler KeithCollins, has recently been released on a new “Music of the Fiddle” series from Aberdeen-shire record label Ross Records. Charlie also has a new band project called Big Sky, farremoved from the east coast traditional sound. He works with a singer, tape loops, guitar,and includes the two fiddlers of the band Deaf Shepherd, Marianne Campbell and ClareMacLaughlin, mixing Celtic dance music with mainstream pop sounds. Big Sky’s albumis

Another recent recording bringing Scottish fiddlers together is . This onecombines the considerable talents of Jonny Hardie of Old Blind Dogs, with Gavin Mar-wick of Iron Horse. These two fiddlers put to great use their skills at arranging enjoyablesets, using traditional fiddle tunes.

In this thick web of fiddling collaborations, you can sense how strongly the Scottish fid-dlers today are weaving together a new tapestry of musical culture. In some ways it real-ly seems like a big house, where fiddlers are venturing out of their regional rooms to jamtogether in the living room, bounce tunes off each other, and then go back to their roomsto explore new ideas with their own bands. If you haven’t stopped into the Scottishfiddler’s house lately, it’s definitely time for a visit.

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