The death of Martyn Bennett has cast a pall over the Scottish folk scene. The brilliant multi-instrumentalist succumbed to the cancer he has been fighting for several years in Edinburgh on 30 January, just as another very successful Celtic Connections event was drawing to a close in Glasgow.

Martyn was only 33, and the loss of such a prodigious talent is not only a bitter personal tragedy for his wife, Kristen, and his family and friends, but also a major loss for Scottish music in terms of unfulfilled potential. By way of tribute, we are running my interview with Martyn as our Archive feature this month.

Elsewhere on the site, fiddler Duncan Chisholm talks at length about his hopes and aspirations for both Wolfstone and his own solo career in our main interview.

The Eden Court Theatre in Inverness will close for 18 months in June for its long-awaited major refurbishment, and Colin Marr explains some of the aims for the theatre itself, and the likely contingency plans during the closure.

The Year of Highland Culture 2007 creeps closer, and if it has often seemed like a well kept secret until now, the campaign to “go public” should take on new momentum in the coming months.

The search for a new Scottish stage musical has already been launched, and many more plans will be revealed as time moves on. Fiona Hampton, the director of Highland 2007, gives us an outline of the general plans at this stage.

As usual, we will be adding more material in the course of the month, including news, reviews and features, so keep checking back for the latest developments.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor