Tom Anderson and the Shetland fiddle

When Tom Anderson (1910–1991) was a young man it looked as though the Shetland fiddle tradition would not survive him. By the time he died it was the strongest folk-instrument tradition in Britain. Anderson collected hundreds of old tunes from elderly fiddlers across the islands, founded the Shetland Fiddlers Society in 1960, and taught two generations of children at Islesburgh House in Lerwick. His own compositions — "Da Slockit Light", "Da Day Dawn" — are now part of the standard repertoire. Aly Bain, Catriona Macdonald, Chris Stout: all his pupils.