It was on a cold winter’s night in February 2013 after a performance in Ullapool’s Argyll Hotel, I was greeted by a young man with gleaming eyes and a big, beaming smile. Introducing himself as Iain Gordon Macfarlane, he told me how much he enjoyed my music and wondered if I would like to jam with him. Despite the tiredness I felt after a fairly long drive and then an even longer performance, I was taken with his enthusiasm and agreed. After pulling a fiddle from its case, the two of us started to play a little together, and there was an instant chemistry, with Iain’s beautiful, mellifluous tones floating over the subtle pickings on my guitar.

We both agreed that there was something magical there and exchanged numbers, and I asked if Iain Gordon might be available to work on an album I was currently recording in the studio with Ian McCalman in Lasswade. A couple of months later Iain Gordon took the long journey south from the Highlands to Edinburgh and Lasswade, where the three of us spent a fantastic couple of days in the studio, rehearsing, arranging and honing parts. Iain Gordon was a very natural talent, full of ideas, with an insatiable appetite for music in all its forms, and his contribution to ‘A Fine Line’ underpinned every mood and atmosphere with raw beauty and tender emotion, his fiddle seeming to transcend his being, a natural musical extension of himself.

We kept in close contact, and in the summer I asked if he might be available to tour the album – 20 concerts in 21 days through Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. He was delighted and thrilled to be asked, and we swiftly set about making all the necessary transport arrangements.

It was my third autumn European tour, and as I type I am currently on my 15th, but it was to be my first as a duo. I did not know what to expect, having no experience of having done so before, but what followed was truly one of the most wonderful experiences of my life, a time I look back upon with such fondness and pride. We laughed constantly in the car and in each other’s company, listened to music on the autobahn at inaudible volumes, enjoyed sampling the many and varied delights of continental beer and, above all, performed night after night to enthralled crowds who took to Iain Gordon from the very moment he took to the stage and played his first few notes on the fiddle.

He charmed everyone he met, not only with his beautiful music but also with his kindness, his natural charisma and his beaming smile. It stood as a testament to the impact Iain Gordon made on people both on and off stage that more than a decade on from that tour, people would still ask after him, how he was, and what he was doing with his music, always asking me to pass on their best to him. When the tour ended we both agreed we simply had to do it again, and sure enough a few months later in February 2014 we were back out on the road for our second European tour together, every bit as joyous and uplifting as the first one, with new audiences once again being wowed by Iain Gordon and the consummate ease with which he seemed to play both his instrument and sing. By this time we had worked up vocal harmonies and created what we felt was a more diverse and interesting show for the audience, making full use of Iain Gordon’s substantial range of musical talents across fiddle, guitar and voice.

Sadly for us both, we were only to perform once more as a duo, a show in Aviemore’s Old Bridge Inn later that year, as Iain Gordon returned north to the Highlands. We kept in touch and talked or would send messages fairly regularly, but alas, we would never again take to the stage together, despite both desiring to.

If you are reading this and didn’t catch one of our performances or didn’t know me back then, it is Iain Gordon performing the fiddle on the video for ‘A City Beautiful’ on YouTube here. It is Iain Gordon who performs the fiddle on other songs like ‘The Bus To Nairn’ and ‘The Dust and The Paint’ from the 2013 album ‘A Fine Line’, which documents our work together. If you haven’t already, please take the time to have a listen to his beautiful playing on Bandcamp here.

The horrific news of his passing last weekend at the tender age of 32 is truly a tragedy beyond words. My heart is broken, and I know I am not alone in this; everyone who knew him is also carrying a broken heart. Most of all, my heart goes out to his parents, Marshall and Christine, and his sister, Kirsty-Anne. I cannot fathom how they must be feeling, and I know no words can be of consolation.

Iain Gordon, you were a wonderful, kind and caring man and a unique and beautiful talent – thank you for the indelible mark you have left upon me as both a person and a musician, for being part of my life and part of my music. I will forever treasure the memories and the time we shared together.

SK x