EVEN looking across its younger generational stratum, today’s folk scene often still appears a largely male-dominated realm, so the affirmative action embodied by the main touring double bill of this year’s Blas festival, joined here by young North Uist singer Linda Macleod, serves as a welcome counterweight.

ALL three acts – performing against the always enjoyable backdrop of evening flights taxi-ing into the arrivals terminal – had self-evidently been chosen first and foremost on the basis of outstanding musical merit, together with the complementary qualities of their music, factors which of course only strengthen the feminist subtext.

Vamm

Still in her early 20s, MacLeod is a justly rising star of Gaelic song, combining deep local and family roots in its traditions – especially through her late grandfather, Hugh Matheson, one of whose songs she included here – with extensive academic studies at Glasgow University, where she specialised in previously unpublished material from her home community of Baleshare, and now works for the Digital Archive of Scottish Gaelic. Not that there was anything remotely dry or scholarly about the two short sets with which she opened both halves of the show, just the natural assurance and expressive eloquence that comes from knowing and loving your stuff to bone-deep level, allied with a dulcet, delicate, yet subtly wiry voice and sure rhythmic instincts.

Vamm, meaning to bewitch or enchant in Shetland dialect, is the new trio partnership between those islands’ leading female fiddler, Catriona Macdonald (formerly of Blazin’ Fiddles), her Perthshire co-instrumentalist Patsy Reid (formerly of Breabach) and Marit Fält – from Norway, of Swedish parentage – on Låtmandola, an octave mandolin with an additional bass string and “various other extras”.

It’s barely a year since they launched the band, and their sound still resonates with the fresh delight of discovery, but in all other respects this is already richly-evolved, sumptuously sophisticated music, fuelled by a shared passion and exquisite discernment for beautiful tunes, drawn from across the full swathe of their collective heritage. Also capitalising fully on a formidable shared armoury of technical skills and individual approaches, they arrayed and reconfigured each piece this way and that, layering myriad harmonic, rhythmic and textural variations into radiantly protean sonic tapestries, encompassing moods and modes from lush classical elegance to funked-up high-speed dance medleys.

For another fiddle-fronted band, Kristan Harvey and the Sanna – the four-piece led by 2011’s Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year – could hardly have presented a more rewarding contrast. With the Orkney-born Harvey flanked by guitarist Tia Files, Megan Henderson on piano and the night’s token male, Adam Brown, on bodhran, their mostly uptempo set was resolutely anchored in chunky, springy rhythm work, enriched by Henderson’s melodic contributions and Files’s jazzy chord colours. This provided the perfect sparring-partner for Harvey’s brilliantly livewire playing – nimble yet muscular, effervescent yet exact – in a Scottish/Orcadian-centred tune selection vibrantly infused with bluegrass influences.

© Sue Wilson, 2012

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• Blas Festival

THIS year’s Blas Festival commission was handed to Lewis-born, Nairn-based Gaelic singer, Margaret Stewart.

FOR the last few years, she has been closely involved with the Tobar an Dualchais project as Gaelic Song specialist, resulting in a wealth of riches to draw on. Taking the theme of wedding traditions of the Highlands and Islands, she has created a feast of glorious singing and top notch music linked by gently informative narration and seasoned with the earthy humour that is the wellspring of Gaeldom.

Margaret Stewart (photo Euphoria Photography)

The earthiness was, it must be said, often supplied by the musicians, chiefly Allan Henderson, abetted by his fellow Blazin’ Fiddler Iain MacFarlane, Ingrid Henderson on clarsach, and piper Angus Nicholson. Cows were the chief catalyst, representing the major part of a bride’s dowry in the days when dowries were an integral part of a marriage.

But to begin at the beginning – the stage was set with a gentle lullaby, a song which lulls a baby boy to sleep telling him how, when he grows up and gets married, all the nobility of Gaeldom will dance at his wedding; followed by a sprightly song about lads going a-courting. This leads to an idiosyncratically Gaelic custom, ‘night visiting’, evoked by some tunes from the MacInnes Collection, a challenging volume of piping tunes where every sequence has a different variation, and there did indeed seem to be a noticeable air of concentration on the musicians’ faces.

Longing and Yearning was the next section, that stage in a relationship which leads to the proposal of marriage. Margaret Stewart’s a capella rendition of the answer to the proposal led into a pibroch by and duet with Angus Nicholson, the high point of the evening for this reviewer as her exquisite, pure silver tones mingled perfectly with the pipes. A set, it turns out, which were made specifically to match her voice – a practice which could be more widespread. It was fabulously good to hear.

An Cordadh – the dowry agreement – was historically expressed in the number of cattle the bride brought with her, and led to A’Reiteach (the betrothal) which was an occasion for considerable celebration. Each section of the evening was illustrated with projected images and for this Stewart had chosen a David Wilkie painting. As the musicians played a Cape Breton wedding reel, the figures almost seemed to be dancing along with it…

The second half opened with Stewart, solo, singing Salm XVI, the Royal Wedding psalm, in the Lewis style, a coup de theatre which was very moving in its simplicity, but as we moved on to ‘Clach a Phosach’ (the marriage stone) things were swiftly brought down to earth by a risque but very funny joke, featuring some of those dowry cows, from Allan Henderson… and so on to the actual wedding celebrations, and the wedding night itself, evoked by a charming video, nicely directed by Stewart. The evening finished with some tunes for ‘A Bhanais Taigh’, the second day of celebrations, traditionally held at the groom’s house.

As well as scouring the archives for suitable tunes, and unearthing many lovely treasures, Stewart had written several herself which more than stood comparison with them, and will hopefully encourage her not to hide that particular light under a bushel in future. An evening full of delights and surprises to begin Blas 2012.

© Jennie Macfie, 2012

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• Blas Festival
• Jennie Macfie

THIS musical celebration of the poetry of Sorley MacLean was originally commissioned by Urras Shomairle (The Sorley MacLean Trust) for a performance at Celtic Connections in 2009.

The decision to revive it with substantially the same cast of performers for this year’s Blas festival proved a worthwhile one. Appropriately enough, the evening began with readings of three of MacLean’s poems in both their original Gaelic and in Derrick McClure’s recently published Scots language translations.

Sorley Maclean at Hallaig, Raasay, c. 1982 (photo Dr Julian Thoms, Sorley Maclean Trust)

The Raasay-born bard’s words featured prominently in the musical celebration that followed, topped and tailed by two purely instrumental responses to his poetry. The first of those, fellow Skye man Blair Douglas’s haunting, elegiac instrumental response to Camhanaich (Dawn), was one of the highlights of the show, while Allan Henderson’s Gaoir na h-Eòrpa (The Cry of Europe) closed the evening in satisfying fashion.

The instrumental ensemble featured some well-known faces on the Scottish music scene, with Dougie Pincock on whistle, flutes and soprano saxophone, Gordon Gunn on fiddle, Jack Evans on guitar, Brian McAlpine on accordion and Mary McCarthy on piano. The only changes from the Glasgow line-up were that Su-a Lee replaced Christine Hanson on cello, and Rhona Mackay replaced Mary Ann Kennedy on clarsach.

The band figured in most of what followed, the sole exception being musical director Kenneth Thomson’s unaccompanied setting of Chan e àilleachd (It is not the beauty) for the Dingwall Gaelic Choir, who took on the choral duties filled by the Glasgow Gaelic Choir two years ago.

This traditional-sounding piece was much to their liking, but they were set less conventional challenges in Eilidh MacKenzie’s striking setting of Camhanaich (an intriguing contrast in responses with Blair Douglas’s instrumental piece), and – more dauntingly – Stuart MacRae’s dark-hued contemporary setting of MacLean’s most celebrated work, Hallaig, a very impressive piece couched in a different musical language to the rest of the evening.

In addition to the choir, the concert featured three vocal soloists, Jenna Cumming, Kirsteen MacDonald (who also acted as compère) and Alasdair White, one less than in the original performance.

The latter two were featured on Hallaig, and all three were heard on Tha thusa ‘g ràdh rumsa, thasgaidh, a response to Gaoir na h-Eòrpa by Suzanne Houston, Coralea MacKay, Emma MacInnes and Lauren Weir, all students at the time at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music at Plockton High.

Jenna Cumming was outstanding on the vocal setting of Camhanaich and on Thomson’s An Cuilithionn (The Cuillin), while White impressed on Marie-Louise Napier’s setting of Am Mùr Gorm (The Blue Rampart) for voice and clarsach, and MacDonald on Donald Shaw’s An Roghainn (The Choice).

BBC Alba captured proceedings for a broadcast in October.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2011

Links

• Blas Festival
• Sorley MacLean Trust

EVENTS like this one fully exemplify that the Blas festival’s strapline of Moladh na Gàidhealtachd – Celebrating the Highlands – is much more than some glib branding exercise.

Staged in his local village hall – in the area that his father’s side of the family have called home since Culloden – before a sellout audience largely comprised of friends and neighbours, the show paid fitting tribute to left-handed Lochaber legend Aonghas Grant, both as an iconic exponent and an inspirational teacher of the West Highland fiddle style.

Aonghas Grant and Paul Connolly (image © Reaaz Mohammad, courtesy Blas Festival)

His broader legacy to subsequent generations was represented by strong sets in each half of the show from the young Scottish/Canadian/Irish five-piece The Outside Track, who were clearly both delighted and honoured to be sharing the stage with Grant. Signalling the direct passing-on of skills and tradition emblematised by his signature red tassel – which he makes himself and awards his best students, to hang from the scroll of their instruments – was a surprise appearance by three such alumni, Ewen Henderson, Louise Mackenzie and Corrina Campbell, who joined him for several tunes.

A cake for Aonghas (image © Reaaz Mohammad, courtesy Blas Festival)

Taking place the night after he turned 80, the event’s other festive aspects included a mass rendition of “Happy Birthday” in Gaelic and English, a large cake iced with a picture of a suitably be-tasselled fiddle, and a nip of Glenmorangie or sherry for everyone present to raise a toast. The audience were also treated to a mouth-watering selection of home baking at the interval, thanks to the lady members of the hall committee, plus tasty venison nibbles supplied by Scottish Natural Heritage: truly Highland hospitality at its best.

As well as the long-seasoned, laid-back fluency of Grant’s playing, with its smooth bowing, bagpipe-influenced ornamentation, Gaelic-derived inflections and intensity of expression, what also came though loud and clear was the music’s integral place within its culture and landscape, many of his own tunes having been written for particular people or incidents – and here being prefaced by their associated stories – just as the traditional ones commemorated Jacobite battles and bygone dignitaries.

Accompanied by his similarly veteran pal Paul Connelly on guitar, accordion and concertina, Grant also displayed his decades of experience in playing for dances, imbuing the uptempo material with all the sprightliness he himself retains, together with unerring rhythmic poise, while several of the airs and slow waltzes were sweetly and resonantly underscored by many in the audience humming along. The man himself seemed modestly in his element, deeply touched by all the affection and full of mischievous wisecracks; a veritable national treasure who will hopefully be with us for years more to come.

© Sue Wilson, 2011

Links

• Blas Festival
• Aonghas Grant
• Sue Wilson

THIS new music-with-narration work was originally written in Scots, but a Gaelic version pipped the original to the post in this premiere performance.

THE concept for the piece was to create a work that did for traditional music and instruments something similar to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf in classical music, aimed at a young audience but with plenty to hold the interest of adults.

The Boy and the Bunnet in performance at Eden Court (image © Reaaz Mohammad, courtesy Blas Festival)

Award-winning Scottish novelist James Robertson was charged with writing the Scots version, and poet and playwright Aonghas Macneacail was then commissioned to prepare this Gaelic version (as he pointed out in the question and answer session that followed the performance, there is always more to translation than just literal trading of words) when a Blas performance became an option.

