Shetlander Chris Stout has picked up two nominations for ‘Musician Of The Year’ and ‘Best Traditional Track’ at the 2005 BBC Folk Awards.

The voting panel of over 120 broadcasters, journalists, festival organisers, agents and promoters have completed the first stage of the voting process, shortlisting 4 artists in each category.  This first round was completely open, allowing them to pick any musician from the thriving folk scene, with the votes then collated and the top four artists declared as nominees.  The same panel will now be asked to vote on this shortlist, with the winners being announced in a prestigious ceremony at The Brewery, London on the 14th February 2005.

In both of his categories Chris is the only Scottish musician to be nominated, competing with Andrew Cronshaw, Martin Simpson and Kathryn Tickell for ‘Musician Of The Year’ title, and up against the likes of Martin Carthy, the Oysterband and Susan McKeown with his traditional track Da Day Dawn. 

On hearing he had been nominated Chris said, “It took me completely by surprise but I’m delighted to be up for the two awards and its great to see other Scottish artists like Karine Polwart being nominated too.”

Previous winners of Radio 2 Folk Awards include June Tabor, Steve Earle, Christy Moore and Joan Baez with presenters ranging from Robin Cook to Stephen Fry.

This all comes on the cusp of an exciting year for Chris with the release of his debut album First O’ The Darkenin’ to widespread critical acclaim, and subsequent tours with his own band The Chris Stout Quintet.  Combine this with his already busy performance schedule with Fiddler’s Bid and Salsa Celtica as well as his many other performing and composing commitments and it’s not hard to see why he is regarded as one the leading fiddle players of his generation.  Reviews of his album were awash with such praise as “one of the most captivating albums in recent years”, “an absolute masterpiece” and “sheer musical poetry”, and Chris was also nominated for ‘Instrumentalist Of The Year’ at the 2004 Scottish Traditional Music Awards.

The string of successes are a reflection of his years of hard work and dedication to not only honouring his traditional roots, but constantly pushing it to new levels of innovation, but Chris is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

“At the end of the day I just want to keep making good music, and if I pick up these nominations along the way, it is the icing on the cake”.