Suncrest fiddler releases CD
Sixteen-year-old Haylee Law is an accomplished fiddler. The Suncrest teen recently released her second CD, a collection of Celtic fiddle tunes titled “Here’s My Heart.” To get this far with her musical talent, Law had started at age 5, when she began classical violin training. At 11 her interest shifted to fiddling.
“I had a great fiddler teacher at that time. Caridwen Irvin of South Hill was an inspiring fiddler teacher. She is well-known in the Celtic fiddler circle, and she encouraged me quite a lot.” Law said. She took lessons from Irvin for two years and has largely been on her own since.
Three years ago, she was searching a venue in which to express herself. Irvin had encouraged her to try recording, relating to her student that playing for an audience and in front of a microphone were very different experience. Law put together a collection of Celtic Christmas music. Her mother accompanied her on piano on some of those pieces. She sold her CDs to families and friends and through local schools.
“I used the money to buy a new fiddle,” Law said. “In fact, I wanted a new fiddle so much I recorded the music to pay for it.” Since then, friends and families have been asking for more. As a result, the second collection was recorded at the end of last year in Summit Sound Studio in Tum Tum, Wash.
“This is a collection of my favorite music. It is our family tradition, and we sing them all the time at home. It is part of my heart.” Law explained the title song of her second release, “Here’s My Heart.”
On St. Patrick’s Day, Haylee performed two songs from her new recording at Bing Crosby Theater. The soft-spoken teenager is no stranger to the stage. She has been performing at fairs, churches, weddings, funerals, community events, since she was 7.
“That was a lot of hard work,” she said about the recording experience. “It improves my organizational skills, having to buy license, working with copyright issue, and so on.” She hopes to compose more songs and release another CD before she enters college. Currently home-schooled, the teen is in the Running Start program at Gonzaga University where she will attend full time in the fall.
Her music is available for check out at Lakeside Library and can be purchased through Outpost, the community weekly newspaper serving southern Stevens County. You can also purchase them by calling (509) 991-3482 or email hayleelaw@live.com or really-bad-egg@hotmail.com.