In many ways, little has changed — the Celtic Colours festival is still going every year in October. Natalie MacMaster is still, as you know, going strong. Ashley MacIsaac has continued playing and also from time time stirred up controversies. Howie MacDonald is still an amazingly expressive fiddler and also a brilliant comedian — his albums attest to it! The older generation of great players mentioned below have all passed on — Buddy MacMaster, Joe Cormier, Carl MacKenzie and others, including a not-so-old player, Jerry Holland, who succumbed to cancer. Of course, there are lots of new and talented Cape Breton fiddlers, and some medium-age players not mentioned below have become more prominent, such as Wendy MacIsaac and Mairi Rankin, who are the fiddlers with the band Beolach.

One thing that has certainly changed is that there are no more cassettes! I remember being in Cape Breton when Buddy MacMaster put out a new album, and a local gas station, instead of advertising their gas prices, put up a big sign saying “Buddy’s new tape is here!” Everybody knew about the music.

I will say, however, that back in the 1980s and even into the 1990s, many who were becoming aware of this style of music did not always understand the strong connections between Scotland and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Cape Bretoners understood it well because it’s a key part of their history. Joe Cormier’s 1974 album was entitled Scottish Violin Music from Cape Breton Island. In 1990, Natalie MacMaster was our Cape Breton soloist for the Boston Scottish Fiddle Rally, which would always present a Scottish soloist as well. As Natalie got ready to teach a few Cape Breton tunes at a pre-concert workshop, I pointed out to her that she was scheduled to teach in the next room over. “But the sign on the door said Scottish!” she protested. In Cape Breton, the music was simply considered Scottish.

In the 1980s, and into the 90s, many thought of Cape Breton music as Irish, even though, historically, about 25,000 Scots emigrated there from the Scottish Highlands while only about 1,000 Irish made it there. But in the U.S. in those days (and for many it’s still true today), everything “Celtic” was presumed Irish! In fact, many’s the time I’ve told an American that I play Scottish music and was told in response, “Oh, yes, I love Irish music!” That’s the type of moment when Mike Myers, during his SNL skit “All Things Scottish,” would drag an unsuspecting customer over to a map, show him the Irish Sea, and point out where there be leprechauns!

I hope you enjoy this 1998 article I wrote for Scottish Life magazine.

One day last winter [1997-8], I witnessed Cape Breton fiddle music become a contender in mainstream American culture. I was at the health spa, wishing I had remembered to bring my tape machine to drown out the obligatory pump-you-up disco music, when my beleaguered ears perked up to hear strains of the old Scottish reel, “Sleepy Maggie,” as played by Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac on his popular album called Hi How Are You Today? Cape Breton fiddling had arrived!

To be sure, this recording has a modern edge, symbolized by Ashley’s performance outfit: a kilt with combat boots. But there is some traditional fiddling included, and now that Americans have been exposed to Ashley MacIsaac’s name, his two traditional CDs have also been picked up by a major label.

Interestingly, many people assume that traditional albums are the earlier ones, that players start traditional and go commercial. In fact, Ashley’s latest album, Fine Thank You Very Much, is an answer to Hi How Are You Today?, paying homage to the traditional fiddlers who inspired Ashley to play the music he loves.

Another young Cape Breton fiddle star, Natalie MacMaster, has come out with a new all-traditional album, called My Roots Are Showing. Her previous release, the brilliant No Boundaries, included some eclectic tracks, suggesting that she was moving in new directions. But her latest album, and her hugely successful road shows, demonstrate that Natalie’s playing is deeply and comfortably rooted in tradition. Her concerts spotlight her unparalleled zest for traditional tunes, and her Cape Breton step dancing, danced while playing, brings down the house.

This love of traditional music can be felt everywhere on Cape Breton Island (the eastern one-third of Nova Scotia, Canada), the home of thousands of Scottish families escaping the Highland Clearances of 1780-1850. Bringing with them their music, Gaelic songs, and step dancing, these emigrants preserved some of Scottish Highland culture that was later diffused in Scotland. The Highlanders who remained in Scotland suffered serious suppression of their culture because of politics and religion, while the Cape Bretoners were free to protect and develop their Scottish heritage. Lately, some of the Cape Bretoners have been traveling back to Scotland to teach their style of fiddling and stepdancing to interested Scots. (To give them their due, the humble Highlanders are not prone to publicizing themselves, so there is usually more to their story than we are led to believe. For instance, contrary to popular belief, there is a small but ongoing tradition of fiddling in the Highlands that is not far off from the Cape Breton sound. Some tunes, such as “West Mabou Reel,” widely thought of as Cape Breton tunes, are still played in the Scottish Highlands under their old Gaelic names.)

