Blazin' Fiddles
Album: North
Label: Blazin'
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.blazinfiddles.com

Readers north of the border (or those elsewhere with the gunption to access the programme via t'interweb) will be familiar with Bruce McGregor, who has occupied the "Travelling Folk" hot-seat since the retirement of the legendary Archie Fisher. McGregor has risen to the challenge admirably, and is no doubt aided in this by the contacts he will have made through playing since 1998 with Blazin' Fiddles, a veritable super-group of the instrument, which now comprises McGregor, Kristan Harvey, Rua Macmillan and Jenna Reid, along with robust accompaniment from Angus Lyon on piano, and the admirably prolific Anna Massie, who both plays guitar and adds yet another fiddle on a couple of tracks on "North", the band's seventh album.

The album is full of verve and hugely confident playing, and it's clear from the first listen that this is a group of musicians who are individually talented, but whose power is exponentially increased by their collaboration. Whether with the poise demonstrated on "Shetland Night", or the rambunctious delight of "Arran Ceilidh"; the almost chamber-like "Gamekeeper's" or the syncopation of "Braehead Cottage", the eleven tracks presented here are of a uniformly high quality, whether interpretations of traditional tunes, or written by the band members themselves (Harvey, Massie and McGregor all chip in contributions).

My personal favourite is "Catch and Kiss", a selection of traditional tunes brought to the band by Macmillan, and which drops all accompaniment with Massey contributing a fifth fiddle. As McGregor notes on the sleeve, "we've employed a couple of different techniques to use the fiddles as accompaniment as well as melody instruments". The follow-up "Java" also features the famous five fiddles, this time with some accompaniment from Lyon, on a delicate air with some beautifully lyrical playing from Macmillan and Harvey.

The album also features Swedish polka, a nod to Shetland guitar legend Peerie Willie Johnson. One further quiet piece for three fiddles "Taigh Sia", is followed by the climactic set "Archie", which begins with McGregor's musical interpretation of an alcohol-fuelled disaster at Cambridge Folk Festival, and travels through a couple of Strathspeys before a pell-mell finish, fitting for any superior ceilidh.

An ensemble of class and distinction, and a disc which shows it off to good effect.

Harry Thomson