Coming from a crofting family with musical traditions stretching back over many generations, John Robert, 26, began to play the fiddle at the age of eleven years, his first band, ‘Eart Kyent’, being a family affair with himself, two brothers and a cousin.

Their blend of youthful enthusiasm and traditional style of playing proved popular and in addition to performing at weddings, dances, music festivals and other social events, they visited the Faroe Islands on three occasions, also the Orkney Folk Festival and the International Celtic Festival in Brittany. While in his teens, he and his nephew Andrew, another winner of the Young Fiddler of the Year championship, played for the Prince and Princess of Wales at the inauguration of the Aith lifeboat.

In addition, John Robert received invitations to play in Eire, both solo and with other combinations - indeed a ‘craic’ went round that he was better known in Ireland than in Shetland although he had tarred the roads from Sumburgh to Skaw as an Islands Council road worker. For the past two years he has appeared with the legendary Hom Bru and with them played in Oslo, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and included a comprehensive tour of the North-East of Scotland.

A busy person - working on the family croft attending the sheep flock, in addition to his everyday council job and regular appearances on concert platforms - he has squeezed in the time to record two excellent sets for this album.

When John Robert is found at a ‘session’, his companions may be reminded of his ancestry - he has two fiddle playing ancestors of some notoriety - on one side “The Old Fiddler of Foula”, one Mansie Thomson who played the fiddle, held ‘Rants’ danced on the tabletop, and was severely reprimanded by the Kirk Session in the early 1800’s. On the other side “The Blacksmith of Collaster”, Aithsting, who played the fiddle and had dancing in the barn for folk who had travelled long distances to have new spades, tuskars and hoes made for their croft work. In those days, blacksmiths were equally as rare as fiddlers !