EVERY community has its own culture, heritage and past, none more so than ourselves in Shetland.
One of the biggest features of our past, which is still present and gathering strength, is our music, particularly the music of the fiddle.
During the last 30 years fiddle music has had the advantage of being taught in our schools to generations of young people. This is all due to the efforts of the late Dr Tom Anderson, who felt he was witnessing the decline of our indigenous instrument.
Tom's teaching took him to Yell where he discovered a hidden treasure The Cullivoe Fiddlers. At that time they were under the leadership of the late Bobby Jamieson and the late Willie Barclay Henderson. In their twilight years, Tom took these men with their band to festivals and concerts on the Scottish mainland.
That is now part of their history. Thanks to Danny Jamieson in his determination to revive the fiddlers after they had disbanded for some time, their current leader Angus Henry and the group have enjoyed another round of trips and tours.
Fiddler Barry Nisbet has had the foresight to record and therefore archive the current group so now we can all share in one of the last true pieces of our culture.
As has been historic with music in our country, the outlying islands and areas have retained styles and versions of tunes unique to their districts for longer and this is a classic example.
The use of the "high bass" tuning the lower string up a full tone to an A is commonplace to these players. This gives the fiddle more volume and a resonance more akin to a hardanger of Norwegian tradition.
Here we can enjoy the playing of Angus Henry, John Henderson, Ivor Tulloch, Christopher Thomason, Barry and Danny on fiddles. They are ably accompanied by David Bruce Spence on guitar, Martin Henderson on piano and Kevin Tulloch on bass.
As is explained in the sleeve notes most of the players are either direct descendants of the original fiddlers or were taught by them.
Some of the material has been recorded by previous line-ups on various compilation albums. Here at last is a complete album of the rich heritage of North Yell.
As well as old favourites such as The Heids o Vigon and their own stylish version of Soldiers' Joy, the group have added some more modern tunes to their repertoire.
A wonderful inclusion are the solos from Danny, Angus and Barry. The playing of Millie Gudger, Taste da Green and Da Scallowa Lasses by Danny and Angus displays the preservation of the old style while in contrast Barry's solo, Captain Jim Cottier, is a tune of his own.
The playing has a wonderful unspoilt, natural quality with an ever present feeling of pleasure and enjoyment in the performance. There is a lilt from the bowing and a drive from the famous "draw" on the back strings so much so that you can almost smell the peat fire and hear the "dad" of the feet in the Shetland reel.
Recently Aly Bain chose, as part of his 60th birthday celebrations, to spend an evening with the Cullivoe Fiddlers. That is quite an endorsement considering the amount of musicians Aly knows worldwide.
As Aly points out in his sleevenote, this album should make compulsory listening by every student learning fiddle in our islands.
I wish The Cullivoe Fiddlers every success in their future of keeping the North Yell style alive.
Almost one hundred years since they began to play together, Bobby Jamieson and Willie Barclay Henderson would have been very proud to see the next generation continue what they began.
This article was written by Margaret Scollay and appeared in The Shetland Times newspaper on 24th February 2006.
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