Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sunday 30 January 2005

Dougie MacLean

A SONGVISION SYMPHONY? Well, yes and no. Dougie MacLean’s closing night commission for Celtic Connections mimicked symphonic structure in its four movements, but was really a song cycle of characteristic MacLean material set in an enhanced musical and visual environment.

The logistics first. The Dunkeld-based singer assembled a large cast for this production, with his four-piece folk-rock band (featuring son Jamey on drums) joined by four traditional musicians, six classical string players (with string arrangements by cellist Kevin MacCrae), and a choir of eight singers.

The visual dimension of the work included four dancers choreographed by Andy Howitt, a large backdrop representing an old-style farm steading, and visual images projected onto the windows and archway of the steading.

The singer marshalled his forces well, and never ran the risk of getting out of his depth in the scale of the enterprise. Rural Image remained firmly focused on MacLean’s familiar talents as a singer and songwriter, to the point where several of the new songs already sounded vaguely familiar, and echoed themes he has explored in earlier songs regarding the sacredness of nature and the land, and the quest to reconnect with our past in order to shape our present and future.

He has always had a gift for conjuring up rich, evocative imagery and putting together songs with immediately catchy choruses, and both of those qualities were entirely in evidence here.

The ‘symphony’ was structured in four movements: EarthStone (two songs); WaterShine (the ‘slow movement’, comprising an instrumental and a song); WeatherEye (three songs, plus an appearance by one of his lovingly restored Fergusson tractors, wheeled on stage by the four dancers); and LifeLight (four songs, including the vocal version of the instrumental from WaterShine, ‘Little One’, and a reading of an eco-friendly plea written by broadcaster Frieda Morrison).

It was all very consistent with MacLean’s characteristic style and concerns, and that was very much the key to its success. The sense of continuity within his artistic vision that ran through it on several levels gave the piece a binding strength and coherence that has not always been communicated in these large-scale commissions. He may not have taken as great a leap into uncharted waters as some of his predecessors, but he pulled off his mission in fine style.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2005