Scottish Fire
Bonnie Rideout is an American who has mastered the art of Scottish fiddling.Scottish Fireis a selection of tunes that cover almost the entire range of traditional Caledonian music. There are marches, complete with bagpipes and drums, dance tunes of every variety, including reels, strathspeys, waltzes, hornpipes, and slow airs. Rideout plays them all with equal facility but she really shines on the unaccompanied slow selections like the heartbreaking "Lude's Lament." The instrumentation includes the now standard guitar, cittern, and bodhrán, as well as the more unusual viola da gamba. As on her previous releases such asSoft May MornandCeltic Circles, Rideout has unearthed tunes from old manuscript collections in Scotland. Many of these melodies haven't been heard for centuries and Rideout has done us all a favor by bringing them back to life.--Michael Simmons