JENNIE MACFIE celebrates the local product as well as the music inspired by it

Iain Macfarlane

THE OPENING night of Blas 2009 featured many delights, but a concert on the theme of the Water of Life, Uisge-Beatha, at the Glen Ord Distillery was always going to win out for this reviewer. A power cut which had lasted until a scant two hours before the show was due to open meant the audience had to wait a while for the soundcheck to finish, but the distillery’s staff were handing out free drams, fruit juice and oatcakes, which helped to pass the time and made the evening feel more like a party than a concert.

The young musicians of Feis Rois Ceilidh Trail began the programme, with some hesitation in speaking but none whatsoever in their musical performance. A lively, assured programme began with some lovely waltzes, followed by a set of three tunes by the late, much lamented Gordon Duncan, demonstrating yet again his deep understanding of the pipes and how to write captivating tunes for them. A Gaelic and English version of the Burns classic ‘My love is like a red, red rose’ was a delight, as were the puirt a beul that followed and the closing strathspey set.

After a brief interval and more drams for those who were so inclined, Iain Macfarlane, Ingrid Henderson and Ewan Robertson began to demonstrate the results of several months intense research into their subject, beginning with a Macfarlane tune called ‘The head, the heart and the tail’ – referring to the products of distillation which, as Goldilocks would understand, are respectively too strong, just right, and too weak.

Tune after tune followed, including a lovely version of Niel Gow’s ‘Farewell to Whisky’, aided by the peerless Charlie Macfarlane on fiddle, and songs in praise of the dram, or bemoaning the results of over-indulgence in it, including one by Allan Macdonald of Glenuig (who was in the audience) based upon a pibroch.

The highlight of the evening had to be the recitation by Charlie Macfarlane about the wreck of the SS Politician (made famous by the film Whisky Galore) – Mr Macfarlane Sr always steals the show.

All in all, it was a relaxed, friendly evening of wonderful music which felt more like a ceilidh at home and typified the warm, thriving culture of the Gaeltachd which Blas celebrates and nurtures so well. ‘Blas’ means ‘taste’ but this festival is more of a feast.

© Jennie Macfie, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival
• Jennie Macfie