Ed Pearlman plays with heart and an unusual depth of knowledge about Scottish and Cape Breton music.  He is a full-time fiddler and teacher living in the Portland, Maine area.  His band, Highland Soles, with wife Laura Scott and 3 kids, offers a contemporary take on traditional Scottish and Cape Breton dance and music, and his new CD, On the Edge, features the innovative piano playing of his son Neil.  Ed directed the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club for 18 years, building it from about 15 to nearly 200 members, and creating events such as the 15-year annual Scottish Fiddle Rally, spotlighting each year a different soloists from Scotland and Cape Breton with dancers and Fiddle Club members.  A CD of Rally highlights is on Greentrax Records.  The Fiddle Rally pioneered, for the general public, the connection between the fiddling of Scotland and Cape Breton.  Ed also created and directed for 7 years the Celtic Festival at the Hatch Shell, featuring top Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton artists, and led the Fiddle Club on two performing tours to Cape Breton.  Since the mid 90s, Ed has written the music column for Scottish Life magazine.  Ed’s Portland America Distributing was for 11 years the US distributor for recordings from Scotland, Atlantic Canada, and selected titles from Ireland, Brittany and Wales; this distribution has continued under a new owner since 2003.  Ed has taught many camps, including Blazin-in-Beauly in Scotland, Ohio Scottish Arts School since 1995, Pinewoods, Maine Fiddle Camp, Ashokan, Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp.  Ed created the music committee and music books for the RSCDS Boston Branch, and has played other styles as well, including contra dances (he ran Roaring Jelly for a few years and currently runs a monthly contra dance in Portland), and a swing jazz band.