It was a pity that Eden Court’s OneTouch Theatre was unavailable (rehearsals for  next week’s opening of Para Handy had commandeered the smaller theatre). After Blas’s heady opening weekend of record-breaking ticket sales, this one was modestly attended in the cavernous Empire – the smaller option would have created a more supportive atmosphere for the performers and audience alike.

Nonetheless, the seven musicians and narrator Wilma Kennedy made the best of it, and delivered an enjoyable evening. Non-Gaelic speakers were aided by having the Scots text projected on a large screen. That story recounted the adventures of young Neil and his bunnet (a splendid blue example with bright red toorie was the only physical prop used in the show) with the creatures – both real and imaginary – around his Highland home.

As with Prokofiev’s famous score, Caithness-born pianist and composer James Ross allocated a different theme and specific instrument to each of the characters, drawing on his own interpretations of established forms and rhythms from Scottish traditional music.

Fiddler Patsy Reid took on the role of Neil, cellist Neil Johnstone portrayed his namesake’s granny, and Fraser Fifield’s low whistle evoked Neil’s cat. Fifield also portrayed the stag, this time on pipes, the raucous crow was allocated to Angus Lyon’s accordion, and a sleek selkie to Corrina Hewat’s clarsach.

Ross’s evocation of the terrible Urisk completed the gallery of characters, while Signy Jakobsdottir added atmospheric percussion effects. The role of narrator in this piece is always going to be crucial, and Wilma Kennedy succeeded in pulling it off in animated and compelling fashion.

Ross manipulated the musical material with skill and clarity. In this first performance, the music felt slightly formal at times, and occasional small hesitations over entries crept in, but all of that will doubtless disappear in subsequent outings.

The second half of the concert featured the musicians in a mixture of combinations, including tunes and songs from the Scots, Gaelic and Shetland traditions and original compositions from Ross (the ‘Smoo Cave’ excerpt from an earlier Blas commission, Chasing The Sun), Fifield (a rhythmically tricky 7/8 tune based on Bulgarian music), and Neil Johnstone (a poignant little melody inspired by a minor disaster that befell one of his young pupils).

James Robertson’s Scots language original will receive its own premiere at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow in February as part of Celtic Connections, with actress Greda Stevenson as narrator, and a book and recording will be available in the new year (see the Big Sky weblink below for details). It proved a very engaging addition to the Scots music canon that should have an extended life both as a performance piece and in education contexts.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2011

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• Blas Festival
• Big Sky

REFLECTING the allied home-grown and international nature of Blas itself, the festival’s resident band for 2011, The Outside Track, comprises two Scottish members, harper Ailie Robertson and accordionist Fiona Black; two from Canada – Cape Breton fiddler Mairi Rankin and Vancouver-born singer/flautist Norah Rendell – and Irish guitarist Cillian O’Dálaigh.

Performing traditional and contemporary material from across these various home territories, and with Rankin and O’Dálaigh also contributing backing vocals and stepdancing to the mix, the band certainly offer a well-appointed package, featuring here – in Blas’s now-regular adopted/adapted venue in the café at Inverness Airport, which was filled to capacity – alongside a diverse selection of Gaelic-based sounds.

The Outside Track at Inverness Airport (image © Reaaz Mohammad, courtesy Blas Festival)

Maggie MacDonald, performing elsewhere in the festival among her illustrious kinfolk Na Caimbeulaich, or the Campbells of Greepe, opened the programme with an unaccompanied snapshot sample of songs from the family’s native Skye – an emigrant’s plaint, a lullaby, a lament and a puirt-a-beul set – expertly balancing force and delicacy, intensity and understatement.

The Outside Track, too, offered a capsule collection from their wider repertoire, with the British/Canadian ballad ‘Silvy, Silvy’ straightaway spotlighting Rendell’s pliant, vivid, subtly jazz-hued vocals among their key assets, while her blend of bright and dark shadings was later enriched, in the poignant ‘Poor Lonesome Hen’, by Rankin and O’Dálaigh’s bittersweet harmonies. Other highlights included a gorgeous, and gorgeously arranged – albeit somewhat regrettably named – Quebecois tune (translating as ‘Reel of the Cramped Buttock’), and though other instrumental sets proved less distinctive and/or polished, the band have recently embarked on a seven-month stretch of international touring, which should do much to consolidate their sound.

After the interval, former Blas co-director Brian Ó hEadhra swapped his Fear an Taigh hat to contribute half-a-dozen, mostly original Gaelic songs, displaying his mettle both as a singer and a contemporary songsmith. His gentle yet authoritative, stern yet soulful tones were arrestingly edged by Fiona Mackenzie’s bright, ardent harmonies, while standout numbers included ‘Fathainn’, inspired by the evacuation of St Kilda, vividly evoking the islanders’ dislocation via deft use of dual perspectives and tempo changes.

Aspects of singer-songwriter Iain Morrison and poet/storyteller Daibhidh Martin’s performance could variously have been described as eccentric, idiosyncratic and occasionally bordering on shambolic (exacerbated, admittedly, by initial technical problems with Morrison’s guitar), but it was also suffused with charm, wonder and evocative soft-spoken eloquence, as their voices and words aligned in a series of love-lyrics, parables and modern-day fairytales, artfully informed by their native Lewis heritage.

© Sue Wilson. 2011

Links

• Blas 2011
• Sue Wilson

BAGPIPE music enthusiasts come in many different shades of predilection (and aversion), but all would surely have found something to enjoy in this year’s Blas festival piping night – a considerable achievement in itself.

SETTING the bar resplendently high was a magisterial opening set from the newly crowned four-time Northern Meeting Clasp winner, Oban’s Angus MacColl, pacing the stage in traditional fashion to display his unhurried, unforced virtuosity from all angles. Accelerating steadily up through through the customary sequence of tune types, he adorned immaculately authoritative articulation with split-second ornamentation, before slowing back down for a wonderfully tender yet august rendition of Phil Cunningham’s ‘Sarah’s Song’.

Celebrating the Regal Pipe (image © Reaaz Mohammad, courtesy Blas Festival)

Next up were Seudan, originally the brainchild of piper and pipe maker Hamish Moore, and the product of a somewhat protracted evolution since the project was first launched as Na Tri Seudan – or “The Three Treasures”, namely the traditional Gaelic trinity of song, music and dance – back in 2004. Name and line-up have now boiled down to what’s usually a quartet of pipers – although a trio on this occasion, comprising Angus Mackenzie, Angus Nicolson and Fin Moore (the fourth, Calum MacCrimmon, being absent on Breabach duties).

Their pipes are exact replicas of the 1785 Black Set of Kintail, housed in Inverness Museum, whose ebony and silver fittings were smartly matched by the players’ all-black garb. These older-style instruments, created to revive the pre-military, song- and dance-based styles of Gaelic piping, are pitched markedly lower than modern Highland pipes, which immediately gave Seudan’s sound a distinctively rich, liquid roundness, a softer-edged timbre beautifully complemented by the silky yet precise legato suppleness of their playing, and vibrantly exploited in a wealth of lush harmonic touches.

The dance tunes combined the same rock-steady, “close to the floor” momentum prized in Cape Breton music with exhilarating fire and lift, interspersed by such slower material as a sturdily swinging waulking-song melody, and a stark but stately ballad from the Battle of Inverlochy in 1431, the latter featuring regular guest Allan MacDonald on smallpipes and vocals. Despite their venerable roots, Seudan are about as persuasive a contemporary advertisement for true traditional piping as it’s possible to imagine.

Completing the first half, the Oban High School Pipe Band, with Angus MacColl back onstage as Pipe Major, displayed all the brio, discipline and musicality that saw them crowned juvenile Champion of Champions 2010, while the second commenced with another solo set, this time from Mairearad Green, better known nowadays as an accordionist – this being, she told us, her first solo piping gig since she was at high school.

Her decision to focus on her own inventive compositions, to avoid overlap with other performers, added a sparky additional dimension to the range of material on offer, before the redoubtable Glenuig brothers Allan and Angus MacDonald rounded off the night with a mix of traditional and original tunes. A lifetime’s familiarity with each other’s playing lent an almost insouciant ease to their mastery, which balanced intense lyricism and irreproachable technique with authentic touches of grit and gristle.

Tormod MacArtair’s witty banter and self-deprecating expertise in the role of Fear an Taigh added further enjoyment to a thoroughly rewarding evening, as did the delectable venison canapés offered gratis to the audience beforehand and at the interval, courtesy of Scottish Natural Heritage.

© Sue Wilson, 2011

Links

• Blas Festival
• Sue Wilson

THERE aren’t many music festivals, let alone ones whose budget seems inversely proportional to their geographical spread, which could lay on the world première of a specially-commissioned feature film, created by and integrated with live music from one of today’s leading Celtic acts – but that’s what this year’s seventh Blas festival pulled off on its opening night. Talk about punching above your weight: all the Phipps Hall was missing was a red carpet.

A capacity crowd (one of five sellouts that evening, among six Blas concerts scattered between Skye and the top of Cairngorm), sat utterly rapt for the hour-long duration of Heisgeir, Julie Fowlis’s half-documentary, half-arthouse meditation on the history, landscape and legend of the now-uninhabited Monach Isles, a few miles west of her native North Uist.

Heisgeir - Julie Fowlis, Duncan Chisholm and Ross Martin (image © Reaaz Mohammad, courtesy Blas festival)

Made under the auspices of Don Coutts’s Black Isle-based Move On Up production company, beautifully shot by John MacKinnon and edited by Lindy Cameron, the film combined Fowlis’s narrative voiceover with talking-head recollections – both in Gaelic, subtitled in English – from half a dozen or so individuals variously linked to Heisgeir, each depicted amid views of dunes, sea and machair. Completing the show, which shares the islands’ indigenous name, was a potent selection of traditional and newly-written Gaelic songs and tunes, performed with Fowlis’s regular cohorts Éamon Doorley (bouzouki), Ross Martin (guitar) and Duncan Chisholm (fiddle).

Stories of shipwrecks, pirates, narrow escapes from death and supernatural dealings with seals dovetailed with descriptions of everyday Heisgeir life – especially resonant among the latter being one former resident’s matter-of-fact statement that “we didn’t want for anything”, as well as several contributors’ testimony to the islands’ uniquely peaceful atmosphere and “aura of enchantment”.

The project’s foreground deployment of Gaelic came across as wholly natural, unforced and inclusive, while its wider resonances, touching on such issues as how culture is created and sustained within a community, how it’s preserved or lost over time, the symbiosis between folklore and lived experience, and the price exacted by “progress”, emerged subtly and organically.

The live music passages, which saw the performers half-illuminated behind the translucent projection screen, appearing spectrally to merge with the film’s more abstract imagery, while elsewhere underscoring sections of narrative, lent a winning extra dimension of immediacy and dynamism to the show, compared to a recorded soundtrack. At once celebratory and elegiac, with a simplicity and directness that belies the skill and care expended on all its elements, Heisgeir stands as another outstanding achievement not only for Fowlis and her collaborators, but for Blas as a progenitor of new Highland art.

© Sue Wilson, 2011

Links

• Blas 2011
• Sue Wilson

THE answer is The Boy and the Bunnet, an ambitious new musical production that will première during Blas at Eden Court Theatre (with another performance at Celtic Connections next year), and aims to introduce children to Scottish traditional music much as Prokofiev’s 1936 classic did for the orchestral sphere.

INTEGRAL to the project, which was initiated by former Scottish Government advisor Bryan Beattie, director of the cultural consultancy Creative Services, is the intention that it forms the basis of a teaching resource for schools, linking its musical content with both the Scots and Gaelic languages in a freshly engaging and accessible fashion.

