Aly Bain, Bruce Molsky, Ale Moller 9/11/10

It's good to have front row seats in a pleasant theatre to see Aly Bain on your birthday. He is so assured and brilliant in his playing of the fiddle and there seems to be no conscious involvement just a central nervous system fused with the instrument. His collaborators were Bruce Molsky an american student of US folk music who plays mainly fiddle but also banjo and guitar and Ale Moller a swedish folkie who mainly plays a 10-string mandola but also some weird shepherds instruments made of bone and wood.

The combination worked really well and each of them took the lead on a number of songs. Basically you had Shetland, Scandinavian and American traditional tunes and styles being mixed and delivered by expert musicians. I particularly liked a Swedish hymn which was called something to do with White Angels and I also loved the tunes done in what they referred to as the Magic tuning which was I think a Swedish tuning. In one sense Ale Moller was the glue often with his delightful and understated Mandola playing. It was a civilised and intimate session with great musicians and as always with Aly Bain a feeling that you are in the presence of a master.