This episode, the last in Series One, features Ethel Hofman, author of Mackerel at Midnight:  Growing up Jewish in the Shetland Isles (Revised edition Mercat Press, Edinburgh, 2006), the Shetland Fiddlers Society, and young Shetland fiddler Amber Thompson. 

I set myself a challenge - to make a podcast during a trip to Shetland and Orkney rather than go back to recordings from last year like my last 6 podcasts - and I've done it!   My podcast series subtitle is "Fascinating Conversations and Traditional Music".  There's very seldom a week goes by when I don't come into contact with some traditional music.  But last week in Shetland I was particularly lucky to find some AMAZING musc - there was a Shetland Showcase in the community centre, featuring the long-established Shetland Fiddlers Society (established in 1960 by Aly Bain), and a fabulous young fiddler, Amber Thompson - to hear her play you'd never believe she's only twelve.   And I LOVE her teacher Eunice Henderson's piano accompaniment that's so typical of Shetland fiddling, a style I first heard with Violet Tulloch accompanying Aly Bain on the 1978 Topic "Shetland Folk Fiddling" record.  

Playlist

Amber Thompson (Fiddle) Eunice Henderson (Piano)
Gig for Frances by Debbie Scott/Simon Thoumire's jig by John McCusker [Amber's favourite jig of all time!]/Izzy's Jig by Margaret Scollay [Eunice's favourite]
The Calgary Fiddler's Welcome to Shetland by Andrew Gifford/52 weeks of fiddle - written for Amber by Steven Smith to commemorate her year-long Shetland fiddle project - find it on youtube here/Cape Breton visit to Shetland (also known as "Welcome to the Cape Breton Fiddlers") by Willie Hunter.*           

The Shetland Fiddlers Society
Da Ferry Reel/Lay Dee at Dee

Acknowledgements

Thanks to BBC Radio Shetland and David Gardner, to Shetland Library and Archives and Marghie West, and to the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) who sponsored the tour. 

And of course many thanks to Ethel Hofman - and her brother Roy Greenwald. 

Production notes

Fiona's podcast no 7: Growing Up Jewish on Shetland - was recorded in Lerwick, Shetland on 12th - 14th August 2019, and mixed August 20th - 22nd 2019  in London, where I'm staying while I'm at Klezfest, a week long Klezmer festival which this year is directed by Alan Bern (interviewed on Fiona's Travels Podcast episode 2!).

This is the last one in the first series of Fiona's Travels Podcasts.  Please subscribe to hear about the next series.  And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts please leave us a review!     

*when you've finished listening to this podcast, you can watch the late Willie Hunter himself playing his Cape Breton Visit to Shetland tune, accompanied by Violet Tulloch, here.