“That was really the starting-point,” Beattie says, “to try and find a new way of getting traditional music into the classroom, which can be quite difficult using conventional methods. At the same time, our primary focus at this point is on these first performances – on getting the music and the words right so that the piece works onstage, as everything else will follow from that.”

James Ross

To this end, Beattie has recruited a triumvirate of tried and tested talents to create the piece. Award-winning pianist and composer James Ross, whose Chasing the Sun suite, inspired by his native Caithness and premièred at Blas 2008, will soon be out on CD, has written the music, with a brief to incorporate both Scottish traditional instruments and key musical forms.

The accompanying Scots narrative, broadly inspired by traditional folk tales, is the work of Booker-nominated author James Robertson, co-founder of the acclaimed Itchy Coo children’s imprint. The Eden Court show, however, while surtitled with Robertson’s text, will feature a translation by renowned Gaelic poet Aonghas MacNeacail – who last year proved his aptness for the task by jointly winning the Scots-language MacCash Poetry Competition, under the nom de plume Innes Dow.

Aonghas MacNeacail

“In terms of an initial framework, the model of Peter and the Wolf is just so resilient and successful that it seemed daft to ignore it,” Beattie continues. “So we’ve copied the bare bones of that model, but because we’re basing it on Scottish music, as well as bringing in the language elements, I think we’ve come up with a very distinct piece.”

Centrally targeted at older primary and younger secondary school pupils, while seeking to entertain all ages, The Boy and the Bunnet follows its hero Neil on a day-long series of adventures when he leaves his grandmother’s cottage to play, and gets lost in the woods after a crow steals his eponymous headgear. Before finding his way home, Neil meets sundry other animal and supernatural companions, including a stag, a selkie and a cat, as well as the fearsome, satyr-like urisk – or ùruisg in the Gaelic.

Wilma Kennedy will deliver the Gaelic narrative and Gerda Stevenson the Scots, while the music will feature a six-piece ensemble of contemporary folk luminaries, including singer/harpist Corrina Hewat, fiddler Patsy Reid, accordionist Angus Lyon and Fraser Fifield on pipes.

Corrina Hewat

“James Robertson wrote the basic story first of all, then we collaborated on working it into a performance script in tandem with me writing the music,” explains Ross of the show’s development. “I’ve assigned each character both their own instrument and their own tune type, to create their different themes as the story progresses: Neil himself is the fiddle and the jig, the stag is bagpipes and the march, and so on. It sounds fairly straightforward, but it’s actually been quite a challenge: figuring out how to keep things clear when characters are in scenes together, writing links between the scenes, or underneath the narrative, without muddling up the instruments’ roles, and getting it all to work as a coherent ensemble whole. It’s been great working so closely with a writer, though – he gave me the initial story, and I sketched out some music based on that, then he’d adapt the script after hearing what I’d written, and it just kept going back and forth like that, both sparking ideas off each other.”

In the run-up to its first performance, a further process of mutual adjustment will take place between Ross’s score and MacNeacail’s translation, the latter being originally based on Robertson’s final text. “That’s where it will become even more interesting,” MacNeacail says, “Though I’ve already enjoyed the difference between translating from Scots and from English into Gaelic. It’s something that comes quite naturally to me: as well as growing up with Burns and the ballads at school, when I was a boy my family were very friendly with a group of fisherfolk from Easter Ross who lived near us, who spoke in East Coast Scots even though the surrounding community was Gaelic.” He acknowledges “taking some liberties” with Robertson’s version, on the basis that “every translation is an interpretation.”

“The most important thing is to recreate the vitality of the language, as much as its literal meaning,” he continues. “When it comes to particular idioms, often you can’t translate them directly, so you have to think in terms of parallels or counterparts that will best reflect both the sense and the flavour of the original. In this case I’m also writing for a wide range of ages, and for me the secret with that is to keep it simple and tell the story: I don’t mean make it naïve or simplistic, but if you focus on the story, and the story’s strong enough, it will grab any age-group. And of course, writing something that’s designed to be spoken aloud is fundamental to the Gaelic tradition.”

The Boy and the Bunnett

Beyond its Gaelic and Scots premières – which Beattie hopes will be followed by further concert performances, perhaps with an added theatrical or choreographic dimension – the plan is to adapt The Boy and the Bunnet into school resource packs, usable even by non-specialist teachers. As a first step towards this, a recording of the piece is scheduled for later this autumn, while both audio and written materials are being developed in accordance with the Curriculum for Excellence, overseen by educationalist Cerin Richardson.

“The way people get inspired by any art-form is to experience it in a form that’s interesting, exciting and entertaining,” Beattie says. “Bringing Scotland’s music and languages together like this will hopefully be an accessible way to achieve that: accessible for teachers who don’t necessarily have a background in either, as well as for pupils. Peter and the Wolf is an obvious model, but also an ambitious one: if we can even be part-way as effective as it’s been, I’ll be delighted.”

The Boy and the Bunnett will premiere at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, on 13 September 2011. Blas 2011 runs from 9-17 September 2011 – full programme details can be found on the Blas website (see below).

© Sue Wilson, 2011

Links

• Blas 2011
• Eden Court Theatre

THIS month’s co-production with Open Book of Para Handy – A Voyage Around The Stories of Neil Munro is a rather different venture, and an exciting one. In a period when funding is already very difficult in the arts, and likely to get much worse, it represents a very encouraging foray into large scale Highland theatre.

Okay, it is a long way from establishing Eden Court as a production house rather than predominantly a receiving one, but it is a big step in a good direction. The show is a new stage version adapted and directed by John Bett, produced by Eden Court and Open Book and funded by the Highland Culture Strategic Board as part of the Highland Arts Programme (through Creative Scotland’s Rural Innovation Fund).

John Bett checks out a Clyde puffer (photo Mandy Edwards)

Colin Marr, the director of Eden Court, welcomed the opportunity when the project was launched earlier this year at the theatre, saying that “the Para Handy stories are true Scottish gems and the opportunity to revive and ‘revitalise’ Neil Munro’s classic tales of The Vital Spark was just too good to pass up.”

It is also the culmination of a long-held ambition for John Bett, who first read the stories as an eight-year old, and has long wanted to do something with them. His approach to staging the show will reflect his own early immersion in the theatre-with-music approach pionereed by 7:84 and Wildcat, with a live band under the leadership of pianist and composer Robert Pettigrew joining the actors on stage.

Writing under the pen name of Hugh Foulis, Inveraray-born Neil Munro published the first of the Para Handy stories in the Glasgow Evening News in 1905, and continued writing them for much of his working life.

Their vivid evocation of life on the Clyde puffers before and after the First World War conjures up a long-departed era when the puffers formed a vital link between Glasgow and the west Highlands and Islands. Bett has sourced some amateur film footage from the era in the Scottish Film Archive, and will incorporate it in the show to help evoke the atmosphere of the period.

Munro’s stories were collected in three books, The Vital Spark (1906), In Highland Harbours (1911), and Hurricane Jack of the Vital Spark (1923), and have been adapted for television, including the much-loved series with the late Roddy McMillan as Para.

Invernessian Jimmy Chisholm will take on that role in the new production, which opens on 21 September at Eden Court before touring to His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, the Edinburgh Festival Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. We wish all concerned good luck with the venture.

September also means the annual Blas festival, which this year features an intriguing commission which promises to provide a traditional music analogue to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (see Sue Wilson’s feature on the project).

In this year of Scotland’s Islands, the festival also offers two significant island-related projects, a new commission from Julie Fowlis inspired by her family connections with Heisgeir (also known as the Monach Isles), and a performance of Hallaig, a musical celebration of the poetry of Skye bard Sorley MacLean.

On the subject of music festivals, let’s not forget the very popular (and already sold out) Loopallu, which effectively closes the summer season of major outdoor festivals (what summer?, I hear you ask).

In keeping with the spirit of Blas, Right Lines’ Hi-wireless series features a Gaelic offering from Gavin Hutchinson this month, Eireaball na Dibhe. It means the hangover, and there may be a few of those around before the festivals close.

Kenny Mathieson

Editor

© Kenny Mathieson, 2011

Links

• Eden Court Theatre
• Open Book
• Neil Munro Society
• Blas 2011
• Loopallu

THE BLAS FESTIVAL is a Highland-wide showcase for Gaelic music and culture. The festival began as a one-day pilot event in 2004, and returned in 2005 as a nine-day feast of events, inspired by the model of the Celtic Colours event in Cape Breton.

Donna Macrae

The festival initially took place in five parts of the Highland Council area, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Lochaber, and Skye & Lochalsh. Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey, and the Black Isle were added in 2006, and Inverness came aboard in time to celebrate the Highland Year of Culture in 2007.

The festival has placed Gaelic language as well as music at the centre of its activities, and that remains crucial. This year’s programme features a strong line-up of home-based and visiting artists, including Donnie Munro, Shooglenifty, Bruce MacGregor, Bodega, Braebach, Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham, Irish singer Noeleen Ní Cholla, Gerry O’Connor, and Cape Breton’s Buddy MacDonald, in venues ranging from Inverness Airport to Durness Village Hall.

The future development of this now well-established event is less clear in the light of the funding cuts expected from the beleaguered Highland Council, the principal backers of the event, which look like amounting to a 30% cut for next year. Northings asked Donna Macrae, the Festival Director, about these and other matters on the eve of this year’s festival (see links below for full programme).

NORTHINGS: Donna, you are listed as Festival Director alongside Brian Ó hEadhra as Artistic Director in the festival brochure, but Brian moved on earlier this year to a new job as Gaelic Arts & Culture Officer at Bòrd na Gàidhlig – how did that effect the programming?

DONNA MACRAE: Brian left at the end of March when his job changed at Bòrd, but this year’s festival was already in place, and the programming happens in the context of an action group in any case. We have a meeting every July to look at the following year, when the members of the group submit their ideas to Brian to go away and work on.

NORTHINGS: One significant looking addition this year is a big opening night event in an unlikely venue, a hanger at Inverness Airport. How did that come about?

DONNA MACRAE: We had musicians greeting arrivals in the concourse at the airport in the past, and last year we had an event in the cafeteria, and it turned into a delightful venue. This year they were keen to have more than one event, and offered the use of a hanger for a bigger concert if we felt that was a good idea – which we did. BBC Scotland will be filming it as well.

It’s an event that we think will be attractive to young people with a couple of up and coming Gaelic bands, Niteworks and Skerryvore, and Shooglenifty, who already have a wider and more established audience. So it’s a chance for us to see how it works in that kind of setting.

Shooglenifty

NORTHINGS: How do you think the general shape of the festival has changed over time – or has it?

DONNA MACRAE: At the end of each festival we have a kind of post-mortem where everyone reports back on their impressions, and we keep going back to the original remit of the event. We don’t want to try to be all things to all people. It’s more important that we hold tight to the original principles and what it is that we are doing.

There has been a steady group of people on the action group, and I think the programme has improved every year. I think there are things we tried early on that we wouldn’t repeat because we saw better ways of doing it – it’s a case of tightening up what we do and learning by experience.

NORTHINGS: Remind us just what those principles are that you are working on?

DONNA MACRAE: It’s increasingly about Gaelic and a bi-lingual approach to everything, from brochures and posters and the website to the delivery of the events. A lot of people feel that we deliver Gaelic in a very natural way at the events – they didn’t feel they were getting a dry Gaelic lesson, and I think that is very important.

We are also intent on engaging with young artists locally as well as national and international artists who have a connection with Gaelic and Highland music, and the event should also involve connections with youth, community and family groups, and should encourage an audience both from here and from beyond Scotland – and last year we had 32% of our audience coming from outside Scotland.

Donnie Munro (© donniemunro.co.uk)

NORTHINGS: That is quite a surprising proportion.

