Village Hall, Carrbridge, 24 September 2004

THIS CONCERT featuring fiddlers Charlie McKerron and Gordon Gunn was part of their Carrbridge Live 2004 weekend of events in the village. The original intention was that they would be joined by guitarist Tim Edey, but he was unwell, and Marc Clements of Blazin’ Fiddles stepped in at short notice to fill the gap for their short tour last week.

You would never have guessed that the guitarist did not play with these two on a regular basis. His driving and always entirely to-the-point accompaniments were augmented by a selection of songs, and the vocal component of the concert also included another unbilled addition in the shape of three Gaelic songs from Sandra MacKay, given a distinctively contemporary feel in the instrumental accompaniments.

McKerron, best known as the long-time fiddler in Capercaillie, and the Caithness-based Gunn work together in Session A9 whenever that band convenes, and the combination is a potent one. They ripped through a sequence of reels, jigs and Strathspeys in dazzling fashion, and were equally impressive when they eased back on the tempo in tunes like McKerron’s dedication to his young son and Gunn’s touching waltz for his wife.

Much of the material was drawn from the work of current writers like Phil Cunningham, Aly Bain, Gordon Duncan and Donald Shaw, and when they did venture into traditional material, it was given a new stylistic twist in their updated treatments. The players were all firmly on their mettle, and delivered a hugely enjoyable evening for a capacity audience.

McKerron had been working recently with a group of pupils from along the road in Grantown Grammar School, and he assembled them to perform some material they had prepared as a prelude to the main business of the evening, assisted by Sandra MacKay with a trio of young Gaelic singers.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2004