[intro music transition] [bells ringing] [cars whirring by] - So this is me, Mark Allen, a musician at the Old Hall Hotel, in a village named Hope, at the heart of England's Peak District.

It's 5:00 a.m.

I've travelled all the way from Nashville, and now I'm making sure this portable audio recorder works, for the 8-hour drive and then 14-hour ferry ride to the Shetland Islands.

This is my ride, and often home for the next two weeks.

- Now it's 15 minutes.

- It is?

- It belongs to my friend, Rick, pub owner, driver, and whiskey expert.

- It's cold out here.

- No, it's not, it's almost day.

- And now, we're headed to the northern most regions of the U.K in January.

I've been exploring through music for a long time.

Over years of playing, recording, and performing, I've discovered there's a language spoken between musicians that's unique.

When having this musical conversation, you pay attention to each other.

And it's about being present.

An act of sharing.

It's a communion you might not even understand, until later.

[lively music] It becomes the soundtrack... of your life.

This, is my passion.

[upbeat music] ♪ Travelin' down this open road ♪ ♪ It's me and you and the Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ I hear the call, we're gettin' close ♪ ♪ Around the bend there's a signpost ♪ ♪ To places, faces, to the moon and its phases ♪ ♪ This melody keeps us alive ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel, have guitar will travel ♪ ♪ All the way, all the way ♪ ♪ I have guitar, will travel ♪ [upbeat music] - Funding for "Have Guitar Will Travel World" is provided by: [quiet conversation] - ...the anchor.

I mean, you run it, the anchor- - Yeah, yeah.

- Well, here you have- - Milton Tap.

- That's here, right here Scotland, uh- - Where?

- Your "Welcome to Scotland" sign.

- Where?

- That's it, the big one.

- Oh, that's it.

Oh, okay, okay, wait.

- Everybody takes a picture of that sign.

- All right, okay, I'm gonna get it in there.

Hey, man, here we go.

And we're in Scotland.

- That is amazing.

To answer-that's your answer to the question, Gretna's left.

- Well, if you think about it- I mean, what we're getting to do this time is go places neither of us has ever been.

I haven't been, of course, but you haven't either.

- Shetland, in Shetland Islands.

I mean, that's- - Yeah, the Shetland Isles.

Yeah, yeah, you're not allowed to call it Shetland.

- Yeah, I know you're not.

You can't say Shetlands.

- So, uh- So, Shetland Isles is big for music, and so-.

- Yeah - I think this is- This is the best one for you to come to, definitely.

- Yeah.

- I've never been though.

- Yeah, which is exciting.

- Where, where is the- where are the, uh, fiddles made?

- In Shetland.

- Shetland.

- The Shetland, yeah, the Shetland fiddle, I mean, that's what they are famous for.

Besides the-the ponies, and the wool, and- and the sweaters.

- Yeah, Shetland ponies, are they wild?

Or, ah-h-h- - I think they're wild.

- Interesting, they got some carrots.

- I think that was the whole thing, you know?

Oh, look, more sheep.

Hadn't seen enough sheep.

- You're gonna see plenty more of 'em.

- So we're in Scotland.

This is exciting.

- Yeah, it's just sheep.

- Here, cheers.

[laughter] Cheers.

- Hang on alright?

We gotta do it.

- Yeah, here we go.

- Safety first.

- Cheers to Scotland.

- Cheers to Scotland.

[upbeat music] - Eight hours traveling in a car is still eight hours.

What starts with a dose of excitement and caffeine soon becomes something else.

Who knew that stopping for gas, or a snack, or a restroom break, could become such a thrill.

So, needless to say, I had a lot of time to reflect on this eight hour drive to catch our ferry in Aberdeen.

You know, travel has a destination.

You set out heading towards something, a place on a map, an experience in a book, an annoying selfie you send to all your friends.

You go to take hold of a place, and experience, or an idea, and then you try to make it yours.

Exploration, however, is giving yourself over to the journey, letting the place, the experience, or the idea define you.

It was in these moments, on our journey to the North Sea to a latitude higher than I'd ever been, that I realized I was no longer merely traveling, but exploring.

As you approach Aberdeen, one of the first things you notice is the grey.

It's called Granite City for a reason.