DONNA MACRAE: It is. We have an enormous amount of people coming from Germany this year, for example, which may in part be the Donnie Munro factor, but we did advertise in a major German folk magazine, and were able to provide them with editorial in German courtesy of a friend of my daughter’s, who translated all our material. I think that effort is paying off, and we also advertised in Penguin Eggs, the main Canadian folk magazine.

I built a new website for us this year because I felt there were a number of sections that we needed to be able to update ourselves. One of the things I put on there was a volunteer form, and I’ve had enquiries from people in the USA and in Hungary about coming to volunteer at the festival.

Noeleen Ní Cholla

NORTHINGS: There have been various thematic strands in past festivals, but that isn’t so apparent this time – or I am just missing them?

DONNA MACRAE: No, they are probably not there in the same way that we had in the last couple of festivals. There is an emphasis on food this year, linked to EventScotland’s food fortnight in September, and we are working with Highland food producers to have them at events and so forth, using that EventScotland funding. But otherwise we don’t really have themes this year, more individual concerts. Next year is the Year of Scottish Islands, so that may offer us something to work with.

We have a long-standing connection with Canada, and once again we are bringing over a lot of artists from there, and this year we have brought them all over for the full duration of the event, which makes more sense financially.

NORTHINGS: A Highland-wide festival is always assumed to present huge logistical difficulties, and was something that the Highland Festival was always thought to have struggled with. Blas seems to have cracked it. What’s the secret?

DONNA MACRAE: I wasn’t party to how Highland Festival operated or what their particular problems were, but they were operating in a much broader range of genres and art forms than we are, and I guess that is pertinent.

I think for me and our action group, the bottom line is that without the existing infrastructure of local promoters and our volunteer network the festival could not happen – it is all those people who are the heart of it and make it possible.

The vast majority of our events are promoted locally through the Promoters Arts Network, and I would say we have a good relationship with them. They are consulted about what sort of events they want for their area, and encouraged to make the show their own in a local sense, to the point that we have Fringe activities developing in some places, and other organisations coming to us looking to get involved.

Skerryvore

For me it’s crucial that we make sure that all the promises that we make to our partners are kept – when we say we will organise the artists or the accommodation or the meals or whatever, then we do just that. In return, they always keep their side of the bargain, which is that they promote the event locally and are there on the night to do all that needs to be done in running the show.

We do get feedback from all of the promoters, and we pay attention to that, and try to make sure that it is a partnership. The people who run the festival also know the Highlands well, and we know the people we are working with. Last year we had a get-together for promoters and crew on the beach at Arisaig rather than a formal meeting, and it felt like a very Highland day – everyone had a great time and enjoyed themselves on an informal level.

NORTHINGS: The programme looks healthy enough this year, but the event is happening in the shadow of potentially very serious funding cuts from Highland Council? How can you cope with that?

DONNA MACRAE: As I understand it we will lose 30% of our funding from Highland Council next year. We have to take that on board and look at how we might be able to deliver a festival on that basis, and how we might fill the funding gap elsewhere. I have a feeling that we may find that philanthropy kicks in in a bigger way. My view is that it is still possible to deliver a festival with a bit less money, although not with an awful lot less money, so it depends how far down the line the cuts go.

Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain

I am very optimistic that one way or another we will have the funding we require. We have a very robust set of statistics from last year – we had a snatch survey of about 1500 people, which is quite a good proportion of the audience, and from that we worked out that the Blas audience are spending around £700,000 in the region, and that excludes directly buying tickets for the festival – this is spending on accommodation and food and visiting other attractions while they are here. So Blas has a good economic impact on the region, and we are also spending money directly on services and jobs as well.

Braebach

The survey also suggested people were very satisfied with what we were doing, and it seems to me that it would be foolish for government at local or national level not to support things that are doing well. The current situation is going to force a long hard look at what we support and what we don’t support, and will require judgments about value, I think.

But from a Blas point of view, I feel optimistic, and we are well underway with putting next year’s festival together.

Blas 2010 runs from 3-12 September 2010.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2010

Links

• Blas Festival
• On-line Programme Brochure

There were fears that the cut might mean that this year’s festival was the last, but Donna Macrae, the Festival manager, remains optimistic that they can weather the storm at least in the immediate future, as she explains in our interview this month.

Further cutting back may prove necessary, but as I have said before in this column, we are in what is likely to be a period of considerable retrenchment for the arts, and a focus on core activities and keeping afloat is likely to be the order of the day for the foreseeable future, and not only for Blas.

The continuation of the event is good news, though. Blas has been a very welcome addition to musical life in the Highlands and Islands, and has succeeded in putting Gaelic at the front of its activities in a very user-friendly way.

On the subject of welcome additions to musical life, the Highland Chamber Orchestra enjoyed a very successful 10th anniversary celebration last month, including their first performance at Eden Court Theatre. Our congratulations go to the players, conductor and composers involved, and to those working behind the scenes, and we wish them all well for the next ten years.

Creative Scotland, the new body taking on the functions of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, have finally launched their new website, and I’ve already had people involved in the arts tell me they are less than impressed with what it has to offer. Creative Scotland are inviting users to tell them what they think about the new site (just go there, have a look, and submit your views via the links on the site).

Dogstar Theatre’s new production of Henry Adam’s Jacobite Country goes on tour around the region this month, but not exactly in a blaze of glory. Reactions to the play have been mixed, and often openly hostile.

I had my own major reservations about the show, but on the principle that there is no substitute for making up your own mind on these things, I would still urge you to go and see it if it comes you way in the course of the tour.

There are undoubtedly problems with the script, but the production is fast moving and energised, the four actresses deserve great praise for their performances, and the audience seemed to respond well on the night I saw it at Eden Court.

As well as Blas, September also means Loopallu, and the popular Ullapool festival returns with a line-up that includes The Magic Numbers, Idlewild, Aberfeldy and Turin Brakes among the headliners. Up in Shetland, the Wordplay and Screenplay events also return, while the Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival offers a strong line-up in a unique setting.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.

It is a shame that this tour is not reaching any west coast venues, since the Aberdeen-born, Edinburgh-based guitarist has written a new suite of music, Vantage Points, inspired by either places or journeys through Scotland, including Callanish, Ardnamurchan and Knoydart.

He was due to take delivery of the first copies of a new CD of the music just prior to the tour, featuring the line-up he will take on the road minus Shetland fiddle maestro Chris Stout, who had to miss the recording sessions through other commitments.

Let’s hope the latest hefty snowfall in this very snowy winter does not impede their progress, or lead to too many cancellations to other planned events around the country.

The cold winds blowing through the arts world are not only of the literal variety, though – they are getting much chillier in the area of arts funding.

I have written on several occasions about the impending ravages of funding cuts to come, but the recent advance announcements of proposed cuts in Highland Council’s very hard-pressed budget over the next three years suggests things may be even worse than envisaged. The fact that they have taken the unusual step of issuing such advance warnings is itself a measure of the seriousness of the situation.

They are seeking a saving of £60 million over the next three years, a position the Council’s Budget Leader, David Alston, described as “extreme”. It is also planned to consult with the public on where the cuts should fall, although the final decisions will be made by Councillors.

It seems particularly hard to take in the case of the Blas Festival. Having set up and established the event as a very successful going concern, the cuts the Council are now threatening are likely to mean that the 2010 event in September could well be the last.

Quite apart from the artistic and cultural issues, should the event disappear the financial loss of income generated by the festival around the Highlands will be considerable, and it is only the most high-profile of the likely casualties. Finding new sources of funding elsewhere is likely to be equally tough. All in all, not a happy picture.

The availability or otherwise of music tuition is the subject exercising arts worker and concerned parent Jelica Gavrilovic in her Speakout piece this month, one she intends to follow up with a second piece on “the age of technology, rock school and general music education and its lack of consistency in terms of curriculum, plus a call-out to all guitar people of all genres.”

In a pair of interviews, Barry Gordon looks at two contrasting aspects of the arts scene in his native Thurso, cinema and breakdancing. Mull Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Hebrides Ensemble are among those following Graeme Stephen’s example and taking to the road this month, and we will bring you reviews of all these, and much more.

And just to end on a cheerier note, congratulations to all concerned at An Lanntair over in Stornoway, where they celebrate the 25th anniversary of their founding this year.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.

SETTING sail for its third year as one of Blas’s choicest highlights, this musical dinner cruise from Tomnachurich Bridge to Urquhart Castle was among the festival’s quickest sellouts this time round, prompting suggestions that it might run over two nights in future.

Duncan Chisholm

Exactly a week after record-breaking downpours had caused widespread flooding in the area, leaving the river levels still noticeably high, the excursion was blessed with an unseasonably mild, still evening that saw the surrounding scenery stunningly reflected in the water amidst a spectacular sunset, followed by a golden half-moon that rose to point the way home.

As those on board the Jacobite Queen tucked into a sumptuous buffet spread, once again courtesy of the Red Poppy restaurant at Strathpeffer, while the musical accompaniment was served up by local fiddle star Duncan Chisholm, many of whose own fine compositions have been inspired by the beauties of his native landscape, together with uilleann piper and whistle player Jarlath Henderson, and Marc Clement on guitar.

The boat’s felicitously warm acoustic, abetted by judiciously pitched amplification, enabled the music to fill the space without hindering conversation, falling aptly between an informal background session and a concert performance. Thankfully, it was easily audible enough to appreciate the players’ premier-league prowess, in a deftly varied mix of lively dance tunes, interspersed with the heart-tugging slow airs in which Chisholm particularly excels.

While most in attendance had chosen to dress up for the evening, the resulting sense of occasion was nicely tempered thanks to the boat’s interior layout and the need to share tables, engendering an authentic ceilidh-style conviviality that added much to everyone’s enjoyment – as did the intriguing procedure of passing through two locks in both directions.

Another additional treat was a couple of hilarious after-dinner anecdotes from renowned Highland character and raconteur Charlie MacFarlane, owner of Glenfinnan House Hotel, who happened to be among the passengers, and whose second story, about the origins of the pipe tune ‘The Hen’s March’, came complete with an brilliantly life-like impersonation of the eponymous fowl.

After a half-throttle turnaround at Urquhart Castle, the better to admire its splendidly illuminated façade, the return leg of the trip saw the buffet table cleared away, and the dancing commenced with a waltz especially played for two couples who were both celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.

After this came an Orcadian-style ‘Strip the Willow’, lent an extra frisson of excitement by the bottom couple’s perilous proximity to the companionway leading below decks, but everyone made it through safely, despite the fast and furious pace mischievously set by the musicians.

All too soon, the crew were manning their stations to tie up back at the quay in Inverness, marking the end of a truly magical night – and another resounding success for Blas.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival

Blazin' Fiddles

WITH PROVISIONAL figures from Blas 2009 indicating ticket sales up by some 20 percent on last year, and at least half of the festival’s 43 concerts having sold out – no mean feat at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a recession – it seemed only fitting that its closing show drew a capacity crowd. There was also that extra buzz to the atmosphere, the anticipation and responsiveness of an audience happily primed by earlier events, which only a successful festival can generate.

A short set from the young Fèis participants who’ve plied this year’s Caledonian Canal Ceilidh Trail served as a tasty appetiser to the proceedings, comprising some strong instrumental medleys, in impressively sophisticated arrangements, on fiddle, whistle, bagpipes, accordion and guitar, and a beautifully delivered and harmonised Gaelic version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, translated by Eilidh Mackenzie.

Next up were the festival’s main Homecoming attraction, Cape Breton family outfit The Barra MacNeils, not only retracing the journey their emigrant Scottish forebears made a couple of centuries back, but making a return appearance at Blas after their debut visit in 2007.

