Ironworks, Inverness, 5 March 2007

Heart Shaped Box (photo - Fraser Welsh)

HAVE YOU had the inclination to take up dance lessons lately? Are you inspired by the toned, elegant participants of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’?

I was. And so, one evening, I found myself Mambo-ing away with complete strangers in a tapas bar, oblivious to the wet Inverness night beyond the curtains. The room had been packed – a sure sign of the current popularity of dance and the demand for local Salsa lessons.

So when the Ironworks secured an evening of Latino music from the renowned and innovative Salsa Celtica, it was bound to attract a crowd. Over 300 Salsa fans piled into the venue, smartly dressed and eager to put their moves to the test.

Support act, Heat Shaped Box, provided a mellow start to the night. Beautiful male and female vocal harmonies were set to intricate and bluesy guitar melodies. On solo performances, the lead guitarist’s thoughtful ballads and sometimes husky, sometimes smooth voice raised thoughts of Neil Young, John Denver and Tom Waits. The song “I like skunk” meanwhile (sensibly subtitled “Don’t try it at home”) revealed a quirky side to the band.

Indeed, the fact that Heart Shaped Box are somewhat of a mystery, un-placeable by accent and untraceable on My Space, seems to add to their laid-back charm. As one onlooker joked, you get the feeling they breezed into town in “a big van with flowers on the side!”

Next up were the anticipated world music group themselves, Salsa Celtica. The Edinburgh-based 11-piece filed onto the stage in a myriad of fashions, shapes, sexes and nationalities, and picked up a veritable orchestra of instruments.

As their name suggests, Salsa Celtica fuse Latino and Celtic music, similar to groups such as The Afro Celts or Mauvais Sort. Using everything from maracas to bagpipes, they layer infectious Salsa rhythms with weaving Celtic melodies, picked out on whistles, pipes or fiddles.

But Salsa Celtica don’t just play to be listened to. Scottish jigs and Latino Mambos were made for dancing and the assembled crowd were more than happy to oblige. From seasoned couples down the front to toe-tappers at the back, no one was immune from the Salsa bug. I was suddenly grateful for the few steps I’d learnt in class, able, at least, to shuffle about like a Salsa zombie.

A stunning encore of percussion pieces concluded the evening, before the sweltering audience rushed out for some cool, Scottish air; further evidence, as if were now needed, that Latino and Celtic traditions can be a match made in heaven.

© Susan Szymborski, 2007