Nova Scotia fiddler Ashley MacIsaac's antics have cost him another gig.

The Scotia Festival of Music has dropped the controversial 25-year-old musician as one of the Halifax event's 22 artists-in-residence.

``We can't risk Ashley not showing up and not doing what he has been asked to do,'' Chris Wilcox, the festival's artistic director, said yesterday . "It is also not the image Scotia Festival needs."

Earlier this week MacIsaac's scheduled performance on CBC Radio's Kitchen Party series was canceled because of the fiddler's obscenity-filled performance at a New Year's Eve rave in Halifax.

At that event, MacIsaac was dragged off the stage after 20 minutes of a profanity-filled rant into the microphone.

This is not the first time MacIsaac has upset audiences. He has lifted his kilt and exposed himself on American television. He's been criticized for his sex life, and he was dumped by his previous record label, largely due to his admitted problems with cocaine addiction.

MacIsaac was supposed to give two performances and a number of masters classes (workshops for students) during the Scotia Festival, May 21 to June 4 in Halifax.

Wilcox said the decision to drop MacIsaac was made early this week by the non-profit organization after widespread outrage over the fiddler's performance at the rave.

"Last year we had 900 school kids attend classes and performances," he says. "We have a young artist program with people coming from all over the world and we can't take the chance and the kids and their parents wouldn't want to be involved in something with Ashley's name associated with it."

MacIsaac said Wednesday he would like to be released from his three-record deal with Loggerhead Records.

The company, which signed MacIsaac last summer and released his latest CD, Helter's Celtic, issued a news release stating they were offended by MacIsaac's actions and wished to disassociate themselves from his behavior .

"They should have said, 'No comment' if they had any sense about a negative situation," MacIsaac says of his record company. "Obviously, they're not a good record company and I don't want to be involved with them."

One fan writing to an Ashley MacIsaac electronic message board is asking other fans to support Ashley by boycotting (not buying products from) Loggerhead records.

Ashley has been described as a musical genius. One critic says what MacIsaac is doing for the Celtic music tradition is, in essence, what rap artists have been doing for the urban soul music of America.

The fiddler said his aim at the Halifax rave was to mark the millennium with an explicit, stream-of-consciousness, ``rock and roll screamer'' rant.

2. Who was supposed to give two performances and a number of masters classes during the Scotia Festival, May 21 to June 4 in Halifax?