Winter Moon

Though not terribly well known outside of the Pacific Northwest, fiddler Vivian Williams is legendary in that region for the beauty of both her fiddling and of her compositions, which are among the finest fiddle tunes — traditional or modern — in the American repertoire. Winter Moon (originally recorded in the late 1980s and reissued on CD in 2001) consists primarily of her own tunes, along with such traditional favorites as " Mississippi Sawyer" and "Cluck Old Hen." Williams is accompanied by her husband, guitarist Phil Williams, and banjoist Harley Bray, who plays in a melodic bluegrass style that perfectly complements Williams' elegant and sweet-toned fiddling. The quality of the music on this album is consistently very high, and highlights are a little difficulty to identify, but the fiddling on Williams' rather unusual composition "Redstone" is particularly nice, as is her rendition of the traditional "Jean Latippe." Any lover of traditional music who tends to gravitate more towards Cape Breton than Appalachian fiddle music will find much to love here.