This stone built not only the gateway to the North but also London's Trafalgar Square, Waterloo Bridge, and the Thames Embankment.

Since the discovery of North Sea oil, Aberdeen has been the offshore oil capital of Europe.

And has the money and the waterfront to prove it.

As we queued at the dock for our 14-hour ferry ride, we were greeted by the street art mural, Hold Fast Hope.

It seemed made for us given that our day literally began in Hope.

[upbeat music] This North Link ferry service is the Ocean Highway connecting the northern most isles to the mainland.

A lifeline for people, products, and livestock.

[upbeat music] While cargo is lashed to the deck below, the rest of us, lashed or not, are free to roam the upper deck cabins, restaurant, lounge, and bars.

[upbeat music ends] So, as we raise a toast to finishing the first leg of our musical journey to Scotland, we head out into the black night of the North Sea.

And although I don't know what tomorrow will bring, well, I do know this: all the best days begin and end in Hope.

[high-pitched sound] [soft music playing] - We arrived in Shetland before dawn after an overnight rolling journey on the North Sea.

As we left the harbor, we search for a spot just beyond, to catch the first rays of the day.

[soft music playing] - Hey, good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

They're trying to eat my, ow!

They trying to bite my pants.

Yes, there's nothing in there.

We need some carrots.

- I don't got any pa- there's nothing in my pants.

Okay, I'll admit it, I talked to the ponies like I was greeting my friend's new puppy and thoroughly enjoying every bit of it until I got bit.

Quite a jolt to an otherwise dreamlike, surreal sunrise.

[soft music plays] So, in spite of my lack of carrots for the ponies, it certainly was hard to ignore the stark beauty of the early morning views.

[soft music plays] - As we made the drive to our chalets in Scalloway, all these elements would combine to make me really curious about the musicians that I would be meeting with later that day, and following.

So, as it started to rain on this late Sunday morning, we had some time to rest up.

Because later that evening, we were about to experience our first real Shetland session, in Lerwick's iconic Lounge Bar.

[musicians tuning] [background chatter] [piano keys tapping] - 2, 3, 4... [lively Scottish folk music] - So when we arrived at the lounge, I met three remarkable musicians- Louis Peterson on banjo, Callum Watt on fiddle, and Ryan Cooper on guitar.

Three guys about to introduce me to music unlike anything I'd ever experienced before.

The Shetland sound.

- Yeah, well it's probably the most famous bar in Shetland for, um, like for sessions.

- I got so much more than I bargained for.

An actual deep dive into how this remote location, and its history, came to form the exceptional music culture of these islands.

It evolved from roots more Nordic than Celtic.

- Well Shetland's history is, you know, we were Scandinavian until maybe, um, 500, 550 years ago and then, there was a big trade, the Hanseatic trade, which was like Germany, Scandinavia, all these places, sort of- Shetland was at the heart of that geographically.

So, that's why a lot of our language and a lot of our culture was influenced by, you know, not just Scandinavia and Scotland, but also, um, you know, the Netherlands, Germany.

So, a violin probably came off one of those boats when it came here.

- Sure.

- And then that's what started all this, what started the tradition of the fiddle music here.

- As my friend, Rick, and I discussed on the way up, as in Nashville, the violin here is called a fiddle.

And no session is complete without at least one, sometimes many more.

- Like a fiddle player would have been the heart and soul of the party like hundreds of years ago.

There was just a fiddle, wooden fiddle player, that would play at seasonal parties and, you know, local- - Right, so you always would have a gig?

[laughter] - I suppose so, yeah, yeah.

- There wasn't many banjos probably.

[laughter] - Yeah, right.

[laughter] - The fiddle's popularity as portable entertainment for Shetland fishermen and whalers makes total sense.

These were long journeys headed into the Arctic, where the only entertainment would have been whaling tunes written on often boring journeys between Shetland, Iceland, Greenland, and beyond.

- We always have to be quite clear that we're- there's no- not normally a Gaelic position here- We burn boats and- [laughter] - And by boats, he means Viking boats.

Long boats or galleys, that teams of Shetlanders call Jarl Squads, spend all year designing, constructing, painting, and then, in torch-lit processions, burning.

- It's, everything is very seasonal here.

