Hayden Stern Band at Luthier Collective
I went to a show by fiddler Hayden Stern and his band at Luthier Collective.
Last night (October 10, 2026), I went to a show by fiddle player Hayden Stern; Hayden plays contemporary Scottish fiddle music. This album release show was hosted by Luthier Collective here in Somerville, Massachusetts. Hayden’s album, The Morning Dark, was released on September 18, 2026. I purchased a copy through bandcamp before the show because I no longer own a CD player. The album contains original compositions by Hayden with a few traditional tunes sprinkled in.
Hayden plays a five-string fiddle, the fifth string being a low C string that enables playing lower, viola-like notes. I don’t know who made Hayden’s fiddle, but the website for Five String Fiddles contains a great deal of information about this type of violin.
The Hayden Stern Band for the show included Ezra Jane Landsman (guitar) and Molly Tucker (fiddle, viola).
Ezra Jane Landsman is a certified scientific illustrator, a guitarist, and a tattooer.
Ezra and Hayden play together frequently, and they are also members of the band Natterjack (“Ezra Jane Landsman on guitar and bouzouki, Hayden Stern on fiddle, viola, and low whistle, and Alex Sturbaum on button accordion, mandolin, bouzouki, and bodhran”). Natterjack has released an album, Flying Home.
Molly Tucker is a local musician (fiddle, viola) who teaches at Winchester Community Music School and Wayland School of Music. Molly is also a member of Amherst Early Music.
Molly is also a member of a duo with Casey Murray as Casey Murray & Molly Tucker, and Casey and Molly have played at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2022 they released the album After the Sky Weeps. The duo has a YouTube channel.
The Hayden Stern Band played a nice mix of tunes from the album, other original compositions by Hayden, and some traditional tunes in a show that lasted an hour and forty-five minutes including a short intermission. The members of the band were clearly enjoying themselves, with a lot of banter and laughter. Hayden gave an introduction to each tune, with some interesting background stories about when and how some of the tunes were written.