Cape Breton today is a treasure trove of musical events, dances, and summer festivals, plus the new Celtic Colours International Festival held in mid-October. These events draw not only many visitors but also native Cape Bretoners of all ages. Even teens hang out at the traditional dance halls, and up on stage you might as easily see a 14-year-old fiddler as a 75-year-old.

Cape Breton’s vital musical culture is reflected in a growing output of recordings, a rich repository of primarily Scottish music played on the fiddle. To sample this upbeat music, listen to an album such as The Bridges of Cape Breton County, featuring fifteen traditional and old-style Cape Breton fiddlers, or The Cape Breton Connection, which presents ten fiddlers with a traditional but more modern sound, including traditional tunes performed on electric guitar, piano, bagpipes, and by the Barra MacNeils and Slainte Mhath. The Atlantic Decade, just out this summer, includes Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster and PEI fiddler Richard Wood plus singers and bands such as the Rankin Family, Great Big Sea, Rawlins Cross, Barra MacNeils and Rita MacNeil. Traditional Music of Cape Breton on Nimbus Records features thirteen of Cape Breton’s finest, and the Scottish Fiddle Rally Concert Highlights album mixes Jerry Holland, Natalie and her uncle Buddy MacMaster with top Scottish fiddlers Alasdair Fraser and Aly Bain, plus some fine group playing.

Once you decide to delve into the recordings of individual players, you will be rewarded with some irresistibly lively music. The music of the best older-generation fiddlers includes the strong sound and uplifting beat of Buddy MacMaster (try Judique on the Floor), the twinkle of joy in the playing of Joe Cormier (his recent Informal Sessions is excellent), the great selections of tune medleys by Carl MacKenzie (Highland Fiddle and Dance is his latest), and the down-home fiddling of old-style players Alex Francis MacKay and Joe MacLean (each has a new album).

One of the best known of Cape Breton fiddlers is Jerry Holland. Originally from the Boston area, his mastery of this music is such that many of his own tunes are now standard repertoire, and his sweet, expressive and highly danceable playing style has influenced many younger players. His newest album is Fiddler’s Choice, which is highly unusual in that it features solo fiddle and no accompaniment. Jerry is one of those fiddlers who can capture your ear with a pure fiddle sound.

Another expressive, strong player is Howie MacDonald, whose name as a soloist is not well enough known outside of Cape Breton because he is part of the Rankin Family band. His recent album The Dance Last Night places music in the humorous story, like a radio play, of two fellows going to a Cape Breton dance, combining great music with hilarious comedy (all instruments, voices and sound effects by Howie!).

Cape Breton is rightly proud of its strong native culture of music and dance, where younger players are always growing into the scene. As their compatriots tour the world, there is also increasing international interest in their music. So keep your ears open, whether in your health spa (perhaps) or on your radio (more likely), for a hint of old Scottish music as transmitted by a new generation in Cape Breton. Better yet, pick up a few albums or go to see these fine players in concert or at a dance in Cape Breton, and experience this bit of Scottish heritage for yourself.

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At our local venue for the show, I was happy to share information and audio samples about all the Celtic All-Stars by giving a preconcert lecture, along with my wife, Laura Scott, who discussed and demonstrated the dancing that would be included in the show.

In that last post, I briefly discussed all the “all-stars” but today I’d like to tell you a lot more about one of them by sharing with you, below, an article I wrote celebrating Ross Ainslie and his brilliant mentor, the innovative piper Gordon Duncan. (This is one of 95 chapters in my book MusicScapes of Scotland: Vignettes from Prehistory to Pandemic.)

As I watched piper Ross Ainslie flawlessly playing a wild, syncopated tune based on the AC/DC rock song, “Thunderstruck,” I reflected that this was a pretty nice tribute to his mentor, the late Gordon Duncan. For a CD released in 2003, Duncan had arranged the same song for bagpipes and recorded it as his title track.

Until Ainslie met the legendary piper and composer Gordon Duncan, he had been a reluctant student of the bagpipes. There were not many pipers in his home area near Perth; he was the only piper in his school. His good friend, Ali Hutton, was likewise the only piper in his school. Both boys joined the juvenile level of the Vale of Atholl pipe band in Pitlochry, a half hour north, in order to participate in the band’s excellent feeder system, which accommodated nearly a hundred players, from teenage beginners to Grade 1 pipers.