Like everything's just- you know, it's our Viking festival time of year that's like January to March.

- Yeah.

- And then it's a Folk Festival time in Spring, and then the Summer time it's all the kinda sea, kinda regattas and the, you know, agricultural shows and all this.

Music's at the heart of all of that stuff.

- Sure.

- It's kinda goes hand in hand with all of it.

I suppose it's- it's almost come full circle now.

The- the culture created the music, but now the music's maybe the thing that people are coming to Shetland for.

- Right.

- Um, they come to see the sessions and hear about, e-especially, the fiddle music.

- So how many instruments would be, typically, you'd see in here?

- Like there could be ten of all, uh, a dozen fiddle players, and a few other like- few guitars and- - Yeah.

- piano, maybe a couple of accordions.

- You've got like 12 fiddle players, you'd say?

- 12, yeah.

- It can be.

[laughter] - Yeah, but yeah, certain times of year like- those kind of festival times and stuff.

Then it will- sometimes this whole room will be musicians.

You end up- you sometimes look at the bar and sometimes some of the best musicians haven't even gotten a seat.

- And indeed, they didn't have a seat.

They were all still here, towering above us in the paintings that cover the walls.

While Louis plays the banjo handed down by his dad, Ryan carries the honor of being one of the few to receive lessons from Peerie Willie Johnson, one of Shetland's most famous musicians.

Although Peerie means, small, in the Shetland dialect, the self-taught master guitar legend was anything but that.

He created a totally new sound on the Shetland guitar, like a bass and guitar playing together.

A rhythm section in itself by merging elements of syncopated swing and jazz to the Shetland style.

Sounds he'd heard over radio waves from the U.S, reaching across the Atlantic in the 1930s and '40s.

- The-the American influence here is-is huge.

Um, because of the geography of Shetland, and because we're in the middle of the Atlantic, and the the American radio waves, um, reached us more than a lot of the rest of the U.K. - Right.

- So in the 1930s, '40s, that we were getting all the, um, American radio stations here.

So, Jazz and, uh, Americana, Western Swing, all that kind of influences, um, Shetland thus were exposed to that more than somebody in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

People here are really into their country music more than your average person in the rest of Scotland.

They're more into their, kinda, you know, the Bluegrass.

- That sound is like no other.

And honestly, their rhythms left me more than a little challenged to keep up.

And it was at this point that I felt how far I was from the honky-tonks on Broadway in Nashville.

- Uh, people are quite modest here though, I think if you asked somebody, "Do you play?"

They would be like, "Oh, no, I don't."

And then after a few drinks they'd get a guitar and then- - [lLaughter] - Oh, you do play.

- If I'd learned anything tonight, it was that here in Shetland, life is good.

And there's always time to celebrate it.

[mid-tempo music] - As the sun rose the next day, I was starting to feel that Shetland's soul is defined by its contrasts, traits evident not just in Shetland's people, but also in its first lighthouse here at Sumburgh Head.

This beacon has shone continuously for more than 200 years with a fascinating history hidden behind its striking but modest exterior.

Like how this perch is home to an iron age fortification dating back thousands of years, giving it its name Sumburgh, meaning Southern fortress, and that it overlooks Da Roost, the name in Old Norse for where the North Sea and Atlantic currents merge in a constant and thunderous churn, how the lighthouse itself was designed by the grandfather of author, Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde."

[mid-tempo music] It also changed the outcome of World War II in 1940 with a critical 25-minute warning saving the British naval fleet from being destroyed in a German aerial bomber attack.

So it was fitting that my next musical conversation would take place just a few miles north with another Shetland bright light and beacon.

The singer-songwriter, Freda Leask, she carries the torch as one of Shetland's most revered storytellers singing in both English and the Shetland dialect, and we were invited over for lunch at her seaside perch, one that's no less dramatic than Sumburgh Head.

I was both hungry and eager to hear the songs and stories of life growing up on these remote islands.

[soft singing and music] - Thanks for having me in, and I really appreciate it.

- You're very welcome.

- Looks really good- and all this food.

- Yeah, my mom has been busy this morning.

- Yeah.

- I said, uh, there was five people coming, so she says, well, she's made 24.

[laughter] - So I don't think we're going to manage that.

- No - And we made, uh, we made soup, a Shetland soup.