With a melodic frontline featuring fiddle, flute, accordion and uilleann pipes, backed up with piano, bouzouki, guitar, bodhrán and bass, their sets of strathspeys, jigs and reels delivered plenty of densely-layered colour as well as the vigorous bounce and drive characteristic of Cape Breton music.

The tunes were interspersed with a diverse selection of vocal material, including a rousing a capella colliers’ anthem, ‘The Coal Town Road’, from the band’s home patch of Sydney Mines, featuring all six siblings in close harmony on the chorus, and a sparkling puirt-a-beul number subtly accompanied on accordion and tambourine, whose quality outweighed their sole lapse of taste in an ultra-slushy self-penned ballad, ‘Dance With Me Daily’.

More transatlantic connections were explored by the Canadian/Irish five-piece Tread, whose superbly accomplished mix of harp and fiddle tunes with dazzling stepdance displays affirmed them as one of this year’s top festival hits, while harpist Triona Marshall’s heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in their first UK visit showed that the audience’s fervent appreciation was fully reciprocated.

Highland heroes Blazin’ Fiddles supplied a suitably high-octane climax to the night, with the cunningly spliced tune styles and time-signatures among a preponderance of newer material demonstrating how their intricate ensemble sound continues to evolve in ambition and refinement, while their latest recruit Anna Massie, replacing Marc Clement on guitar, further expanded their palette with her nimble melodic picking.

There was also a surprise appearance by one of the band’s original co-founders, Duncan Chisholm, before all of the night’s musicians filed back on for a glorious last hurrah, firstly paying tribute to the recently deceased Cape Breton fiddle maestro Jerry Holland with a lush rendition of his instrumental anthem ‘My Cape Breton Home’, then setting about a final stramash of reels which won a prolonged standing ovation.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival

Dougie MacLean

AS WITH The Chieftains’ appearance at Blas last year, the festival’s organisers once again capitalised on their most bankable headliner by deploying local youth music projects as support acts, thereby giving a host of budding singers and musicians the experience of performing to a big crowd on the main Eden Court stage – an occasion that must surely have incentivised countless hours of practice beforehand.

The 22-strong, all-female teenage choir Canntaireachd filed on first, presenting sweetly synchronised and harmonised versions of traditional Gaelic songs alongside a striking new composition from the group themselves, in simple but alluring arrangements by musical director Eilidh Mackenzie, with their close-knit unison in a set of puirt-a-beul underlining their impressive ensemble discipline.

The stage was then filled by nearly 40 youngsters from two Invernessian Gaelic arts tuition projects, Fèis na h-òige and Fèis a Bhaile, aged all the way from six to their mid-teens, playing fiddles, harps, pianos, accordions, guitars, bagpipes, whistles, snare-drum and djembes as well as singing and stepdancing.

With Canntaireachd coming back on to join them halfway through their set, the next generation of Highland musical talent looked set to blossom even more copiously than the current crop of fËis alumni now forging professional careers.

This inspiring display of youthful involvement in traditional culture represented a vastly different musical landscape from when the 20-year-old Dougie MacLean first joined the Tannahill Weavers, back in 1974, at the outset of what would become one of the most durable careers in Scottish music.

Regardless of the folk scene’s radical transformation and expansion over the ensuing decades, he remains a consistently popular draw, as demonstrated here by a near-capacity crowd. For much of that time, he’s seen little need to tamper with a winning formula, a perhaps less admirable form of consistency exemplified early in his set by a brand-new song, ‘Time Will Turn’, a gently downtempo, soulfully bittersweet ballad that could have come off pretty much any of his albums from at least the last 15 years.

Despite the samey melodic emollience of his material, and the generically evocative triteness of his lyrics – littered with references to standing tall, holding fast, teaching truths and the beauties/wonders/elemental forces of nature – his set was greatly enhanced by the relaxed, upbeat warmth with which he engaged the audience, along with an abundance of self-deprecating humour.

An exception to the latter was the decidedly cringeworthy false modesty of his lengthy introduction to the inevitable ‘Caledonia’, although his actual rendition of the official Homecoming 2009 anthem exhibited a mitigating degree of judicious understatement.

There’s no denying, either, that his voice’s resonant grainy timbre and soft nasal twang enrich even his most anodyne numbers, memorably framed here by sonorous, richly-hued accompaniment from his excellent five-piece band.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival 

THE GAELIC language is at the heart of the Blas Festival and so a concert entitled “Gaelic Voices” would be expected to have just that, so this evening of Gaelic song and Highland music was therefore chaired bi-lingually by Dingwall Academy Gaelic teacher Tormod Macarthur, who also performed later alongside his fellow musicians in Na Seòid.

Mary Ann Kennedy and Na Seòid

The concert opened with set of songs by Dingwall Gaelic Choir. The set included old favourites such as ‘Cabar Fèidh’, ‘Mnathan Ghlinne Seo’, ‘Cuachag nan Craobh’ and sets of puirt a beul. They also gave their puirt for this year’s National Mod an airing – the tongue twisting ‘An Fhaighear Muileach’.

The Choir were followed by the Roya Maclean Trio. Roya hails from Muir of Ord and is currently studying at Sabhal Mor Ostaig. She is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of Scotland’s brightest accordion stars of the future and her sparkling cèilidh sets, demonstrated why.

She was accompanied by fiddle and drums and the sets included tunes from across the traditional repertoire – pipe marches, reels, Gaelic airs and strathspeys. The performance as a whole was assured, sparkling in its vivacity and filled with an air of experience way beyond the age of the young performers.

The main performers for the evening were Mary Ann Kennedy’s “Gaelic Boy Band”, Na Seoid, comprising, James Graham, Norrie Maciver, Angus Macphail, Gillebride Macmillan, Tormod Macarthur, and Calum Alex Macmillan, accompanied on guitar by Finlay Napier.

Their set of songs included four new songs, three of which were self-penned by members of the band, and it is very refreshing and reassuring that our young Gaels have the confidence now to perform their own material, on contemporary subjects, such as the Iraq war (‘Na Gaidheal am Basra’ by Macarthur) and the relationship difficulties afforded to young people today by the necessity to work away from home (‘Dileab’ by Macmillan).

James Graham also performed a new song which won the recent Mull Song competition – ‘Gheibhinn Cadal Math’ (I would sleep well) by Allan ‘Glenuig’ Macdonald. Mary Ann’s own new song ‘Mise Fhuair’, which won a place in the recent final of the Nús Ur Competition in Inverness, also provided an opportunity for some fine group harmony singing.

Mary Ann also accompanied several of the songs on clarsach. Other old favourites included ‘Thèid is Gun Tèid Thu Leam’ and the Ullapool song ‘Mo Chailin Dïleas Donn’ given a more contemporary setting by Maciver.

The boys have a busy Blas programme and this may have been the reason for the rather more subdued atmosphere to their sets than we have come to expect. They are well known for their humour on stage and the audience missed out on this to an extent here. The considerable vocal talents of the ensemble were afforded only a few occasions to demonstrate the power and beauty of the Young Male Gaelic voice in harmony, no more so than in the lovely ‘Sios dhan an Abhainn’.

It is heartening for the future of the Gaelic language to have so many talented young male singers and musicians. We can be assured that both our traditional heritage and treasury of song and our contemporary Gaelic song-writing future is safe in the hands of young musicians such as Na Seòid.

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival 

• Fiona MacKenzie

BLAS dipped into Aly & Phil’s current mammoth Scottish tour to pull three of their concerts under the festival umbrella, and were rewarded with a predictable sell-out here, and an equally predictable top-quality performance on stage.

Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham

Since Gaelic is pretty much mandatory at any Blas event, singer Ishbel Macaskill opened both halves of the show with mini-sets of three Gaelic songs, affirming her conviction in the first that there is no better way to follow a song from Lewis than with another song from Lewis, and wondering in the second how the Gaels remained a viable population in the face of so much unrequited love.

As ever, she sang her chosen material (including the original version of the song known in its gentrified version as ‘The Eriskay Love Lilt’) with consummate control and expressiveness.

Over-exposure can often lead to indifference (for both performers and audience), but the familiar combination of Aly Bain’s gorgeous fiddle and Phil Cunningham’s inspired accordion seems to be impervious to that process. As they reminded us several times, it is now 23 years since they first played together, and these annual marathons have become a staple of the calendar.

The public’s appetite for them shows no sign of waning, and neither does the musicians’ enthusiasm for playign together. The opening set of Shetland tunes (one borrowed, one indigenous) thundered past at their customary dazzling speed(and yes, sometimes they do over-play the speed card), delivered with stunning virtuosity and a real feel for the music.

And so it went on – heartbreaking slow airs like Cunningham’s ‘The Gentle Light That Wakes Me’ or the traditional ‘Mrs. Jamieson’s Favourite’ alternated with sizzling sets of reels and jigs and international juxtapositions of tunes from Sweden, the USA and the French bits of Canada, interspersed with the usual banter and oft-told tales (often featuring the adventures of accordionist Fergie MacDonald). In short, business as usual, satisfaction guaranteed.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2009

Links

• Blas Festival

APPEARING here with her own band, Tread, The Chieftains’ harpist Triona Marshall surely spoke for everyone present when she described this Blas concert as the most fun she’d ever had in an airport.

The first fruit of a new partnership between the festival and Highlands & Islands Airports, it took place in the terminal’s café-bar area, which turned out to be an excellent space for a gig, with a glass wall offering a fine view over towards the runway as the sun went down, and an enjoyably surreal one of several planes taxiing past in the course of the show.

Tread

Double Mod medallist Kirsteen MacDonald – also a regular presenter on BBC Alba – was the first of the night’s performers, delivering a lovely set of unaccompanied Gaelic songs. Her clear, bright, sweet-yet-tart voice, subtly adorned with fluttery vibrato, lent an arresting freshness and immediacy to a selection mainly comprised of traditional love lyrics, although a little more explanation of their content would have helped non-Gaelic speakers tune in further.

A ballad by the great Moidart bard Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair particularly highlighted this shortcoming – although, paradoxically, it was the expressive vitality and evident narrative dynamism of her singing that left one wanting to know more.

The young Morayshire musician Calum Stewart, a former finalist in the Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year contest, had been billed as appearing with his trio, but in fact the group was extended to a five-piece – which also extended the evening’s titular Celtic cousinship between Scotland and Ireland to take in players from Denmark, Sweden and Brittany.

Alongside Stewart’s wooden flute and smallpipes, the full ensemble featured fiddle/viola, piano/glockenspiel, soprano saxophone and guitar, collectively operating under the name One Fine Day, and here performing their first full gig together after sundry previous collaborations among the membership.

Working largely with their own original compositions, plus a few traditional tunes, the quintet artfully interwove both their diverse instrumental textures and disparate native traditions with wider influences, including jazz and minimalist music, creating a vibrantly melodious, intriguingly cosmopolitan sound catalysed by a wealth of imaginative ideas and fine musicianship.

Their delivery was a little diffident at times, but this is easily forgivable in a debut performance: once the band’s had a chance to gel and bed-in, they’ve the makings of a real force to be reckoned with.

The aforementioned Tread were at Blas as a direct spin-off from The Chieftains’ headline visit last year. Along with Marshall, the Canadian brothers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke – the former on fiddle, the latter a champion stepdancer in the high-energy Ottawa Valley style – and US Irish dancer Cara Butler (sister of original Riverdance star Jean), are all regular members of the Irish veterans’ current entourage, with their own line-up completed by Toronto singer-songwriter/guitarist Jef McLarnon.