Gordon Duncan’s older brother Ian was the Pipe Major of the Vale of Atholl band from 1974 to 2000, moving it in only seven years from Grade 4 to Grade 1, and eventually into World Championship competitions. Ian directed the band, but relied upon Gordon’s musical genius to craft the band’s famously adventurous repertoire. At the time Ross Ainslie joined the juvenile level band, it was led by Gordon Duncan, whose quiet and intense musicianship fostered respect and commitment from the young players, to the point of winning the juvenile world championships.

Duncan used to take Ross aside at each band rehearsal for a half hour of instruction to bring him up to speed. Often Ross would spend time at Gordon’s house, where he was exposed to all sorts of music – Scottish, Irish, rock, blues and more. Gordon’s musical mind was always switched on. As they listened to music, Gordon would challenge the boys to imagine how they might play along if they were a banjo player or a fiddler. He encouraged them to learn guitar, whistle, or cittern, and showed them that music was about more than being in a pipe band. Sometimes he would get them to play along with rock bands like AC/DC and struggle to make the notes work, even if they were playing an instrument tuned to the wrong key.

Ross Ainslie was inspired by Gordon Duncan’s leadership and musicianship to pursue music in all his spare time. His favorite album was Gordon’s 1994 CD, Just for Seamus. For his part, Gordon Duncan not only played traditional pipe band music but also toured with some of Scotland’s top folk bands, including Capercaillie, Wolfstone, and Ceolbeg.

One day, complaining that he was 17 and jobless, Ross found himself hustled by Gordon Duncan into a taxi to Dunkeld, where they played pipes in the Taybank bar until the owner, singer Dougie MacLean, walked in. MacLean ended up hiring Ainslie to tend bar, work in the kitchen, and play sessions. For two years he practically lived at MacLean’s house, and landed some gigs with him as well.

In 2002, at age 19, Ainslie was a finalist in the BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year award, the first of his many high-profile award nominations. Singer Emily Smith won that year and invited Ross to join her band. He soon acquired a taste for touring the world.

The following year, Ainslie began a long-lasting duo with uillean piper Jarlath Henderson, who had moved from Ireland to Scotland to attend medical school. They eventually recorded two albums, Partners in Crime (2008) and Air-Fix (2013), and were nominated Best Duo in the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Their upbeat tunes are very melodic and mostly traditional-sounding, effortlessly mixing in eclectic flavors as well. Border and uilleann pipes, whistles, fiddle and voice are backed tastefully by guitar, piano, bass, and percussion.

Ainslie’s big break came in 2005 when he was asked to join Salsa Celtica. This band mixes Cuban salsa music, jazz and traditional folk, and was so popular at the time that it provided him with full-time work.

2005 was also a tough year for Ainslie, as it was then that Gordon Duncan, struggling with alcoholism, took his own life. The sudden, inexplicable loss of this brilliant player and tunesmith came as a shock to the Scottish piping and traditional music communities. Gordy Jr, Duncan’s son, gave his father’s chanter and some of his whistles to Ross Ainslie, who ended up placing them with other memorabilia into a display case on his living room wall. Though the chanter might be usable again some day, the whistles were beyond repair. It didn’t help that one of them had doubled as Gordon’s fireplace poker!

Ainslie’s first solo album, released in 2013, is called Wide Open. He was joined by his old piping buddy, Ali Hutton, on guitar, with other backing instruments. Although it is imbued with fascinating rhythms and drive, the tunes are, above all, melodic explorations. The album was nominated for Best Album of the Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards, and was among the top ten in the Sunday Herald’s list of the best Scottish albums of 2013.

His second solo album derived from a New Voices commission by Celtic Connections, and was influenced by his decision a few years ago to stop drinking. Alarmed by a sense of dependence on alcohol, Ross quit over the course of a year, and found himself with more time on his hands and a need to face his new self squarely. To do this, he used music. “Music’s a kind of thing that saves you in a way,” Ainslie said, “Especially writing, and that’s my favorite thing with music – writing, working on music on my own.” He pulled together a group of eight great musicians to work with him in performance and later on a live recording. The CD, Remembering, was released in 2015, and unlike his other albums, features primarily songs. An instrumentalist and non-singer himself, Ainslie writes flowing and compelling melodies for his thoughtful lyrics, and frames them with exciting, precise instrumental backup. Perhaps the best description of the album comes from fiddler Laura Wilkie, who speaks of it glowingly as “honest music.”

One of Scotland’s busiest musicians, Ross Ainslie has many irons in the fire, including annual performances with Dougie MacLean at the annual fall Perthshire Amber festival, a new recording with his old friend Ali Hutton, and cross-cultural explorations with his international quartet, India Alba.