That's Tattie Soup as we call it.

- Mm-hmm.

- Uh, just made with roots.

Um, it's available this time of year.

That's, uh, carrots, turnips and-and potatoes.

- What is this?

- This is mutton.

- Oh, okay - So, it's-it's, uh- - Can I try that?

- and we made the soup on that.

You can try that.

This time of the year, you- you get roasted mutton we would say, but this is fresh.

- Like Freda, this mutton came from Yell, one of the northernmost Shetland islands.

- Would you like a plate of soup?

- Yeah, please.

[bowl clinks] - Uh, what do you think?

- Oh yeah.

So you use this?

- Yeah.

- It's called a spoon.

[laughter] - How early did you start playing music?

- You- you're encouraged from a young age- I was singing when I was, well, as long as I can remember it.

Um, maybe my first performance might have been five.

- And it was with my mom.

- Okay - So it was just in the local hall.

- Right.

- But you'd rehearse, and it was so popular at that time.

We had lots of people that were with Traveling Concerts that would arrive and you would be part of the- the Traveling Concert.

- These public halls are the heart of Shetland communities they're where people gather for everything- from weddings to funerals, fundraising to festivals, committee meetings and concerts.

- So I think that's where I made my early musical connections in Shetland.

You got to know everybody that was involved and you had really good guitarists playing for you-.

- Sure.

- from a very early age.

- Freda has been a prolific songwriter most of her adult life.

Drawn to writing songs, both in English and the Shetland dialect, about her experiences growing up on these islands.

- I started to take an interest in songwriting once I started to play a bit more.

- Right.

- So it sort of evolved.

So I think a lot of those songs, even if they're written in English, they're, you- you- there's a lot of imagery in- in the song.

A lot of the words we use were certainly influenced by what's around us- the sea, and the sounds, and the wind, and you- you know- - Yeah, which I think I'm hearing right now.

[laughter] - Yeah, you probably are- - Oooo, I thought that was a bird.

I'd love to hear some of your music.

- Okay - Could you play a few for me?

- I can do.

♪ Oh, take my dream beyond the night ♪ ♪ Where silent echos harmonize ♪ ♪ And voices on the wind can rise ♪ ♪ And hear your ghost go astray ♪ [gentle guitar music] ♪ Play your ghost notes well ♪ - I've heard those today.

- Have you?

- Yeah.

But also writing in the Shetland dialect, Freda keeps the voice and history of a culture alive.

- Yeah, there's always been- I've always known from an early age some of the older Shetland dialect songs.

It's- it's such a rich language and there's words that-that you use that you just can't even just translate.

♪ And as we sail a wayward (Shetland dialect) ♪ ♪ (Freda singing in Shetland dialect) ♪ ♪ We belong ♪ [gentle guitar] - It's beautiful.

So, the chorus, what were you singing and what's it?

♪ And as we sail a wayward macken for hame ♪ - Macken for hame?

- A-as we sail away, we're heading for home.

- Okay.

- Macken for hame.

Uh, normally when you go on a boat, you're traveling somewhere.

- Sure.

- But for us, when you get on a boat, you're coming home.

- (You're coming home.)

What would you say would be a-an impression you would want to leave in somebody's mind to- to learn about the Shetland Islands and the people that live here?

- I think for the- If you look at the- the mileage, the square, the mileage around us.

We-we surrounded by people that can play, and I can poi-point to different neighbors around here that you could pull together.

- Yeah, you could put a band together in a second.

- Yeah.

- Like, uh, my fiddle player lives down here, the bass player lives over there.

- Yeah, yeah.

- No, that's-that's pretty amazing.

- I was really fortunate.

And I think that's something that people should grasp.

I think that ah- yeah, we're a very small population, and the island's in the middle of the North Sea 100 miles north.

- Right - But, ah, we have a lot to offer.

[gentle music playing] - As I left Freda's with a full belly and soul, it dawned on me that I certainly was living the dream.

And Shetland was proving to be more of a dreamscape than I could have ever imagined.

[gentle music playing] A place where the landscape and its lore are vibrantly alive.

And its coat of arms is a Viking boat, surrounded by a Shetland pony, dolphins, and a unicorn.

The only thing missing on this crest is the fiddle.

