Jenna Reid & Harris Playfair and Mr McFall’s Chamber with Andrew Collins Trio

Tickets available on the door.

Shetland fiddler Jenna Reid’s quicksilver musicality and melodic sensitivity have been a feature with groups including Blazin’ Fiddles and fiddle quartet Rant and are particularly highlighted in her long-standing, mutually inspiring partnership with pianist Harris Playfair.

As their duetting on Reid’s Live in Shetland album illustrated, sparks fly when these two launch into a reel and their meeting with McFalls Chamber, Scotland’s state-of-the-art string quartet [quintet?], takes them into a new dimension. The collaboration showcases Reid’s arranging talents as well as her fiddle virtuosity, with compositions written with the McFalls’ quality, personnel and personalities in mind, and signals a new phase of her outstanding career. 

The mercurial, 5 x times JUNO-nominated and 7 x times Canadian Folk Music Award winning mando maestro Andrew Collins had co-founded noteworthy Canadian bands like the Creaking String Quartet before bringing this impressive line-up together to win acclaim much further afield. Equally comfortable on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola and mandocello, alongside fellow string guru Mike Mezzatesta, whose versatility and mastery shine through on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and mandola, and in-the-pocket James McEleney, holding it down on the bass, mandocello and vocals, they quite simply excel, performing an intoxicating blend that has been described as Chamber Grass.