The Columbia
Gypsy 
FIDDLERS BID
Da Farder Ben Da Welcomer
Greentrax (2001)
http://www.fiddlersbid.com
As you drive up the east coast of Scotland to the top of the mainland, you notice that the names of the towns are not the Gaelic you would see on the west coast towns. You would be going through towns like Wick and Thurso. If you then looked over across the ocean a little, at Norway, you would see town names like Vick and Tromso. If you go north on the ferry, you first hit the Orkneys and then second the Shetland Islands. I've not been to the Shetlands, but only out of stupidity: someone who had done archaeology there told me it was dismal and cold. I have been to the Orkneys, which look like the bare islands you see in the west, but with sunken boats from world war II and the amazing ancient site of Skara Brae.
If you go to the Shetlands, however, you will be in the land of drones and double stops, and of Fiddlers Bid. You will see tunes with Shetlandese titles, which is similar to Scots English but influenced by Norn, a local spin-off of Old Norse just like Icelandic and Norwegian. [If you're interested, one website that explains the history of Shetlandese: http://www.verbix.com/documents/norn.htm] For listening to instrumental CDs, the important word is "Da" which means "The" and sometimes a little more, and is found in titles of tunes.
Fiddlers Bid is a fiddle band, certainly no surprise, and this is their third album. Aside from 4 fiddles (Andrew Gifford, Kevin Henderson, Christopher Sout, and Maurice Henderson) you can hear Steve Yarrington on guitar and David Coles on bass, and most strikingly Catriona McKay on harp or piano. DFDBW is an album of Scottish music, but when the four fiddles play, you can feel spelmanslag in your ears.
I sat and listened briefly to Fiddler's Bid's two previous CDs, especially the first eponymous album made in '94 when the band members were really young and when there was more closeness to a traditional Shetland massed fiddle sound. There was no harp but there was electric bass, an unsung national instrument of Scotland. I think it's a more charming, more magic album, but all things must progress. Both the second album Hamnataing and DFDBW emit more progressive wit, more assimilation of influences, more invention. On these albums, Fiddlers Bid stands closer to a contemporary Scottish band from farther south..
DFDBW begins with "Yarmin Yowes Return," the musicians here consisting entirely of sheep, but the extreme local color is rapidly replaced with "Uyea Isle," three Shetland reels. This fiddle rich set is as close as you can get to traditional dance band music. If you listen, the ghost of Tom Anderson will waft by. The second set ("Zander the Sander") is original and more contemporary with plenty of bass; on the middle tune ("Da Waters o' Da Gut") you can find obvious influences from eastern Europe. The third tune,"Leaving Lerwick Harbor," is a slow air by the late Shetland fiddler Willie Hunter and is played with harp; "Da Shaalds" is an all-fiddle traditional dance set (you can get the tune off the home page). The album proceeds similarly on, never leaving tradition but playing with it to differing extent and with various amount of fiddle, solo or en mass. You can find inside sets two tunes traditionally played at weddings, "Du's Bün Lang Awa An A'm Tocht Lang Ta See Dee" and "Da Farder Ben Da Welcomer." "Christine" is a slow sweet tune written just for harp and accompanied by guitar I believe...very lightly. "The Sneug Water Waltz" was written by FB fiddler Christopher Stout and has a perky lilty lift...nice for dancing. "The Pumping Bass" is a showy set including a Donal Lunny tune in the center.
Over the years I have had only a few opportunities to play with massed fiddles, but have done so in Scottish and in Swedish and in French and I can think of no force of beauty greater than the great treble lift, universal among European traditions. If you cant stand inside this force, the next best joy is to sit in a performance or to turn this album...or at least parts of it...UP VERY LOUD.
The Columbia
Gypsy