A crisp bright November day, still t-shirt weather for the locals, saw the opening of the 2023 Scots Fiddle Festival in Edinburgh. This year's event was more focused on Scotland that usual, with a few exceptions - no Irish, American, Norwegian, Canadian or Breton fiddlers performing this year, although the definition of Scottish music was broad and the workshops had an even broader remit.
The Pleasance venue in Edinburgh's Old Town hosted a wee session before the Friday night concert, a blockbuster double bill of the stunning trio VRï from Wales and a seven-piece folk-jazz-classical ensemble playing Sarah-Jane Summers' suite How to Raise the Wind. I had stocked up on haggis and deep-fried pizza beforehand, so I was well prepared for a full three hours of excellent music. VRï were a revelation, two fiddles and a cello, tight arrangements of Mid Wales tunes and close harmonies on some emotional songs about horses, cows, ploughing, and more horses - all in beautifully articulated Welsh. J P Williams on cello was magnificent, not in a red Welsh rugby strip but in mustard dungarees and multicoloured shirt. Fiddlers Aneirin Jones and Patrick Rimes were more formally attired, but the line-up was a feast for the eyes as well as the ears: highly polished wood, best Welsh wool, battering foot percussion and formidable vocals, all simultaneous with a glorious string trio sound.
The second half saw Inverness fiddler Sarah-Jane Summers take the stage with her husband Juhani Silvola on guitar and an all-star string quintet: Megan Henderson and Seonaid Aitken on fiddles, Katrina Lee on viola, Su-a Lee on cello and Rikard Toften Holst on bass. This multi-part work was commissioned for a festival in Norway, Sarah-Jane's long-time home, and combined Scottish and Nordic themes with classical and jazz structures. The performance was brilliant and evocative, wide-ranging and challenging at times for both musicians and listeners. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and even the die-hard traditionalists in the audience were impressed. This concert combined two great acts which would not normally be heard in Edinburgh, giving them a big stage to fill, and also bringing new music to the established Scottish fiddle community.
One of the many nice things about the Scots Fiddle Festival is the relaxed atmosphere of the late night Festival Club. Most of the concert performers came down to chat with festival-goers, and the club stage saw another great set from VRï as well as performances by ad hoc local trio 200 Steps (named for the distance from their flat to the venue), and returning Edinburgh residents Anna-Wendy Stevenson and Simon Bradley with a set inspired by their time in Asturias and their long stint teaching on Benbecula. Tunes and craic wound up shortly after 1am, with the last of us wandering home past pubs and eateries still in full swing.
Saturday dawned long before I was awake, so I missed the early workshops - in fact I wasn't attending any workshops this year as there was too much else to enjoy. I skipped Madeleine Stewart's teach-in on New England music, Rua MacMillan's Highland tunes, Marie Fielding's tips on performance, and a couple of no doubt fascinating appearances by Adam Sutherland, among many other workshops and tutorials. I did catch several of the sessions in the main area, free-for-alls playing mainly Scottish music while slow and fast sessions were led in other rooms: this year's sessions were more plentiful than before, which was appreciated by many old and young fiddle fans who had come to play as well as to listen.
From midday on Saturday and Sunday there was a programme of recitals in a high vaulted space with excellent acoustics and a full-blown sound system to cater for individuals and larger groups. First up on Saturday were the ARC fiddlers, pupils of the dynamic Mhairi Marwick: twenty teenagers from around Fochabers near the Moray Firth, playing mainly old favourites and some Marwick compositions, with keyboards and drum accompaniment, very impressive and a great advert for young Scottish fiddlers. Interestingly, around 80% of these young musicians were female. In fact, the majority of the fiddlers on stage at SFF 2023 were female: without the youngsters the numbers were roughly even, but with ARC and the Youth Engagement Project (60% female) the balance tipped towards the ladies. I've seen a similar female dominance in North American fiddle competitions, but so far it has not reached professional performance on concert and festival stages: perhaps this will be the generation where women fiddlers finally take their rightful place.
