Blazin’ Fiddles, Scotland’s award winning group, head out on a major tour this month, taking in venues including Newbury Corn Exchange, The Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmunds, Cornerstone Didcot, The Theatre Royal Winchester, The Stables in Milton Keynes and more. Running through mid June to early July, some dates are already sold out. Two of their members are to leave and they will also be joined by a new member, none other than Anna Massie, former BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician winner.
The current line up is Fiddlers Catriona Macdonald, Bruce Macgregor, Allan Henderson, Iain Macfarlane and Anna Massie on guitar/fiddle and Andy Thorburn on keyboard.
Not surprisingly Aidan O’Rourke has found his time being taken up by the ever popular trio Lau. Their guitar player, Marc Clement also left the band to pursue other projects. They will no doubt both be missed by fans and band members alike. Blazin’ Fiddles have had a static line up for the last ten years which is quite an accomplishment by anyone’s standards but maybe it’s now time to have some new blood in the band. I’m sure the addition of Anna Massie will be an exciting addition as she will play both guitar and fiddle. As they say on their site “it takes one woman to fill the shoes of two men!“. I’m sure many of our long time listeners will remember the track “The Mission Hall” which received a lot of airplay on our Roots stream.
They have a busy time ahead mind, in autumn Blazin’ Fiddles will release a new studio album and will be on the road again for a week of shows in November to launch the album and will then return with a summer tour in 2011. A tenth anniversary DVD is also planned for the summer.
Good times ahead, I last saw them in 2004. They made a big impression on me then, and provided me with a great bit of history into Scottish Fiddle playing as well as the various styles. I had just started this station!
