Black Isle fiddler makes a return to roots
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A BLACK Isle fiddler will return to her Highland roots this week to play a gig.
And the new year is shaping up to be a busy year for Lauren MacColl.
As well as working on a third solo album, she will also be releasing a second album from RANT, the four-strong fiddle collective where she plays alongside Inverness fiddler Sarah-Jane Summers and Shetland sisters Bethany and Jenna Reid.
It is RANT which brings her back to the Highlands this weekend, with a lunchtime concert at Inverness’s Spectrum Centre on Friday.
"I think the strength in RANT lies in a shared goal to create a unified sound," MacColl said.
"Everyone in RANT can be a strong solo player and brings their own style and personality to the group, but we’re at our best when all four fiddles are ringing together."
MacColl’s commitment to RANT, as well as her other group Salt House and collaborations with Moray flute player Calum Stewart, harpist Rachel Newton and singer-songwriter Blue Rose Code, helps explain the long gap since MacColl’s last solo release, Strewn With Ribbons.
"It’s five years since my last solo album, during which I made a very conscious departure from solo playing," she said.
"I love the process of recording and sourcing my own material, but my heart doesn’t lie in being a front-person. Over the last few years my work has been mainly collaborative and I’ve gained so much from that.
"I feel now I have the material ready to make another recording, but will take my time with this next one."
RANT will head back into the studio in January, but unlike the group’s debut, it will also feature a couple of special guests in Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis – returning the favour after RANT played on her last album – as well as Scots singer Ewan McLennan.
Having been taught at Feis Rois, MacColl’s own musical roots are very much in the Highlands, although the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award winner has lived away from the region for several years.
"I feel in many ways just at the beginning of my musical path," she said.
"But yes, I struggle to imagine a time I wouldn’t return to an old Gaelic air or a pipe march when I pick up the fiddle to have a tune."
RANT perform at The Spectrum Centre, Margaret Street, Inverness, at 1pm on Friday as part of Inverness Chamber Music’s At 1 With Music lunchtime music programme.