And having landed on these shores a few hundred years ago, it's been the life of the party ever since.

Keeping that party alive is violin maker, Ewan Thompson.

A master craftsman turning timber into, well, tunes.

[gentle music playing] And when the National Museum of Scotland wanted a Scottish fiddle for their collection, they commissioned one from Ewan.

He comes from a long line of woodworkers, and he's also a musician in the band, "Haltadans."

[gentle music playing] So following the breadcrumbs in this fairy tale led us back to the harbor in Lerwick to visit Shetland's ultimate public gathering space and creative arts center, Mareel.

And meeting me there was Lyn Anderson, fiddler and vocalist in the remarkable four-piece harmony group, Herkja, the Norwegian word for, wander, and I would soon discover that Shetland's magic wand is truly the fiddle and bow, enchanting these islanders for generations.

- It's really cool to be here.

- Yeah.

- And so have you performed here a lot?

- Yes, yes.

In fact, it was- I think our second ever gig with the band was in here at Hogmanay, New Years.

- Oh, that's amazing.

- It's really a fun- - A lot of the festivals they- they take place here too, right?

- Well, yeah, the folk festival, Shetland Folk Festival, used this venue as a-a, as a venue, uh, throughout the whole weekend.

They use this as the, uh, Foy weekend.

Like on the Sunday, they have the Foy where they have four venues operating at the same time.

- Yeah.

- And the bands do a kind of route around Lerwick.

- Oh, wow, cool, - So they do a wee stint on each one.

And this is one of the, this is one of the most popular ones.

It sells out straight away.

You can never get tickets.

- Perched at the harbor's edge, Mareel, which means, phosphorescence, in dialect, is another Shetland beacon in its own right.

- When did you start playing?

Did you sing first and then fiddle?

- No, I didn't know I could sing until I was about 17 or so, um, I started playing the fiddle, I was five years old.

So it's a wee while ago.

I've probably played fiddle for about 29 years now.

- Oh, wow.

- I love my grand, my grandfather, my granddad, he-he handed me my first fiddle.

He made, he made fiddles.

- In a land where the fiddle takes center stage, it comes as no surprise that everyone either knows a luthier or is related to one.

- If you could describe the Shetland style of music, I mean, it's obviously based around the fiddle, how would you define that?

- Oh, that's a tricky question because the-the-the sort of traditional Shetland style would be a single fiddle.

- Right.

- A single fiddle is what you had.

You didn't have a full dance band.

You didn't have the luxury of that.

- Sure.

- So that one fiddler was the-the wedding, he'd play the march for the bridal march, leaving the church, he would play the dance of the evening.

[laughs] And it's one fiddle.

So the style of music was to be enough to push the dancing.

You had to do the dance, the whole dance, because if you're in a room on your own, where there's no PA, this is, you know, years, and years, and years, and years ago, you have to be heard, you have to be heard.

So that was the element that they used to be heard.

- Oh, wow.

Yeah.

- So if you're looking at that, that is your Shetland style- is a single fiddle.

♪ Now you are no more than paper bons ♪ ♪ Going after wind ♪ - And that style is brought into the present by young artists like Lyn and Herkja.

- We're still taking the traditional element- but we are using, say, the accompanying, like the guitar, the piano, etc.

- Mmm-hmm We're using that element to modernize it.

- Right.

- We're not changing the tune.

- So that makes it fresh.

- Definitely.

- You want, you want to keep that traditional element, uh, the tradition and Shetland traditional music is important.

- Right.

- It's like, we will never lose that, but every family, nearly- if you're like a right Shetland family, has got that element.

It is passed down from generation to generation, and if I have children, I'll pass it on to them.

- Yeah.

- They might not want to play, but they'll grow up with it.

- Right, yeah.

- And you never ever lose that, and that's how we won't lose the Shetland and traditional aspects of Shetland music.

- Sure.

[guitar strums] - Music has always been my lighthouse, and was certainly the beacon that drew me to this remote place.

Here on Shetland, this blend of currents and cultures makes a musician dream.

Or rather, Shetland is a dream that makes musicians.

And now, my guitar and I set out in search of the next bright light on the horizon.

Letting the musical conversation be our guide.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - Funding provided by: [outro theme music]