It does come across more as an assemblage of individual talents than a fully-fledged band, but those talents are of a uniformly exceptional calibre, and they certainly put on a great show, replete with such contrasting highlights as Marshall’s limpidly beautiful articulation of a venerable slow air, ‘The Lamentations of Limerick’, Jon Pilatzke’s fiery, hyperactive set of Cape Breton-style strathspeys and reels, and McLarnon’s arrestingly edgy, idiosyncratic songcraft.

And that’s even aside from the dancing, which featured every couple of numbers or so, and was simply dazzling, with Butler’s tautly focused elegance brilliantly matched and complemented by the other Pilatzke’s showier, looser-limbed, but no less virtuosic display.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

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Michael Marra on piano

ANOTHER BLAS evening with an interesting concept. East Meets West sandwiched one of Scotland’s finest singer/songwriters, gravel-voiced Dundonian Michael Marra, between two of the finest Gaelic singers; jewel of the West Coast and voice of Capercaillie, Karen Matheson, and Lochinver’s James Graham, the first Gaelic singer – and first male – to win a BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year award (in 2004).

Graham opened the show, accompanied by Wick’s James Ross, who is a star of Scotland’s music scene in his own right, both as pianist and as a composer of increasing renown – his Chasing the Sun was a commission of last year’s Blas Festival.

Those in the audience who, like this reviewer, were not as well versed in Gaelic song as they might be, were soon won over by the unassuming Graham’s lyrical voice and gentle delivery, and Ross’ exquisite touch. The highlight of his set was perhaps the sung pibroch, in which he has been tutored by Allan Macdonald of Glenuig (whose tunes have been a leitmotif of Blas), but the puirt a beul was a close second.

Alternating between grand piano and guitar, with the occasional addition of moothie, Michael Marra played an interesting selection from his back catalogue, beginning with the evergreen ‘Schenectady Calling’ (about Shetland guitar legend Peerie Willie Johnson), followed by the elegaic ‘Pius Porteous’ and darting hither and thither before ending superbly with a song from one of his finest albums, Posted Sober – ‘Frida Kahlo’s Visit to the Taybridge Bar’, in which the stage was, appropriately, flooded with a scarlet light. A treat from beginning to end.

After the interval, Fear-an-tigh Brian Ó hEadhra introduced Karen Matheson and her Band, comprising Capercaillie colleagues Ewan Vernal (double bass) and Donald Shaw (piano, accordion), Glasgow troubadour and regular collaborator James Grant (guitar and vocals), Blazin Fiddles’ latest recruit Anna Massie (guitar and mandolin), and New Zealand harmonica maestro Brendan Power. Quality indeed.

Neatly bridging the gap between East and West, Matheson’s set included songs in English and Gaelic by a range of songwriters including Sandy Denny and Sorley Maclean. She put her whole self into each song in turn, holding nothing back, the exquisitely beautiful voice holding the audience willingly captive under her spell. Seeing her perform live for the first time, Sean Connery’s often quoted remark about ‘a voice touched by God’ seems nothing short of the truth.

Graham, Ross and Marra returned onstage for an ensemble encore of Burns’ ‘Green grow the rashes O’, which is, as Marra pointed out, a bit of a feminist ode; with little prompting, the audience sang along. Even in the corporate ambience of the Aviemore Conference Centre, East Meets West was a very fine evening; in more congenial surroundings, it would have been outstanding.

© Jennie Macfie, 2009

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Calum Alex Macmillan

IF THERE was ever a series of concerts designed to demonstrate what the Blas Festival is all about – Community, Gaelic, Music and Youth – then this one fits the bill very well. This series of four concerts showcases the traditional talents of four fathers and sons, from Scotland and Ireland.

The third concert in the series was held in the Glenurquhart Village Hall, a real traditional hall which is still at the heart of many local community events, a hall where some of the cream of Scotland’s musical cultural heritage have played over the years.

First to take the stage were Dagger and Neil Gordon from Ross-shire. Mandolin player Dagger is well known as a tutor of the instrument as well as being prominent on the cèilidh scene, and has three sons, all musicians. He performed here with his youngest son, Neil, 16, on piano and fiddle.

They played a variety of sets, including local tunes such as ‘Ardross Hall’, and after a slightly nervous beginning, it was easy to see just how a family connection can make for a musically harmonious partnership. In fact, this was clear in all of the four partnerships – being a blood relation must make for some intuitive artistic connection too.

All of the artists involved were totally at ease with each other, feeding off the others emotional involvement in the music, whether tunes or songs. Also clear was the total relaxation, particularly amongst the younger half of the pairs, when it came to swapping instruments. All of the younger partners are multi instrumentalists and changed effortlessly between instruments, depending on what the arrangements required.

Gerry and Donal O’Connor, from Ireland, provided the audience with their customary style of immaculate phrasing and bowing interpretation from both on fiddle and piano, proving why they are two of Ireland’s most in-demand traditional duos.

Piping ace Duncan MacGillivray was accompanied by son Iain, on pipes, piano, fiddle and bodhran, although this writers’ favourite set was definitely the pipe duo, when at times it was hard to hear that there were in fact two sets of Highland pipes being played, so in tune with each other were father and son.

Seonaidh and Calum Alex Macmillan delivered (on Seonaidh’s 70th birthday) an effortless set of Gaelic song, including puirt a beul, the Skye love song ‘O Mhàiri, He Mhàiri’, cèilidh songs such as ‘Balaich an Iasgaich’, joined by an audience in fine voice and the fine traditional ‘Oran a Nèibhidh’.

The occasional gaps in technical mastery on the part of one or two of the younger performers will surely be filled in the coming years, with the pride and experience of the fathers to draw on.

The audience left Drumnadrochit secure in the knowledge that the future of these musical traditions are safe in the hands of this next generation of performers. Just one query. Family Ties? Not ‘Fathers & Sons”? I can think of several mother/daughter or father/daughter partnerships which could have been programmed. Next year, perhaps?

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2009

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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

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National Youth Pipe Band

A NEW departure for Blas, the Piping Gala was, understandably, not without a few teething problems. The evening began in stygian gloom as the lighting department of Eden Court appeared not to notice that the Bean-an-tigh, Anna Murray, was on stage to greet the audience in Gaelic and English, and announce the National Youth Pipe Band.

Ranging in age from 10 to 25, they are a non-competing outfit, which must be a relief to those who do compete as they displayed formidable competence. Very modern in outlook, they produced some terrific arrangements with plenty of swing, sass and verve, as well as demonstrating the necessary dignity and reserve for slow airs and marches.

Next up was James Macphee of Inverness, chosen by the Northern Meeting championships, and displaying not just great skill but a lovely understanding of the variations in tempo that contribute so much to great pibroch.

Anna Murray and Brian Ó hEadhra slowed the pace and provided a textural contrast with some lovely tunes for small pipes and guitar – a marriage made in heaven – and equally lovely songs, before the NYPB returned to raid the Gordon Duncan Tune Book and rock the stage again.

Following the interval, the Northern Constabulary Community Pipe Band, a local voluntary band set up in 2002 and supported by the Inverness Common Good Fund, took us back to traditional piping territory in a well-judged performance overseen by Pipe Major Kenny Watson.

Unlike their predecessors, they are a competing outfit who are beginning to collect some serious trophies on their collective mantelshelf. Then it was back to the future with rising stars Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson, accompanied, very sensitively, by Strathpeffer’s Matthew Watson on guitar. Ainslie and Henderson are renowned for their dizzying, dazzling mastery of flute, Highland, small and uillean pipes, and cascades of notes poured off the stage in a brilliant, sparkling set which set the Empire Theatre alight.

From the young Turks to the old(er) guard – the three Macdonald brothers of Glenuig (Angus, Iain and Allan) are living legends in the world of traditional music. They made it look so easy – always the mark of the master. Tunes from Cape Breton sat comfortably side by side with old Highland jigs, slow airs, classic combinations of March, Strathspey and Reel, and their own compositions.

The Community Pipe Band ended the night with some classics, including ‘Highland Cathedral’, ‘The Rowan Tree’, and ‘Scotland the Brave’, tunes which can easily sound hackneyed but were played with passion and dedication. Despite the small hiccups, it was a very nicely programmed evening celebrating the breadth and depth of music for the pipes, which are such an integral part of Gaelic culture.

© Jennie Macfie, 2009

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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

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Blair Douglas

ARTHUR CORMACK, the fear an tighe for this opening night concert in the Blas Festival, revealed that fellow Skyeman Blair Douglas had been talking about writing a new Gaelic Mass for years, but had actually started in earnest in 2006, with Highland 2007 as the intended target.

It didn’t quite work out that way, but the imposition of a deadline for Blas finally did the trick, and the composer not only produced the Mass, but four more settings of hymns and three instrumental pieces into the bargain.

One immediate problem, especially for those – as Arthur put it earlier – “not blessed with Gaelic” was that the programme gave no indication of the actual order of performance of the music, leaving us to founder a little until we got our bearings.

Before we reached that stage, though, five young musicians from the Caledonian Canal Ceilidh Trail performed an opening set of tunes and songs. Accordionist and lead musician Cameron Kellow, guitarist Alasdair Taylor, singer, whistle player and piper Rachael MacDonald, and fiddlers Ewan Smillie and Rachel Campbell gave a sparkling account of themselves in the course of four tune sets and two songs.

The youngsters have also recorded a CD, but were unable to sell it at the concert in the Cathedral (although how that differs from taking money for tickets is a theological nicety I won’t get into), but the disc can be bought by calling the sponsors of the Ceilidh Trail, British Waterways, on 01463 725500.

A short interval brought us to the main business of the evening, and what must be the first new setting of the Mass in Gaelic in some time (Irish musician Sean O Riada wrote several in Irish in the late 1960s, but I’d struggle to name the last Scottish one).

While Douglas composed all of the music, he recruited classically-trained pianist Andy Thorburn (of Blazin’ Fiddles fame) to do the orchestration, and also to conduct the performances. The music was written for a seven-piece band featuring violinists Sharleen Clapperton and Feargus Hetherington, viola player Mairi Campbell, cellist Harriet Davidson, Lillias Kinsman-Blake on flute, Patsy Seddon on clarsach and Iain MacDonald on both Highland and small pipes.

The vocal soloists were Maggie MacDonald and Paul MacCallum, and the choir the Inverness Gaelic Choir (Douglas had initially hoped to use different local choirs for the other two performances in Fort William and Portree, but the logistics proved too complex). A few first-night blips aside, the performers all rose to the challenge in fine style, ably directed by Thorburn.

Douglas had set six sections of the traditional Catholic Mass – Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, omitting the Benedictus – in a style that he likened in the programme note more to the folk masses of Ariel Ramirez than the full-blown classical versions of a Mozart or Faurè. [Blair Douglas tells us that the Benedictus is included with the Sanctus section, but was mistakenly omitted from the programme listing – Ed.]

In fact, he had created a lucid and often very beautiful synthesis of traditional and classical influences, with the former to the fore. They began with a pastoral setting of the hymn ‘Loinn an t-Saoghail’, then played two of the instrumental pieces before launching on the Mass proper, and finishing with the remaining three hymns and instrumental.

It remains to be seen whether Douglas’s hope that the Mass is taken up for devotional rather than concert use is fulfilled, but this was a satisfying launch.

The Blas Festival runs until 12 September.

© George Mackay, 2009

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The latest segment of the Inverness Old Town Art project also hits the streets this month, and I do mean that literally. Re-Imagining The Centre takes up where the original event of that name left off in 2006, and aims to both celebrate the creation of new outdoor public arts spaces in the old town, and to ask where the city might go from here in the field of contemporary art.

That question will be addressed – along with many others – in the associated Invernessian Clanjamfrey event, which incorporates a free public lecture by Johannesburg-born artist Neville Gabie in Inverness Cathedral.

