Natalie Haas is an 18-year-old Californian 'cellist, who is out to prove, alongside Wendy Weatherby and Abby Newton, that the 'cello has a firm and lasting place in Scottish traditional music. Just ask Niel Gow or his brother Nathaniel if you hae ony doots! Natalie's cello emotes, soothes and grunts, sometimes carrying a melody, sometimes providing a percussive bass line, as in the well-known Calliope House.

. and then there's this big, smiling, beardy fellow playing alongside her - some shaggy guy with a fiddle called Alasdair Fraser. Joking aside - this is a stunning CD. Alasdair Fraser is his usual, lyrical, bouncy self, filling your ears and feet with spring-heeled fiddling that has a "feel" that no-one can match. There are some very well-known tunes here, including Da Slockit Light, Calliope and Jenny Dang the Weaver, wearing new clothes in this fiddle/cello combination. Mostly, Alasdair carries the tune while Natalie plays counter-melodies and rather fine grunty noises, but occasionally he steps back and lets the cello have its say on the melody line. I can find a lot to like and nothing to criticise on this CD. You don't have to be a fiddler or cellist to enjoy it and it joins Alasdair's masterpiece with Tony McManus (Return to Kintail) as one of my desert-island instrumental favourites of all time. From me, that's very high praise indeed.