Fiddler's Bid is now in their fourteenth year as a band, and I can see why: their album Naked & Bare is both exhilarating and accomplished. The band consists of seven individuals playing four fiddles, a viola, and a Scottish harp, as well as some piano, guitar and bass guitar. This ensemble of stringed instruments sweeps and sashays its way through a series of well-arranged tracks of the sort of music one might dance to all night.
Most of the tracks are traditional Shetland tunes, with one Norwegian and one Faroese for good measure. "Naked and Bare," the title source, is a slow bride's march from the isle of Unst. It starts with a single line fiddle melody which flowers out into sensuous yet spare rounds and variations on the theme. "Da White Wife," composed by band member Chris Stout, is dedicated to a ghost seen by young men on the isle of Unst, and also a lovely beer of the same name; the transition is made smooth by a piano and guitar bridge, and the dual voices of strings make this reel as smooth and cheerful as a second pint. "Christchurch Cathedral," composed by John Sheahan, is remarkable for its lovely rounds of theme by fiddle and variation by harp.
Other memorable tracks include a number of combination pieces. The third track is a series of three traditional Shetland tunes and an Asturian tune. First is "Troila Knowe," literally 'troll's hillock' (noting that trowies, the little underground people of Shetland, are not always the lumpen denizons of The Hobbit), a springing fiddle tune which transitions into two Shetland reels, "Ahint da daeks o' Voe" and "Da Fustra." The last tune is "Salton," and between the four songs, fast fiddles move over a unity of tunes in perfect polyphony. "Macklins vals from Orsa" is a Swedish waltz played with a light hand on fiddles, guitar, harp and piano, including a quietly delightful harp solo at the end. Track five is: "Fezeka's," composed by band member Andrew Gifford in honour of his South African hosts, "Go Fur 'Im," composed by high-energy fiddler Steven Spence in honour of his boat, and "Ria's," a springing fiddle refrain with a rapid and cunning harp solo composed by Andrew Gifford in honour of a friend. Track eight, with the tunes "Da lass dat made da bed for me," "Seven step polka," "Shalder's Geo," and an un-named reel, is all traditional Shetland music, and drives the middle of the album hard with a leading fiddle singing its way over top of very traditional sounds made perfect by technically precise playing.
One of my favourite songs on the album is the last track, "Foroyar tune," based on a traditional Faroese wedding song, "Tad stendur ein lind i min fadirs gard," which is a echoing, steady-paced overlap of harmonic fiddle and guitar rounds, being both gentle and haunting, kindly and calming.
Naked & Bare is a pleasing balance of traditional and contemporary (i.e. sensible) arrangement, of thrumming, skirling fiddles and serene rounds of viola and harp. No instrument overbalances the others, and it seems that fourteen years of play have made Fiddler's Bid very good at playing their listeners a treat. View their Web site here.
