Born in Edinburgh in 1952, Ian Hardie has been playing the fiddle since the age of six. Trained classically until his early teens, he has been at the forefront of Scottish fiddling since the early 1970s and has always played in his own very Scottish style but with an eclecticism which is reflected in much of his performance and new compositions over the years.
This eclecticism is now taking on another complexion with the late 2007 release of WESTRINGING, an own-label CD recording of tunes (many newly composed), in various altered tunings, drawing on the old-time fiddle tradition of Appalachia.
As a founder member of the seminal Scots folk band Jock Tamson's Bairns, Ian Hardie has been deeply involved in the Scottish instrumental and song revival from the 1970s with the body of work produced by The Bairns over the years being acknowledged as "a benchmark for others who aspire to understand and convey Scottish traditional music in its finest guiseâ€.
Ian Hardie has performed and recorded extensively over the years as a soloist, with pianist Andy Thorburn and folk bands (other than JTB), The Ghillies and Highland Connection.
He is mostly involved nowadays in playing for dance with top Edinburgh ceilidh band The Occasionals and Highland reels and ceilidh trio The Ghillies - with Duncan MacGillivray and Andy Thorburn - plus some duo work with Duncan.
Ian is also well-known as a composer with four albums and three tune books of own composition since 1986. Numerous other artists play and have recorded his tunes. WESTRINGING brings another dimension to this output and the CD includes his fiddle pibroch commissioned for The Millennium Highland Festival.
Ian Hardie was editor of The Nineties Collection, a signature volume of new traditional-style composition in Scotland in the 1990s, Ian Hardie was also integral to the two recordings featuring tunes from the Collection as well as touring the music with the five-piece version of The Ghillies.
For many years, Ian Hardie combined music with full then part time practice as a lawyer but since 2001 has been exclusively involved in music and enjoyment of the many benefits of life in the Scottish Highlands from his seaside home in Nairn.
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