Later in the month Inverness will also be the venue for the completion of the relocation of Highland Print Studio to its former premises in Inverness, newly refurbished for the purpose. The Studio has been rather hidden away in its current location on the Longman estate, and this return to a more visible presence is a welcome one.

Up in Shetland, meanwhile, they have two festivals running simultaneously in early September, the Wordplay and Screenplay events at the Islesburgh Community Centre in Lerwick. Caithness has its own Arts Drama Festival in the opening week of the month, with a new play from Grey Coast Theatre as its centrepiece.

The play’s author and founder of the company, George Gunn, has announced that he is standing down as Artistic Director of Grey Coast. His commitment to the company and to the theatre arts in the Highlands & Islands has been a huge one, and we feel sure that he will continue to make his trademark no-punches-pulled contributions in whatever form he now chooses. We wish both George and the shortly to be reconstituted Grey Coast well.

Over in the Isle of Bute, Puppet Lab’s Big Man Walking project  – one of the few successful contenders for the Scottish Arts Council’s initial batch of Inspire funding earlier this year – will rise from his slumbers and make his public debut. Although based in Edinburgh, Puppet Lab’s Symon Macintyre is from Nairn, and has a strong track record in both puppet-based and more conventional theatre, including The Big Shop project in Nairn and Inverness.
These are only some of the highlights of an arts scene that remains both busy and vibrant, despite the difficult economic circumstances currently prevailing. There is little of great cheer emerging to suggest an up-turn is imminent, and reports that Highland Council have more substantial cuts in the offing – and are considering changes to the licensing system that may price festivals like Tartan Heart out of the market – do nothing to lift the gloom.

Happily, as the foregoing – and only partial – list of impending highlights suggests, there are still many reasons to be cheerful, including the imminent release of a new album by Uist piping maestro Fred Morrison, the subject of this month’s interview. And our critics will be out and about as usual in the course of the month ahead, so keep checking back for news and reviews.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.

The MacDonald Brothers

Launched in 2005, the Blas festival is still a youngster by folk-scene standards, but the success of this year’s fourth programme clearly attests to its impressive strategic maturity. Even the barest logistical sketch of that programme would send most event planners running for the hills – or maybe away from them, in this case: 45 concerts over nine days, in almost as many different venues, scattered throughout the Gàidhealtachd from Durness to Kingussie, Wick to Glenuig.

That amounts to upwards of 200 individual performers, inbound from Canada, Ireland and England as well as all points Scottish, to be scheduled and transported, fed and accommodated, publicised and ticketed, provided with technical crew and PA kit, all jigsawed together across an area roughly the size of Belgium.

This awesome organisational feat is made possible by Blas’s parent partnership between the Highland Council, Fèisean nan Gàidheal and the Promoters Arts Network, with the latter two bodies, in particular, providing the backbone of local volunteers who run most of the gigs in conjunction with the festival’s co-directors, Brian Ó hEadhra and Donna MacRae.

While the bulk of the programme takes place in small rural halls – it being a founding Blas principle that Inverness doesn’t hog the limelight – this year also saw the festival’s first shows at the refurbished Eden Court theatre, as well as combined dinner/concert packages on both the Loch Ness cruiser Jacobite Queen, and a vintage steam-train chugging through the Cairngorms.

Also new for 2008 was an extensive education programme, additionally funded by the Highland Council, and the presence of a BBC TV crew, filming four concerts for broadcast on the new Gaelic digital channel. Overall ticket sales were well up on last year, with over half the shows selling out completely.

Blas’s primary artistic brief is the promotion of Highland and Gaelic culture, but with both being such a pervasive and vital presence within Scottish and/or Celtic music at large, this provides naturally for ample diversity in the line-up. With Scottish acts outnumbering international visitors by roughly five to one, though, this year’s bill vividly highlighted the stunning variety and calibre of music currently being made on our home-grown folk scene.

Two nicely contrasting instances of this were offered by a concert featuring the fabled MacDonald piping brothers of Glenuig, and by this year’s festival commission, Chasing the Sun, an hour-long ensemble suite composed by the young Wick pianist James Ross. In addition to their musical content, both also exemplified how Blas’s location and physical resources can contribute to a magically distinctive atmosphere.

The MacDonalds, for instance, took the stage in the loftily imposing yet intimate Great Hall of Dingwall’s Tulloch Castle Hotel, whose wood-panelled walls must surely be steeped in centuries of pipe and fiddle music. Performing mainly in trio formation, Angus, Allan and Iain delivered a magisterial display not only of the bravura technical prowess that’s made them such a tripartite byword for classic West Highland piping, but also of the inventiveness and imagination, in both their choice and interpretation of material, with which they uphold a living tradition.

Tunes rediscovered in dusty old collections sat alongside numerous fine original compositions – the latter being “made” rather than “written”, in the brothers’ preferred parlance, as in the Gaelic – with the pipes’ redoubtable force superbly tempered by radiant, cascading harmonies and intricately dovetailed ornamentation.

Besides Ross on piano, Chasing the Sun featured Scotland’s favourite nonconformist string quartet, Mr McFall’s Chamber, with Fraser Fifield completing the line-up on soprano sax, smallpipes and low whistle. Ross conceived the work as representing a journey along the north coast of Caithness and Sutherland, encompassing the twin motif of the sun’s diurnal and annual passage through the sky. Complementing the music was a collaboratively devised photographic backdrop by Sutherland-based artist Catriona Murray, potently capturing the region’s stark, rugged grandeur in its subtle gradations of light from dawn to dusk, winter to summer, and back again.

The duality of timelessness and constant change embodied by the sun’s progress – and equally inherent in the sea’s tidal motion, the patterns of the weather, or the journey from birth to death – was ingeniously articulated in the cyclical structures of Ross’s gorgeously melodic writing.

Each of the six short movements led us on an individual journey, shifting fluently through tempos, time signatures and moods, adding and subtracting layers of instrumentation, colour and texture. With subtle prompting from Murray’s images, the music’s alternating passages of tranquillity and turbulence, sadness and exultation, vividly conjured such splendours as a winter storm and a summer sunset; the quickening of spring or the majesty of the Northern Lights.

Deftly interwoven with traditional tune forms like marches, strathspeys and reels, the music completed its own journey with a hauntingly poignant lament, eerily evocative of the human toll exacted by this unforgiving coastline over the centuries.

My rapt enjoyment was again enhanced by the concert’s setting – in this instance, the Resolis Memorial Hall on the Black Isle, which is out of the way even by Highland standards (hence the show’s somewhat late start, after Ross got lost en route.) Not a frequent port of call, one imagines, for the piano-hire company who supplied the baby grand – but then Achiltibuie and Wick, where the piece had premiered the previous two nights, probably aren’t on their regular route either.

Thus does Blas give new meaning(s) to the notion of going the extra mile. It’s a rare treat in itself to witness the nativity of a wonderful new work, but to do so this far from anything resembling a madding crowd, in a cosy candlelit hall – and with local cheese and oatcakes on offer at the interval – made it all the rarer still.

The biggest event on this year’s bill, by various official measurements – not least a jam-packed capacity crowd – was Wednesday’s Eden Court show featuring Irish veterans The Chieftains. Given the status they still enjoy, it was indubitably something of a coup for Blas to bring these one-time seminal pioneers to the Highlands, where they hadn’t played for some 25 years.

There’s equally no denying, however, that they’re essentially a spent force nowadays, with the arguable exception of flute player Matt Molloy – who was absent on this occasion due to family illness. This left only three Chieftains proper – frontman Paddy Moloney on uilleann pipes and whistles, fiddler Sean Keane and singer/bodhrán player Kevin Conneff – whose prevailingly undistinguished contributions were thankfully outweighed by a typically extensive supporting cast.

Continuing the successful “collaborative” formula that’s long been replicated on the band’s albums, the show was liberally bolstered by a seven-strong line-up of younger/hotter talent, including the Scottish contingent of Gaelic singer Alyth McCormack, Anna Massie on guitar and Brian McAlpine on piano, plus the brilliantly inventive harpist Triona Marshall and three sensational step-dancers, one of whom doubles as back-up to Keane on fiddle.

It all added up to a mighty fine night, but the actual Chieftains’ active share in this sum was pretty minimal. A decidedly more positive, infinitely less cynical face of folk music was presented by first-half performances from the teenage Gaelic choir Canntaireachd, singing sweetly harmonised arrangements of traditional and contemporary material, and Ross-shire youth group the Kiltearn Fiddlers, displaying the form that recently won them the ensemble prize at the International Eisteddfod in Wales.

Further development of budding talent was abundantly in evidence at Friday’s Ceòlraidh concert in Strathpeffer, which saw 14 young musicians from the Fèis Rois programme, aged from 13 to 18, performing in turn with their own choice of mentor, following a period of intensive rehearsal together. As is increasingly the case on such occasions, the skill and confidence of virtually all the participants, together with their fluent Gaelic introductions, inspiringly underlined the zeal with which many in this generation of Highlanders are embracing their cultural traditions.

The format of the show, too, which included the likes of Charlie McKerron, Arthur Cormack, Andy Thorburn and Alison Kinnaird in the mentoring role, was an explicit affirmation of the music’s traditional transmission routes down the generations – even if a modern-day apprenticeship also includes such newfangled stratagems as microphone technique and amplification technology.

Both the breadth and depth of Scotland’s contemporary folk music was underlined a final time at Farr Hall on Saturday, where the show opened with yet another terrific teenage line-up, this time the five-piece who’ve spent the summer plying the Caledonian Canal Ceilidh Trail. The bill continued with the thrillingly adventurous, genre-busting interplay between the accordion/fiddle duo of Angus Lyon and Ruaridh Campbell, then the hypnotically limpid Gaelic singing of Jenna Cumming, before rounding off with Fribo’s quirky, winsome blend of Scottish and Nordic influences. Not a bad night’s work, really, for one wee country.

© Sue Wilson, 2008

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Julie Fowlis (Peter Urpeth)

THE GAELIC word ‘Blas’ means literally ‘taste’ or ‘flavour’, and so the Blas Festival aims to provide a real showcase of what epitomises Highland Culture and lifestyle. Taking place over eight days in September and covering all areas of the Highlands, the Festival provides a platform for young performers from both sides of the Atlantic alongside their more established role models, in both major Arts venues and smaller community halls, schools, boats and even planes.

In this, its fourth year, the Festival, a partnership between Highland Council, Fèisean nan Gaidheal and PAN (Promoters Arts Network), staged 45 events, most of them suitable for all ages, and many of the musicians involved also visited schools throughout the Highlands to deliver a strong educational programme of workshops and master classes.

This writer ended up in Ullapool on opening night at the Cèilidh Place, in the full to capacity Clubhouse in a traditional and very relaxed evening of Gaelic song, Highland music from the Fèis Rois Cèilidh Trailers, and the complete entertainment package that is Skippinish.

Blas na Fèise at a packed Eden Court on the first Saturday evening provided a suitable ‘taste’ of what would be found throughout the Highlands in the forthcoming days and nights, and comprised a programme of performances by participants of the Feisean, The Peatbog Faeries, Dàimh, Canadian songster and virtuoso guitarist J P Cormier, and piper Fred Morrison.

They were also joined outside the venue by colourful and stirring impromptu performances by the Inverness Gaelic Choir, singing for their supper to raise money to replace their lost Zoom air tickets, on their way to Celtic Colours in Cape Breton in October. [and the Choir will go to the ball – a successful conclusion has now been reached – Ed.]

The Fèis set included the commission from Blair Douglas, ‘Dealbh Dùthcha’, which will be going on to represent the Highlands at the Liverpool City of Culture celebrations later this year. It was no wonder that the packed programme created some fairly major logistical problems for the stage crew and unfortunately, the sound for the Feisean sets in particular was at times severely hampered.

