Aly Bain MBE (born 15 May 1946) is a Scottish fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. The former First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell called Bain a "Scottish icon." Career Bain was born in the town of Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands of Scotland. In the early years of his career, he was—briefly and unofficially—part of the band The Humblebums with Gerry Rafferty, Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey. He was one of the members of the band "Gordon Hank and the Country Ramblers", which also included Gordon Smith, Ian Stewart and Jack Robertson in 1967 and was based in Shetland. He became nationally prominent as a founding member of The Boys of the Lough, a Scots-Irish folk group, with whom he played for over 30 years. Simultaneously, Bain pursued a solo career in collaborative and television projects with Pelicula Films director Mike Alexander and producer Douglas Eadie, working on several international television series: The Down home Recordings (which described how fiddling music spread from Scotland and Ireland to America), The Shetland Sessions (recorded at the Shetland folk festival in 1991), Aly Meets The Cajuns, and six series of the Transatlantic Sessions. Since the early eighties, Bain has regularly collaborated and recorded with prominent, international musicians, including: Phil Cunningham, Jerry Douglas, Emmylou Harris, Norman Blake, Mark O'Connor, Jay Ungar, Mary Black, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Dan Tyminski, Rosanne Cash, James Taylor, Eddi Reader, Paul Brady, Darrell Scott, Michael Doucet, Martha Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, John Martyn, Danny Thompson, Iris DeMent, Karen Matheson, Karan Casey, Donal Lunny, Joan Osborne, Allison Moorer, Bruce Molsky and Allan MacDonald, bringing traditional music to a wider audience. In 1989, Bain played at the Carnegie Hall in New York, USA, to a capacity crowd. In 1993, his autobiography Fiddler on the Loose, co-written with Alastair Clark, was published by "Mainstream". In 1999 Bain played at the first opening of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. In 2000, Bain played at the funeral of the Scottish first minister Donald Dewar. In 2006, a television programme celebrating Bain's 60th birthday was broadcast by the BBC, documenting his life and works. The same year, Bain was inducted into the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame. In 2009, Bain collaborated with Nicola Benedetti to create a television programme for BBC Scotland: When Nicola Benedetti Met Aly Bain, broadcast the same year. In 2010, Bain made a further