The National Fiddle Championship, 1977

The National Fiddle Championship, 1977 (EMI Records NTS 130, 1977)

01 Yla Steven: Balmoral Castle/Glen Grant/The Gladstone (all Scott Skinner)

02 Yla Steven: Dunkeld House (Gow)/Lads o' Dunse

03 Iain Laing: Dean Brig of Edinburgh (Archie Allan)/Banks (Parazotti)

04 Donald Montgomery: Lament for James Moray of Abercairney (Gow)

05 Donald Montgomery: Leaving Glenurquhart/Bob Steel/Pretty Peggy

06 Donald Montgomery: The Valley of Silence (Scott Skinner)

07 Angus Cameron: Marquis of Huntly's Farewell/John McNeill

08 Angus Cameron: H Mackworth (Wm Marshall)/Eugene Stratton

09 Douglas Lawrence: Earl Grey (James Hill)/Waverley Ball (John Lowe)

10 Douglas Lawrence: Lady Charlotte Campbell (Macintosh)

11 Douglas Lawrence: Duchess Bedford (Marshall)/Miss Wharton Duff of Orton (Marshall)/Miss Wharton Duff's Jig (Marshall)/Bee's Wing (James Hill)

This competition was organised by Lothian Regional Council as part of the International Clan Gathering in 1977. Judges were Tom Anderson, the renowned Shetland fiddler, Bill Hardie from Aberdeenshire, and Jim Hunter. Douglas Lawrence from Banffshire, at that time a student, won the contest. He had been taught by the legendary Hector MacAndrew. Angus Cameron was runner-up and Yla Steven third. The standard of fiddling on the record is high, especially considering that it was recorded live in front of a capacity audience in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Yla Steven:

Back to the Hills (1976)

Solos and Duets (n.d.)

Other albums featuring Angus Cameron:

Angus Cameron: Bow to the Fiddle (1975)

Angus Cameron: Strings to the Bow (1977)

Various Artists: Scottish Fiddlers to the Fore (1970)

The Cotters (1969)

The Cotters (Page One Records FORS 030, 1969)

The Cotters were Alex Sutherland and Alistair ("Ali") Watson from Edinburgh, and they got together after meeting in a folk club. They were popular in Edinburgh and elsewhere, at one point recording a commercial for Carling Black Label beer. The name of the duo came about after Ali bought a second-hand mandolin which had "The Cotters" written on it, so they took on that name.

Ali Watson left the Scottish music scene in 1980 and emigrated to Western Australia. He had had several jobs including a deep-sea mariner. He became ill with cancer and died in 2001, after having visited Scotland the same year. After Ali went to Australia, Alex Sutherland, a piano-tuner by trade, teamed up with Ian Simpson and performed as The Alexians. He had also died of cancer by the mid-1980s.

As far as I know, this is the only recording they made.

01 Mingulay Boat Song

02 Killicrankie

03 Lowlands Low

04 Ye Jacobites

05 Charlie's Lament

06 McPherson's Farewell

07 Tramps and Hawkers

08 Bonnie Ship the Diamond

09 Wild Flying Dove

10 Standard On the Braes O'Mar

11 Fair and Tender Ladies

12 Night Errant

Alex Sutherland: guitar

Alistair Watson: guitar and mandolin

Unavailable

Yla Steven, Solos and Duets (n.d.)

Yla Steven and Colin O'Riordan, Solos and Duets (n.d.)

1) The Fiddlers from Hoydalar

2) Lament for Archie Beaton

3) Mackworth/Mary Walker/Banks

4) Donald Macphersons lament

5) The Shetlander

6) The Coleburn

7) Edgefauld House/The Sands of Murness/Sandieburn Reel

8) The Wild Rose of the Mountain

9) Lady Charlotte Campbell/Robert McIntosh

10) Balmoral Castle/Glen Grant

11) The Academician

12) Chapel Keithack

13) The Tron Fiddlers

14) Lament for Lockerbie

15) The Hardanger

16) Niel Gow's Lament 2nd Wife

17) King Robert the Br/Craigellachie Bridge/The Devil and the Dirk

18) The Bonnie Lass O' Bonaccord

19) Back to Hills

20) The Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside/Tulchan Lodge/Left Handed Fiddle

I'm afraid I know very little about this recording, as I only had a copy on cassette. Yla Steven has been written about below; Colin O'Riordan was a highly influential music educator in Edinburgh who had a great love for traditional fiddle music. He took his own life in 2001 after becoming depressed about funding cuts. His only other fiddle recordings, as far as I know, are with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. All I have of the cover is a couple of poor quality scans.

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Yla Steven:

Back to the Hills (1976)

National Fiddle Championship 1977

Yla Steven, Back to the Hills (1976)

Yla Steven, Back to the Hills (Scottish Records SR 142, 1976)

01 Back to the Hills

02 Duke of Fife's Welcome to Fife/Tulchan Lodge/Left Handed Fiddler

03 Caledonia's Wail for Neil Gow

04 Lady Charlotte Campbell

05 Glen Coe

06 Barren Rocks of Aden/Stirling Castle/Largo's Fairy Dance

07 The Valley of Silence

08 Queen's Welcome to Invercauld/Laird o' Drumblair/Deil Amang the Tailors

09 Dumbarton Castle/South of the Grampians/Marquis of Huntly's Reel

10 Ossian

11 Scott Skinner's Comps to Dr McDonald/The Iron Man/The Bungalow

12 Sitting In the Stern of a Boat

13 Beauty of the North/Geordie Affleck

14 Goodbye Gramin

15 Fyvie Castle

16 Balmoral Castle/Glen Grant/Gladstone

Yla Steven learned fiddle as a youngster in Edinburgh and Perthshire, and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. She has been teaching fiddle in Edinburgh schools for many years now, and in 1983 formed the Lothian Schools Strathspey and Reels Society. Yla has won many fiddle championships, including the exclusive Golden Fiddle Award in 1976. As far as I know, she has released to albums of fiddle music: Back to the Hills in 1976, and Solos and Duets with the late Colin O'Riordan.

