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Thank you all so much for a great evening in Birnam last night! We met Mike, Bruce and Gerry at the Blackford fiddle workshop in the Tolbooth on Saturday, which was great - thanks. For us aspiring fiddlers going to a fantastic concert can be inspirational, uplifting and motivating, or just make you want to burn your fiddle and top yourself! Happily last night was inspirational! Hope you continue to have fun on the rest of the tour, and that maybe we'll see you again one day.
Isobel Wilton
Folk stars tune up for Scottish tour - Forres Gazette
FOLK music from Scotland is set to mix with the sounds of Eastern Europe later this month when the Fraser Fifield Band - one of the most distinctive-sounding groups in Scotland today - and Bulgarian folk masters, the Nedyalko Nedyalkov Quartet, will be in concert in East Grange Loft on February 29.
The two bands will perform individual sets and treat audiences to extensive on-stage collaborations as part of the first Tune Up tour of 2008.
Now in its fifth year, the Scottish Arts Council's Tune Up initiative takes the highest quality music, from traditional to experimental, world music to cabaret, chamber music to pop and rock, to venues across Scotland. It's now a significant international touring programme.
Fifield, a former member of Salsa Celtica, is known for his innovative approach to traditional music, which incorporates many facets of jazz. Indeed, his 2005 album, 'Slow Stream' (Tanar Records) made a huge impression on the jazz and folk festival circuits of Europe.
Fraser is joined for the Tune Up tour by recent BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year nominee, guitarist Graham Stephen. Dedicated percussion riffs come from Guy Nicholson and David Robertson.
The Nedyalko Nedyalkov Quartet comprises four of the most respected musicians working in Bulgaria today: Nedyalkov himself (kaval, an end-blown flute); Georgi Petrov (gadulka); Angel Dimitrov (tamboura) and Soimenka Nedyalkova (vocals).
