Jim - I listened to the Mountains of Mourne and it was lovely but it wasn't a solo voice and fiddle. I know lots of fiddle and accompanying instrument(s) AND voice.

Which begs another question of Sue...

If you hitch up with JUST a fiddler you must have in your head what you want otherwise you would have gone for a more traditional (not as in Traditional as in music) line up.

I happen to love unaccompanied Bach Violin music but it is delightful in being sparse (and the guitar side of me fills in the bits unnecessarily in my head).

I would guess that it's a very very hard thing to accompany a voice with a fiddle unless you are used to doing it. If you are used to doing it then you'd know how.

I'd guess that you would want your fiddler to sometimes play unison; sometimes play harmony; sometimes play chords/dyads; sometimes pizzicato; sometimes bow roots; sometimes elsewhere; somtimes fill the gaps and sometimes leave the spaces. AND keep the interest of the audience without getting in your way.

Bloody difficult.

Hard to do on a piano. Hard to do on a guitar.

And the singing has to be wonderful too! :)