One glance at this year's Irish festival line-up reveals a staggering trend toward youth, volume, innovation -- and bands from Scotland. Enter the Haggis, a gang of indie-looking hooligans, falls into the growing category of bands familiar with both The Thistle and Shamrock and the latest String Cheese Incident news from JamBase. Wolfstone (not to be confused with the well-loved WolfeTones) is another Scottish band, with a sound somewhere between traditional Highland music and young (American) country. Nine-time Irish Fiddle Champion Eileen Ivers (pictured; described by the New York Times as "the Jimi Hendrix of the violin") cranks things up with her band, Immigrant Soul. Even the most traditional bands are short in the tooth; the Cottars (from Nova Scotia) range in age from 15 to 18. This may be the year our own Irish favorites, the Elders, wind up feeling a bit ... old.
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