Fraser Fifield's Honest Water
I have always loved Scottish music. There is something in the melodies of the tunes and especially the songs that is just uniquely Scottish. The music is so like Irish music in many ways and some of the tunes even have dual nationalities (with an occasional friendly dispute as to where they were born).
The musicians who live and play in Scotland also have a unique perspective on life. From living legends like Dick Gaughan to Eddi Reader, from Salsa Celtica to Capercaillie there are people taking the old traditions and making some new ones of their own without diluting or harming the template. There is so much music evolving and living and breathing in the highlands and Islands of that great land.

Someone who has taken his traditional roots and done some very weird and wonderful stuff is Fraser Fifield. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays whistles, pipes and saxes.
He is a former member of Old Blind Dogs one of Scotland 's best known exports. He then took a huge musical turn joining Salsa Celtica a band we featured here on JigTime a few months back. He is one fact the strongest flavour of the celtic part of Salsa Celtica and continues to compose, record and tour with them.

With all the work that Salsa Celtic do and the other projects Fraser works on he has still found time to release one of the most progressive, imaginative albums of music to come out of the Celtic lands in many a year.

Recorded in his own studio Honest Water is a beautiful idea that went right. It crosses so many genres it is hard to place where the soul starts and the folk ends. The album is filled with lush arrangement beautifully played by Fraser on pipes, whistles saxes, keyboards and percussion. He is a one man band of the best kind in the studio but also translates his music to the live arena with a very talented trio.

I will have a more in depth review of the album soon but if you want to get an idea of the sound check out Fraser's website at

http://www.fraserfifield.com where you can also order Honest Water.