Corran Halls, Oban, 15 November 2010

CHRIS STOUT and Catriona McKay are a large part of Fiddlers Bid, the dynamic Shetland band. And it shows.

The duo, whose new album White Nights is out now, also played An Tobar on the tour that is taking them as far south as Hemel Hempstead. Now together for 15 years, the marriage is a great success, and the blend of Clarsach and fiddle is sublime. Stout on the fiddle has challenges with a bow – but that does not distract, the flying strands only add artistic flair. The “drama” only leads to a seam of joking and stories from the pair. We did lock up our horses that night though!

Harpist Catriona McKay and fiddler Chris Stout

The great thing about a night at the opera is to learn a little about the diva. Both MacKay and Stout are willing to share, and we hear stories of world tours and lost days in places as far flung as Sweden and Hong Kong.
Back to their new album, White Nights… ‘Roddy Sinclair’ is a great fiddle tune created by Stout after reading a crime novel by Ann Cleaves that gave the album its name. The hero is a flamboyant fiddler with an extrovert playing style – just like Stout! MacKay can do things with a harp that we just wonder at – she creates sounds as gentle as a stream and as ferocious as a storm – each one enchants. The two together are a tour de force and also the foil to each other’s stories!
This is a great album – and they say you will get three years touring out of a good one. On the road now –and for some time in the future then, this show called White Knights is well worth flagging down.

Over at the Victory Hall in Benderloch, and fresh from supporting Ultravox on tour, Essex girls The Floe gave us a great run through their catalogue of heart tugging, emotive songs. Sarah Springett sings with a real passion and more than a sense of drama – her dusky vocals only serving to keep the audience hanging on the words of her self -penned lyrics. On keyboards Liz Townsend is a mistress – in the sense of a master of her art – and they smouldered together!

Songs of love and angst had taken the place of tales of Navy press gangs and scenery to die for on Mull that support act Iain Thomson creates so well. Thomson brings a new life to the tradition – a real contemporary edge. His solo act is a treat and his guitar and piano hold the audience spellbound.

© Campbell Cameron, 2010

Links

• Stout and McKay