#scottish fiddle

like dont get me wrong, love me some folk song arrangements or even modern takes on the style, but when you're looking for fiddle music and spotify JUST hands you pop music????????

North Highland Tunes (medley of tunes from the Scottish Highlands)

It was 1995 at the Valley of the Moon Camp where 15 year old me first crossed paths with an 11 year old Natalie Haas. I am sure there are photos in an album somewhere but I want to stay friends with Natalie so…

We toured together to Alaska as teenagers with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, playing tunes on boats and having snowball fights. When she graduated from Juilliard and moved to Boston we shared many hours watching romantic comedies, exercising and of course playing tunes. She is a total badass on the cello and is always an inspiration for her rock solid groove, lush tone and great tune repertoire. Our latest shared obsession is a batch of Swedish tunes we are learning from the playing of Anders Hall and Adam Johansson. Those tunes should prove useful when Natalie and I play the Göteborg International Film Festival on January 27 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Between tours with Alasdair Fraser and getting married to the wonderful Yann Falquet, Natalie found some time to answer a few questions about what really makes her smile.

1. If you could go anywhere in the world tonight, where would you go? 

Home! Home is the best.

2. Beyonce or Adele? and why?

Adele is a badass but Beyonce is the queen :)

3. Chocolate vs Cheese?

Cheeeeese — la sauvagine!

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Marine biologist so I could hang out with sea otters!

5. What sound do you love?

The sound of a teaspoon clinking against a saucer! that is the right way to drink tea :)

6. If you could work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?

I'd move to scandinavia and learn as many tunes as possible!

7. What is your most embarrassing moment?

Getting my skirt caught in an escalator in Lincoln Center and having to rip off a section of it before I revealed myself to all of NYC. My sister Brittany was with me and she laughed REALLY hard.

8. Favourite ice cream? Or mixed drink? why?

It's a toss up between mint chocolate chip, peppermint, pumpkin, and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

9. Favourite book of all time! why?

Bridget jones' diary! laugh out loud funny and an amazing love story.

10. Most memorable dance experience?

The first waltz at our wedding…the most amazing feeling of being totally enveloped by all the love and friendship surrounding us.

11. Anything you want our internet pals to know?

I am doing a few gigs in Quebec next month with an amazing Québecois nyckelharpa player, JF Bélanger, and my new husband, Yann Falquet, on guitar :)

Buddy MacMaster - Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Award 2014

This is the music that Robert Burns originally wrote A Red, Red Rose to. After Burns died, the people he had been working with thought they had a better ear than Burns, so they published the lyrics to the wrong music. To be honest, Robert Burns had a better ear. This tune was written for the funeral of Major Graham of Inchbrakie who Niel Gow and Robert Burns were friends with. Robert Burns heard the tune at the funeral, and he wrote the lyrics as soon as he got back home. If you are wondering how I know this, it is because the man who runs the fiddle school/camp I go to in the summer is the grand student of Niel Gow. I'm sorry the recording isn't of a better quality. I will try to find a fix for that. I think the furnace may have been on while I was playing. Here is they poem as written by Robert Burns. And yes, that is how he spelled too.

A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

O, my luve is like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June. O, my luve is like the melodie, That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass, So deep in luve am I, And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the sees gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun! And I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run.