First to Murray McLeod, YES to your inquiry about Ralph Blizard, he is alive and well and his fiddling, singing and showmanship are as great as ever. I got to see him and his fine band, The New Southern Ramblers about three weeks ago at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. Make that octogenarian, though, as he will be 82 in December. For a nice biography by John Lilly, Click here. He has a number of recordings out, but the most readily available is Southern Ramble, Rounder 0352, 1995. He is certainly on my short list of favorite fiddlers, no matter what the style.

But now to the question, favorite Irish/Scottish fiddlers, to which we seem to have added Canadian fiddlers as well, which is OK by me. Some of my choices have already been mentioned, but add my votes in for whoever decides to tally this up at some point. Natalie MacMaster, the only one of the bunch that I have actually seen in person ~~ just as wonderful as everyone says, and a truly nice person as well, I think. Jenny Wrigley from Orkney, definitely different, as Petr says, but wonderful to hear. I tend to favor the younger up and coming fiddlers, who may not be so famous now, but who will be the ones everyone will be talking about in a few years ~~ Richard Wood, already mentioned, Samantha Robichaud and Stacey Lynn Read both from New Brunswick, and Jennifer Roland of Cape Breton. That'll do for starters.