Genre-hopping fiddler hopes to make more of a name for himself on his way home

Published on Tuesday 1 September 2009 20:13

THERE'S a sequence during the title track of fiddler Donald Grant's impressive debut album, The Way Home, when his reel-spinning solo fiddle really sparks off the Red Skies string ensemble he used during the recording.

The augmenting violins, violas and cellos come over as not nearly as straitjacketed as one might expect in such a potentially uneasy relationship.

"With Red Skies, I try not to necessarily go for a classical string style," says Grant, who appears to straddle the worlds of classical and traditional music with ease, having been schooled in Gaelic songs from an early age by his father (who co-wrote one song on the album, to which Capercaillie vocalist Karen Matheson gives delicate voice). "I don't necessarily think of a string section as classical; it can be any genre, really."

Genre hopping certainly doesn't seem to present any problem for the 28-year-old, who grew up in a Gaelic-speaking environment in Lochaber. He competed in the Mod, became involved with the Fisan movement, which teaches and promotes Gaelic music, then studied at St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, which immersed him in classical music. He continues to juggle folk and classical elements, playing with such English folk luminaries as Kate Rusby, Alistair Anderson and Roy Bailey, as well as touring extensively (Australia next week) with the Elias String Quartet he formed a decade ago with fellow college students.

Switching from one style to the other, he agrees, does involve "a bit of a different mindset, but I think I've done both for so long that it's not something I consciously think about. I'm sure each style has influenced the other."

Perhaps his lengthy removal south of the Border as well as his classical involvement explains why Grant isn't at present as salient a name on the Scottish scene as he might be, but I suspect The Way Home (Glen Roy records), which comes out later this month, will change that dramatically.

While Grant's native west Highland fiddle style has clearly been moulded by other influences, classical or otherwise, he maintains a light, springy touch and an attack which becomes quite intense in some of these tracks, many of which are self-composed while still touching base in the Gaelic airs. His eclectic ranging includes some moments in the string sparring of the title track that sound almost North African, while song-wise, as well as the beautiful Gaelic song Tha Thu Daonnan nam Smuain – "You are always in my thoughts" – sung by Matheson, there's a lovely Mexican bolero, Noche de Ronda – "Nightwatch" – in which his fiddle twines languorously round Sally Doherty's vocals. Apart from the 11-strong Red Skies ensemble, which dates from his college days, he is in distinguished company here, accompanied by the likes of harpist Catriona McKay – another fruitful musical partnership stemming from the Northern College – Fiddler's Bid guitarist Fionn de Barra, Shooglenifty drummer James MacIntosh, Capercaillie's Donald Shaw on harmonium and Solas flautist Seamus Egan, who produced the album.

Much of it was recorded (at Castle Sound Studios, Pencaitland) with the full band line-up in a bid to generate a sense of spontaneity, and it has pretty well succeeded, Grant's fiddle skittering off into improvisations, or in tight sync with McKay's clarsach. Unfortunately it's unlikely that we'll enjoy this sizeable line-up in live mode in the foreseeable future, although Grant says he'd love to be able to tour with it – a case, perhaps, for the Scottish Art Council's Tune Up tour fixers?

In the meantime, Grant is indeed making his way home, or at least returning from a four-years music residency in Sheffield, to settle in Edinburgh, if not quite his native turf of Lochaber.

&#149 See www.donaldgrant music.com