I went to great session on Friday, one that previously I knew nothing about. It's in a village about ten miles away from where I am (Crieff), and it's mostly fiddlers, and mostly young fiddlers at that. They opened with a couple of Irish tunes, and I thought "Oh no, another Irish session in the heart of Scotland...", but for the rest of the evening the majority of music was Scottish, and it was great.
Turns out they were mostly the Blackford Fiddlers, and I asked some questions. The doyen of the group, Pete Cope, started a community-based group in the village of Blackford, Perthshire, where the aim was the encourage and teach fiddle playing as an everyday community activity, and not something elite which only very talented people do. There is now a group of about forty people of all ages (but mostly young) in this wee village playing fiddle, and they often travel to sessions and festivals simply to play. In addition to the Friday session I attended, they also conduct a weekly Sunday session in Blackford itself. The five younger fiddlers at the Friday session ranged from about sixteen to twenty-four, and in addition there was a couple of older fiddlers (including Pete Cope), a couple of guitars, a bodhran, a bouzouki, and me on mandolin and whistle. The youngsters apparently idolize Catriona Macdonald, so we had a few tunes from her repertoire. The obvious enjoyment they got from playing was wonderful to see, and it's so encouraging to discover such a revolution. It has inspired me to think about what I could do here in Crieff. How can I get young people interested in traditional music? What would be the best way of organizing it? Much food for thought. -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/ Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
