Thursday Night in the Caley

Hailing from the Highlands and islands, Blazin’ Fiddles have been stoking the flames since 1998, when they first got together to showcase their various regions’ distinct styles. Shetland's Catriona MacDonald (of The Unusual Suspects) featured in earlier line-ups, whilst the current sextet includes two new members – the excellent Shetland fiddler Jenna Reid, and Anna Massie from Fortrose. The Caley in the album's title refers to the Caledonian Hotel in Beauly, where unfeasible numbers of players cram the bar for the big session of the week on a Thursday night. Everyone knows that Friday nights are for amateurs, while Thursdays have it all going on.

Thursday Night in the Caley kicks off with a breezy, if not blazing, chorus of fiddles on a set of four tunes in one that opens with ‘Fashion O The Lassies’ from the late 18th century and closes with a pipe tune from Edinburgh. The pace continues through the following ‘Fiddle Cushion’, another set of tunes caught in the rapids, before Robert Burns’ ‘Carronside’, featuring fiddle and piano, slows to a more lyrical pace. Further on, there's Gaelic and Cape Breton tunes, a Norwegian waltz by Vidar Skrede, pipe tunes strung to the fiddlers’ bow, Lord Eglinton's lovely reel to his wife, Lady Montgomerie, and the beautiful Irish air, ‘Sliabh’, for piano and fiddle. Closing with a frenetic set of five tunes in less than four minutes, the final descent of ‘Tripping Down the Stairs’ suggests a Thursday night at the Caley certainly has legs.