Much of his time, however, is devoted to Treacherous Orchestra, the epic eleven-piece band of which he was a founding member. This band grew out of the camaraderie of Glasgow’s traditional music sessions during the early 2000s. After one of their lively late-night festival club performances, Celtic Connections Festival director Donald Shaw invited them to be an official part of the next festival. Their January 2009 Celtic Connections show sold out, and Treacherous Orchestra was born.

A high-energy crowd pleaser, Treacherous Orchestra comprises two pipers (Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton), accordion, fiddle, flute, two guitars, banjo, drums, bass, and bodhran. Their first album, Origins (2012) and their 2015 release, Grind, present moments of solo piano, flute or fiddle, broad textural grooves, and climactic, full-band wildness. Their musicianship is impeccable, modern, and yet schooled by Scottish tradition.

Gordon Duncan built a bridge between high quality traditional and modern Scottish music. Ross Ainslie crossed that bridge, and has moved on to inspire growing numbers of young musicians and audiences. To them, he is a leader by example.

“I’m definitely not a leader,” Ainslie says. “I’ll make things happen but I’m not a leader. I just get stuff together.” Then he confesses, “I’m probably a quiet leader.” While honoring the quality and discipline of traditional piping, he follows the lead of his mentor Gordon Duncan, and helps keep Scottish music vibrant with new ideas, excellent musicianship, and a sense of community.

Since this article was published (in 2016), Ross has produced four more albums and has been nominated or shortlisted for many awards. He and Ali Hutton were awarded Best Duo of 2017 at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2020, Ross was involved in the TV show, Outlander (Season 5, Episode 1).

Learn more about Ross Ainslie at his website. An article in Bagpipe News lays out more info about Gordon Duncan, including personal memories by Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton.

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This video begins with Ross playing “Thunderstruck.”

One of the finest representatives and advocates for Robert Burns’s songs was singer Jean Redpath. Today we’ll dip into her art and life. Much of this article was published in Scottish Life magazine in 2005, though I’ve added some updates. However, Jean did not release any albums after that date, so the article is as relevant now as it ever was.

This is one of 95 chapters in my book MusicScapes of Scotland: Vignettes from Prehistory to Pandemic.

Inscribed in a list of notable events for Scotland in the year 1937 were two cultural landmarks: the death of James M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, and the birth of singer Jean Redpath in Fife.

Always a singer from the heart, Jean Redpath introduced to millions of radio listeners and concertgoers the beauty, drama, and wit of Scottish song. Some 30 of her CDs are available, spanning four decades dedicated to nearly constant touring. Throughout the recordings, her voice is consistently expressive: smooth, articulate, and pulsing with emotion. In person, she always spoke with the youthful and chipper voice heard in performances across the length and breadth of America and Scotland, and beyond.

One of Redpath's major projects was to spread an appreciation for the songs of Robert Burns. It was almost a mission of hers to present her audiences with a sense of the depth and variety of Scottish song, and move people beyond the few songs and stories that often stereotype Scottish culture.

In the 1980s, Jean worked with film and stage composer Serge Hovey on what was intended to be a complete recording of all 323 of Burns's songs. Unfortunately, Hovey died in 1989, having arranged 87 Burns songs (collected on four CDs), taking care to match the songs to their original tunes. His arrangements place Jean's pure voice into a rhythmic texture, using piano, guitar, and orchestral instruments. Hovey's musical moods have an entertaining quality, almost like the soundtrack to a movie, as they vary between playful and brooding, complex and spare.

Jean also recorded 85 Burns songs with a very different sound, featuring only her clear voice with guitar. Made available as three CDs on her own label, these performances recall the lovely atmosphere of her live shows.

Her voice is also featured on a number of the 11 CDs that comprise The Complete Songs of Robert Burns on Linn Records.

Robert Burns championed the use of the Scots language, and following his lead, Jean Redpath presented many of Burns's songs and other songs in broad Scots when in concert. For American audiences, she communicated through the beautiful melodies, along with a bit of explanation and cajoling about lyrics and story lines.

Of course, this is not without its difficulties and charms. After singing the Burns song, "Woo'd and Married and A'," one American listener couldn’t quite understand the song title, as was made clear when he asked Redpath about that interesting song he thought was called "Would America Know." Or after singing a song about the young man who "dried her cheeks and kissed her syne" ("syne" meaning "then" as in Auld Lang Syne), someone asked her exactly what it was that the young man had kissed.

Until college, Jean's experience with singing was pretty much limited to the songs her mother sang to help get the dishes or the laundry done, including parodies of Salvation Army songs, bits of classic ballads, and what Jean jokingly used to call "Victorian hideobilia."

