A logger loses his fingers in a sawmill accident, gets laid off and paid off and is left heartbroken.

This would be bad enough but since the logger is also a fiddler and the mill is in Galax, Virginia – home to the world's oldest fiddlers' convention – and he can now only stand and watch, it's little wonder our hero is praying his time ain't long. Piney Mountains, to give it one of its titles, is a song that's turned up a few times lately. Imminent visitor to Scotland, American old-time specialist Bruce Molsky, has just released it on his new album, If It Ain't Here When I Get Back, and mother and son partnership Sara Grey and Kieron Means opened their second set with it. It was just one of many songs telling of hard lives and big characters in rural America in a performance that was strong on content, if a little homely and rough round the edges in delivery.

With her simple banjo accompaniments, Grey has been sharing songs of old America with Scottish audiences since she moved here 43 years ago. She's about to return home with a show called Points West and she and Means gave a flavour of it through Woody Guthrie's colourful characterisation of western heroine Belle Star and her outlaw lovers, transcribed fiddle tunes, minstrel songs and field hollers. Means, who has an effective blues singer's voice and an able guitar style, added his own energetic dismissal of the practice of shark finning, a protest that sat well with the general tenor of the evening.

HHH