SUE WILSON glimpses some potential future Gaelic performers alongside more familiar names

AS A concrete counter-argument to claims that Gaelic is a dead or dying language, you couldn’t do much better than the existence of Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Inbhir Nis, the thriving Gaelic-medium primary school that opened two years ago on the outskirts of Inverness, and whose 25-strong choir – or coisir – opened this Blas festival show.

LtoR: Brian Ó hEadhra, Bruce MacGregor and Sandy Brechin

Bilingual introductions from the children themselves demonstrated their familiarity not only with the ballads, emigrant songs and puirt-a-beul they performed, but the history and cultural context behind the material, while their enthusiasm and intent concentration boded brightly indeed for the future of the tradition.

The youngsters were followed by one of that tradition’s finest contemporary exponents, Ishbel MacAskill – a role-model for aspiring performers (at least those who were paying attention) not only in the beauty of her voice and the empathic sensitivity of her interpretation, but the easy warmth and droll humour with which she engages an audience and sketches in the background to her choice of repertoire.

Her relaxed but authoritative poise and focus were all the more impressive on this occasion, given the choir members’ over-excited scurryings in and out of the hall throughout her set, while her stark yet sensual, ethereal yet earthy delivery was as bewitching as ever, especially in the eerily evocative tonalities of an ancient ballad featuring a cruel stepmother and her ghostly accuser.

Another number conjured the fate of a man mysteriously banished to a deserted island, with its vividly lonesome melody and sea-rocked rhythms, while a closing rendition of the ‘Eriskay Love Lilt’, in its original traditional version, further highlighted MacAskill’s immaculately weighted phrasing and sublime dynamic control.

Rounding off the night after the interval was the newish but individually well-seasoned trio of Bruce MacGregor, Brian Ó hEadhra and Sandy Brechin – of whom the first two had been among the proud parents applauding the choir at the start.

MacGregor’s fiddle and Brechin’s accordion have forged a scintillating partnership, ideally matched in both musicians’ balance of muscular vigour and full-bodied sweetness, as well as their ability to play prodigiously fast with no sacrifice of depth or precision. The result, in the instrumental sets, is a densely layered, richly coloured sound sturdily underpinned by Ó hEadhra’s adroit guitar grooves, and interspersed with his resonantly forthright singing in a mix of traditional and contemporary Gaelic material.

Among the latter were two of his own compositions, a stirringly poignant co-write with Cape Breton songwriter Jeff MacDonald, ‘Tàladh Na Beinne Guirme’ (Lullaby of the Blue Mountain), which deftly spliced old and new ballad idioms, and a gladsome waltz-time number penned for his wife, ‘Mo Chaileag Bhon Eilean’ (My Girl From the Island), which added winningly to the small store of happy Gaelic love-songs.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival
• Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Inbhir Nis