But at the University of Edinburgh, she heard a talk by the passionate Scottish folklorist and singer, Hamish Henderson. He had recently discovered the great Aberdeenshire singer, Jeannie Robertson, and played recordings of her for his students.

Hearing one of her mother's songs sung to a different tune, Redpath excitedly sang to Hamish her mother's melody. Said he, drily, "That's an interesting variant." It was a rather deflating introduction to folklore academia. Nevertheless, Jean was inspired by Hamish Henderson and the School of Scottish Studies, and her singing was heavily influenced by Jeannie Robertson. Echoes of Robertson's commanding voice can be heard in some of the songs Redpath recorded early on.

One of the strongest influences on Jean's singing, though, came from Jeannie Robertson's daughter, Lizzie Higgins. Lizzie's singing moved Jean away from the impersonal voice of Jeannie Robertson to the more intimate side. "If I expected to reach emotions in other people," Jean realized, "then it was perfectly okay for them to reach emotions in me." Instead of focusing her performances on producing a perfect voice, she allowed herself to be affected by the story. It is this intimacy and emotion that makes Jean Redpath's singing timeless and compelling.

Amidst the sometimes dark emotions of Scottish song, Jean leavens the pathos with entertaining tales about Scots, such as the minister who was vexed by one of his congregant. The man would come to church every Sunday morning after spending the previous night womanizing and drinking. "Iain, how do you reconcile the two?" asked the minister. Said Iain, "I've never tried."

Although she enjoyed a wide variety of songs, the bulk of Redpath's repertoire was Scottish. Her style was very Scottish as well. Her voice holds onto syllables, and then gives a pulse with the consonants, in a way that reminds me of the ornamentation of a fiddler or a piper playing a march or a strathspey. In the fast songs, she sings with the lift and clarity of a good dance musician playing a reel or jig.

Jean Redpath's sound is so beautifully crafted that one might think she is a trained singer, but she appears to have developed her voice to suit herself. Often she carries off a song perfectly well with no accompaniment, or with simple fingerpicking on guitar. A lesser voice would wear thin without the benefit of an accompanist.

In 1961, when Jean first left Scotland to see America, singing folk songs for a living was not an option in Scotland. Just about the only folksingers getting by in Scotland were the MacEwan brothers. Groups such as The Corries and the McCalmans, and Celtic concert bands such as the Boys of the Lough and the Chieftains, were still several years away.

In Greenwich Village, New York, Jean found herself sharing spaces with then-unknowns such as Doc Watson, Mississippi John Hurt, Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan, Dave van Ronk, and the Greenbriar Boys. It was an exciting time. Perhaps the one thing she did not share with the folksingers of the time was her preference for a neat appearance. No grunge, no jeans, T-shirts, or unwashed hair for Jean. She always felt that dressing for the stage honors her audience, her music, and herself.

Unexpectedly, she got a rave review in the New York Times for one of her appearances, and her bookings became more serious and steady. For about 30 years, Jean pretty much lived out of a suitcase, touring wherever she could perform. Despite the joys of the songs, the audiences, and the kind hosts who put her up at night, the traveling life was a "desperately lonely occupation," she said. And yet, she added, “given a choice, I'd do the same thing again."

Finally, Jean "settled down" by purchasing homes in the U.S. and Scotland. She enjoyed the warmth of winter in subtropical Florida, and the long daylight hours of the Scottish summer at home in Fife. Not that a house could tie her down. Commuting to perform on both sides of the Atlantic continued, as did travel for various shows elsewhere in the world. Only in her later years did Jean take more time off from touring, and she discovered she enjoyed it.

In her shows, Redpath liked to encourage her audiences to sing. In fact, she liked to encourage everyone to sing. She taught in the 1970s at Wesleyan University and, for many summers, offered a singing course at the University of Stirling's "Heritage of Scotland" summer school. Her main advice to singers: Sing a lot, honor your own culture and language, and respect that of others.

Many students asked her for a songbook, but selecting material for a worthy songbook was a daunting task. Still, she did do some work toward producing a Jean Redpath songbook, if only to impart her own personal take on some of the songs in her repertoire. The hope was that such a book would include an accompanying CD, in order to include a bit of the real thing.

After she died in 2014, her personal archives were donated to University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies and the University of South Carolina’s Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. The collection includes a list of 127 songs meant to be included in her songbook, along with indications that she intended to include lyrics, the music, and notes about each song.

Jean Redpath’s many awards included receiving an MBE from the Queen in 1987. Her portrait was painted in 1998 and hangs in Scotland's National Portrait Gallery.

But clearly her greatest legacy will be her recordings, and the vast numbers of listeners whose ears she has helped open to the beauty and depth of Scottish song.

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