Fiddler, pianist and tune writer Andrea Beaton caught up with Neil just before playing a dance at the Canadian American Club in Watertown, MA. She talks about growing up in Cape Breton as the child of Kinnon and Betty Lou Beaton, two giants of traditional music on the island and how her relationship with music changed from being embarrassed to be associated with the fiddle to recording her own albums and writing some of the most popular contemporary tunes. 

Hanz Araki is a long established Irish flute player and singer from the Pacific Northwest now based in Maine; but he is also a master of the Japanese Shakuhachi flute. He shares his wide-ranging musical journey from moving to Japan and practicing Shakuhachi 6 hrs a day with his father to touring 200 days a year across Canada playing the Irish flute. 

Franco-American fiddler Don Roy has been a central figure in Maine fiddling for decades. He joins Neil for the first episode of Season 4 to talk about learning music from his uncle (and Maine fiddling legend) Lucien Mathieu, the connections between Maine French fiddling and traditional music from New Brunswick and Cape Breton and his own creative work writing new tunes and leading the massive fiddle group Fiddlicious.