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Yla Steven:

Solos and Duets (n.d.)

National Fiddle Championship 1977

Various Artists: I Was Born In Glasgow (1991)

Various Artists: I Was Born In Glasgow (Gallus Records GAL 102, 1991)

This was a one-off album put together by Ewan McVicar using the money he won in a song competition. It features a handful of singers from Glasgow including:

Iain Mackintosh, banjo player, concertina player and singer. He originally played in groups such as The Islanders and The Skerries, but is better known for his subsequent solo career.

Ian Davison was one of the young people who attended Norman Buchan's Ballads Club in Rutherglen Academy (other members included Gordeanna MacCulloch, Ann Neilson and Adam McNaughtan), and later formed a group, The Ian Davison Folk Four.

Hamish Imlach, a giant figure in Scottish folk singing.

Alan Tall, an actor and musician who provided vocals, saxophone, keyboards and percussion.

This album has not, to my knowledge, been re-released, but it is hoped that Ewan will consider it one day.

01 Iain Mackintosh: I Wish I Was In Glasgow (Billy Connolly)

02 Ewan McVicar & Alan Tall: Tam the Bam (Ewan McVicar)

03 Iain Mackintosh & Ewan McVicar: The Glasgow I Used to Know (Adam McNaughtan)

04 Ewan McVicar: Caves In the Canyons (Ian Davison)

05 Iain Mackintosh: Farewell to Glasgow (Jim McLean)

06 Ewan McVicar: Nancy Whisky (Ewan McVicar)

07 Ewan McVicar: I Belong to Glasgow (Will Fyffe)

08 Ewan McVicar & Alan Tall: Bus 33-Glasgow Rain (Ewan McVicar)

09 Hamish Imlach: Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice (Carl MacDougall)

10 Ian Davison: Doon In the Wee Room (McLughlin)

11 Ewan McVicar & Alan Tall: Dannie Lannie & his Heavy China (Ewan McVicar)

12 Hamish Imlach: Twelve and a Tanner (McKenzie/Fyffe)

13 Ewan McVicar: Barroom Mountaineers (trad)

14 Ian Davison: Going Home to Glasgow (Ian Davison)

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Iain Mackintosh:

The Islanders: Keep Left (1965)

A Better Class of Folk (1975)

Bobby MacLeod: Maestro MacLeod (1977)

Bobby MacLeod: Maestro MacLeod (Emerald Gem GES 1171, 1977)

As the sleeve notes say, Bobby MacLeod is one of the all-time greats of the Scottish accordion. Originally from the island of Mull, MacLeod's recording career started in the early 1950s on 78rpm sides, and continued for decades afterwards. In this recording, rather like another here (Simply Solo), he is playing away from his usual band, except here he's accompanied by Wullie Thom on drums. The concept was formed as they jammed at Bobby's Hotel in Tobermory in 1976.

01 Hiram and Calum: Hi-O-Hiram/Calum Bheg

02 Piper's Delight: Millbank Cottage/The Edinburgh Volunteers

03 New Hebridean Waltz: Malcolm Ferguson

04 Two-Step: The Dancing Dustman

05 Polka: Happy Hours

06 Jiggery: Dan the Cobbler/The Maid On the Green/Jimmy McHugh

07 Reelography: Colonel Rodney/The General Election/The Byres Road

08 Waltz Musette: Bourrasque

09 March, Strathspey & Reel: Captain Carswell/Lady Macbeth/John Morrison of Assynt House

10 Pride of Erin Waltz: The Homes of Donegal/A Mother's Love/The Glens of Antrim/The County of Armagh

11 Hornpipery: The Kingston/The Golden Eagle/Off to California

12 Melodeonisticks: Les Triolets

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Bobby MacLeod:

Simply Solo (1988)

Norman Stewart: The North Highland Tradition

Norman Stewart: The North Highland Tradition (Tigh na Teud, n.d.)

Norman Stewart is from Easter Ross, and a forester by profession. He was surrounded by Gaelic music and song as a child, and when he was in Edinburgh he frequented Sandy Bell's Bar in the company of Hamish Henderson and other highly influential people. Norman met and later married Janice Clark (later of the group Highland Tradition) at a North-East ceilidh and the partnership produced one record, called Iolair. I don't know of any of his recordings being released on CD. This recording is from a cassette, but there is no date given at all.

01 Pride of Coll (Iain MacDonald)

02 Fear a'Bhata

03 Coshieville (Stuart MacGregor)

04 John of Lorne (NeilMunro)

05 As I Went to Inverness-shire

06 Kenneth J MacLeod (Donald Macleod)/Lyndhurst (Jack Smith)/The Conundrum (Peter R MacLeod)

07 The Men of Knoydart (Hamish Henderson)

08 'S Fhada leam an Oidhche Gheamhraidh (Murchadh MacPharlain a Mealabost)

09 Macallum's Lament

10 My Donald (Owen Hand)

11 A Ribhinn Og Bheil Cuimhn' Agad?

12 The North Highlands (trad/Norman Stewart)

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Norman Stewart:

Iolair: Music & Song from Scotland (1980)