ARC were followed by Megan Henderson with a great solo set of West Highland tunes, Graham Rorie from Orkney with new compositions together with Rory Matheson on keyboards, Arthur Coates and Kerran Cotterell for a madcap set of mixed Scottish, English, French Canadian and American swing tunes and songs, and finally Edinburgh fiddler Kathryn Nicoll who wrapped up with some grand old Scottish tunes in fine style. The Sunday recitals were equally varied: starting with a mix of Irish and Scottish material by a talented Edinburgh University student group on mixed instruments, then a delicate but highly skilled set from Orkney's young champion fiddler Eric Linklater, and a gorgeous harp and fiddle duo selection by Oban harpist Becky Hill and Perthshire fiddler Charlie Stewart. Incidentally, this duo's album Thawcrook is one of the best of the year.
Finishing off Sunday's recitals were a pair of more eclectic performances, the first by far-travelled Australian fiddler Jeri Foreman accompanied by Seán Gray on guitar. Jeri is now resident in Scotland, and in addition to Scottish music she is still playing Australian and American oldtime fiddle - including a lovely Australian waltz by Peter Thornton called Aftermath. The final performance of SFF 2023 was by Lauren Collier and her world music ensemble of guitar, bass, and more percussion than you can shake a stick at. Lauren's material ranged from Indonesia to Macedonia, Haiti to Palestine, fun and funky with hypnotic fiddle and vocals: Ali Hutton on guitar and Paul Jennings on drums did sterling work, but fiddle and bass were the core of this global party music.
Sessions and stalls, book launches and bar meals were slotted in amongst organised performances and workshops. The main event was Saturday night, naturally, so fast rewind almost 24 hours for a dance energised by the Armstrong Ceilidh Band (another local talent store) while the main theatre boasted a dramatic concert from two headline acts. First in the proceedings was the Youth Engagement Project or YEP, tutored this year by Orcadian Graham Rorie: twelve lasses and eight lads from around Scotland who produced some great fiddling with complex arrangements of old and new tunes. (Incidentally, Graham is taking over from fellow Orcadian Jeana Leslie as Artistic Director of SFF, a fine choice.) Next up was Eryn Rae, 2022 Young Traditional Musician of the Year, accompanied by 2021 winner Michael Biggins on keyboards and that man Paul Jennings again on percussion. This trio played reels, jigs, a couple of slower tunes, and possibly the fastest Shetland set I've ever heard: outstanding performances from all three, leaving the audience breathless.
After a short break for tea and petit fours, the main act took the stage: Haltadans, all the way from Shetland, three fiddlers with guitar and bass in the Willie Johnson and Hom Bru tradition. Ewen Thomson, Maurice Henderson and Ella Robertson played a wide range of Shetland and Greenland music, much of it old and obscure, all of it engaging and brilliantly performed. Maurice's fingers seemed to move faster and farther than anyone else's, and his mouth did almost all the talking: it was great to hear Shetland dialect spoken so clearly and so naturally, to a wide range of listeners. Most of the Scots, and those with German or Nordic heritage, would have understood pretty much every word, but there were some mystified French and Spanish faces, and I'm not sure what the Welsh made of it. Maurice is a great storyteller, and his tales of the stone circle at Haltadans and his quest for the origins of Wullafjord were delightful. As a grand finale, Eryn and the whole of YEP joined Haltadans on stage for a rousing rendition of that most popular of Shetland reels.
The Festival Club on Saturday night saw more from Haltadans, this time playing mainly Irish music: polkas, jigs, reels and more. The small stage also hosted Graham Rorie and Rory Matheson with some powerful dance music, and a local grouping of Carly Armstrong, Sarah Brown and Lewis Williamson on fiddles with guitar accompaniment from Fin Loening. Folk were dancing with wild abandon in front of the stage - everything from salsa moves to St Bernard's Waltz.
There was little time to enjoy the eateries and local sessions on offer in Edinburgh's multicultural Old Town by the time we dragged ourselves away from the Pleasance venue around 1.30am on Friday and Saturday nights, but Sunday evening was a different matter. A 6pm finish allowed ample time for an excellent Indian meal and then four hours of fine music in Sandy Bell's world famous hostelry. Half a dozen festival stalwarts joined the locals for a packed session of Scottish and Irish fiddle tunes, the perfect end to a busy weekend at another hugely successful Scots Fiddle Festival.
Photo Credits:
(1) Scots Fiddle Festival (unknown/website);
(2) Workshop with Megan Henderson,
(3) VRI from Wales,
(4) Sarah-Jane Summers,
(5) Eryn Rae,
(6) Haltadans
(by Rob Shields).