However, the young Fèis professionals did not let these problems dampen their enthusiasm and they held their own amongst their more senior and experienced ‘stage fellows’. Arthur Cormack did a sterling job keeping the audience amused in the lengthy stage re-sets, even managing to teach the chorus for a Gaelic song. The audience was kept more than happy by all the performers and there was a real buzz on exit that if the rest of Blas provided entertainment such as this, then we were in for a fantastic fortnight.

Sunday saw Dornoch Cathedral as the setting for another very relaxed and warm Cèilidh type event, again almost full to capacity, with both visitors and local people filling the pews for the programme of Highland music from the young Fèis Chataibh Trailers, and Gaelic song and clàrsach and driving rhythms from the bows, guitars, keys and many other instruments of Gizzenbriggs, under the guidance of Debbie Ross.

A peaceful and yet exciting set of performances demonstrating all that is good on the scene of young Highland talent to day, in an acoustic setting unparalleled in the area.

All Blas events have Gaelic firmly at their heart and all audience members are provided with a small card of Gaelic words and phrases which are useful and appropriate for Highland music events. At each venue, the MC or Fear (or Bean, the female equivalent) an Tàigh will take the audience through some of the words and encourage them to use (or in some cases, even sing) them. A very useful and non-threatening introduction to Gaelic for many – and this is a key element of what may contribute to the uniqueness of Blas.

Sunday evening saw another capacity audience for Julie Fowlis, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and JP Cormier at the Phipps Hall in Beauly. Multi-instrumentalist and singer Cormier, accompanied by his wife Hilda on keys and vocals, again gave a lively, humorous and virtuoso set which had the audience in stitches more than once. It is to be hoped that Blas will be able to bring this artist back across the Atlantic at a future Festival. It is unlikely he will be unfamiliar to audiences here for long.

The afternoon saw the launch of Fowlis’s and Nic Amhlaoibh’s new joint Gaelic/Irish venture on CD, Dual, and their Phipps set showcased material from the album – a carefully researched and meticulously presented set of material from both sides of the Irish Sea. Joined on stage by Eamonn Doorley and Ross Martin, the set was enthusiastically received by the audience, and if the volume of CDs being sold at the door afterwards is anything to go by, then the artists will have no worries about the album reviews.

The Grand Hall in Tulloch Castle was the beautiful setting on Tuesday for an evening of Cape Breton music and fine Highland piping. The Hall was again packed to capacity and could have seated more if room was available. The evening opened with a set from fine traditional singer Lewis Mackinnon, self accompanied on guitar.

Born in Cape Breton, Mackinnon is well known throughout the Canadian Provinces, Scotland and Ireland, and his music covered a wide variety of song topics, filled with a rough passion and power which he hopes will inspire future musicians and singers to take the trouble to learn the song tradition of Cape Breton, which often tends to be in the shadow the stronger fiddle, piano and step dance culture of the Island.

He was followed by the vibrant and stunning fiddle, keyboards and step dancing of two of Cape Bretons’ youngest and brightest stars of the music scene, Andrea Beaton and Kimberley Fraser. Their consummate ease on the concert platform and obvious total mastery of their disciplines belie their age, and the audience were soon foot-tapping and had there been room, would have up joining in the seemingly effortless step dancing.

After the interval the three Macdonald Brothers from Uig, Angus, Iain and Allan, took to the stage for an exhibition of fine piping – small piping, Highland bagpiping and whistle. It is hard to believe that the trio have only been playing together for less than 15 years, their sets dovetailing superbly, incorporating all the intricacies and styles of piping, both traditional and contemporary.

Back to Eden Court on Wednesday night for the varied programme of music from both Ireland and Scotland. In the short first half, the young group of Gaelic singers from Inverness, Canntaireachd, gave some fine examples of Gaelic song, in unison and harmony, and they were followed by the usual fine standard of fiddling we have come to expect from the Kiltearn Fiddlers under the guidance of Alpha Munro.

Headlining after the interval, were the world renowned Chieftains from Ireland, who provided a complete and totally engaging entertainment package, complete with some surprises. The full house were treated to some of the finest Celtic music has to offer and the addition of some high kicking Irish dancing made for a complete experience.

Gaelic singer Alyth joined the group in some of the songs taken from the show they toured with together in the US at the beginning of this year. As Alyth herself put it, they ‘started the tour with ten people who didn’t know each other very well’ and ‘finished it by knowing each other too well’… The Chieftains set ended with most of the audience joining the dancers in a Breton-style dance through the auditorium.

One of the main last events of the festival was the Music Cruise down Loch Ness on the Jacobite Princess, with more than 30 diners being serenaded by the eclectic, evocative and addictive strains of Nuala Kennedy and her band for the evening. A real Cèilidh cruise with excellent dining and some of the best views in the Highlands, this is an experience which is set to become one of the favourite and most relaxing Blas events in future years.

Nuala Kennedy and her band, who were joined by the odd singer guest, entertained the diners on the cruise down to the stunning backdrop of Castle Urquhart, and more than one guest was heard to say that they hadn’t had such fun for many years. Originally from Ireland, Nuala has established herself firmly on the Highland music scene, winning much acclaim with her album The New Shoes, and it easy to see why with her unique blend of fiery Irish reels and jigs, melded with some subtler Scottish airs and all turned out in a passionate ‘cassoulet’ of contemporary yet truly traditional fare which ignites the feet to start dancing.

So ‘Blas’ truly is a Festival of ‘Taste’ in many directions – in music, in Gaelic, in food, in countryside and nature and in Community. Originally following the model of Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the Festival is now beginning to develop its own very unique character and personality.

Being firmly grounded in the Community, from which the roots of the music itself derive, it can only be hoped that it will be given the chance and support it needs to develop additional branches, providing a much needed boost to both the economy and the Arts scene at what is traditionally a sparse time of the year in the Highlands. Certainly as far as the Youth element is concerned we need have no worries that our future stars will be in short supply- they are already shining.

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2008

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• Blas Festival
• Fiona MacKenzie

Dàimh

TIME. There’s never enough of the stuff. And no more so than at this Taste of Blas concert, taking place for the first time at the recently redeveloped Eden Court in Inverness. Translated from Gaelic, “Blas” means “taste” or “flavour” and that’s exactly what we got; a brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it taster of what’s best in this year’s Blas programme.

It didn’t help that things didn’t get going until twenty-five minutes after the proposed kick-off time of 7.30pm. Still, when you have almost a hundred people to get on and off the stage with Usian Bolt-like rapidity, you can forgive the organisers and stage management for their elasticised watches, while long-suffering fear an tighe (compere), Arthur Cormack, did his best to fill the gaps.

When the stage curtain did eventually drop, the youngsters of Fèis a Bhaile and Fèis na h-Oige (for those who don’t know, that’s the two Inverness-based Fèisean skilled in traditional Gaelic music and arts) were unveiled to an almost packed house of friends, family and curious listeners. They then gave way to a slightly older group – a late addition to the programme – charged with performing a specially commissioned piece of music by Skye-based composer Blair Douglas.

Commissioned by Highland 2007 and first performed in that event’s closing gala at this venue in January, it will be Scotland’s contribution to the Project Of A Nation Project, one of the highlights of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture 2008 celebration. The youngsters were rehearsing this week in Inverness, thus their late addition to the show.

Featuring solo clarsach, step-dance, and duo bagpipe pieces, the two fifteen-minute-or-so segments from both groups of youngsters set the tone for the rest of the evening. Starting, as you might expect, rather tentatively, by the time it came to depart the stage, they seemed unwilling to leave. If there was a fault – and there weren’t many – it lay firmly at the feet of whoever was engineering the sound.

The large fiddle contingency struggled to be heard, and whoever forgot to switch the microphones on for the two lead female Gaelic singers in the first song of Dougals’s commission deserves to have his or her knuckles rapped. A few parents may have offered their services for that one. That said, the youngsters’ enthusiasm and finely-honed chops proved, if needed, that the future of Scottish traditional music is in firm hands.

Bringing the first half to a close, seasoned veteran JP Cormier and his wife, Hilda Chiasson-Cormier, brought a suitable dash of humour to proceedings. With time already tight, and, with the sound engineers struggling to get Cormier’s onstage monitors working correctly, the multi-talented songwriter from Cape Breton, wasted little time in relaying a joke of the toilet variety to keep everyone entertained.

Referring to his native land as “Scotland on acid” Cormier’s four-tune set was a bit of a mixed bag: acoustic and fiddle tunes punctuated by a rather self-indulgent classically-themed piece; imagine Paganini fighting it out with an errant bumble-bee and you’ll have some idea how it sounded. Fun, though.

After a quick dram and a toilet stop, it was back to the main event. Fred Morrison and Friends’ chirpy, largely undemanding twenty minute set passed off nicely, and without (thankfully) any major onstage sound problems. With guitarist Matthew Watson and bodhran player Martin O’Neill flanking the piper, what the trio lacked in numbers and presence they more than made up for with their full-grown frisky instrumentals; the last tune played so fast, it was as if Morrison was saying (to Cormier) ‘whatever you can do fast, I can do faster.’

With Dàimh (pronounced “da-eve”) up next, Arthur Cormack, took time out to teach the audience a few music-related Gaelic words while the band set up the stage. Cormack’s impromptu singing of Happy Birthday in Gaelic to a woman in the audicne (he had earlier led a chorus in English for Blair Douglas’s imminent brithday) wasn’t quite Cliff-Richard-at-Wimbledon, either, but you had to hand it to him for holding the evening together.

Hailing from Cape Breton, California, Ireland and the West Highlands of Scotland, Dàimh’s brand of high-energy, fast-flowing tunes was a mild taster to the fully-baked fusion sounds we were soon to receive courtesy of the Peatbog Faeries. A dour-looking bunch of laddies, as Morrison rightly indicated earlier, their set was simply a case of getting the head down and giving it “yee-hah.” With bagpipes, mandola, guitars and just about every other instrument competing for attention, just like every act on the night, it was a shame we didn’t get to hear more of them.

So, then, to the Peatbog Faeries. With dry-ice creeping up on them like some Kate Bush music video, it was left to the hard-living teuchtars to bring the evening to a thunderous close. There was no need to worry. Led by soon-to-be-departing fiddler, Adam Sutherland, the Peatbog’s all-too-brief appearance understandably never got beyond second gear. Although dominated by the band’s sickly synthesisers – both ill-fitting and dated sounding – the band nevertheless wasted little time in putting their collective pedal to the metal.

Sutherland’s ‘Invergarry Blues’ came across like the theme tune to some make-believe Scottish cop-show from the 1970s. But that was before the band’s monument to the Isle Of Rum festival, ‘Still Drunk In The Morning’, a self-explanatory account of the group’s high-jinks at last year’s unforgettable festival.

Then, just as you were getting into the groove, it was all over. In the blinking of an eye, the house lights had switched on, and everyone was in the car park and leaving for home before you could even think. Aye, it was a Blas(t) right enough, as those from Inverness-shire might say.

(Blas 2008 runs across the Highlands & islands until 13 September. Northings’ reviewers will be out and about at events all week – see their reports next week)

© Barry Gordon, 2008

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• Blas Festival 2008

ROB ADAMS caught up with pianist and composer JAMES ROSS ahead of the premiere of his new commission for this year’s Blas Festival

WICK-BORN pianist and composer James Ross will premiere his Blas 2008 commission, Chasing the Sun, in Achiltibuie, followed by a performance in his home town the following day, and a third one in Resolis. It is the festival’s second commission, following last year’s KIN from Duncan Chisholm.

Written for Ross himself on piano, the McFalls Chamber string quartet and Fraser Fifield’s soprano saxophone, whistles and smallpipes, the piece depicts a journey along the north coast of Caithness and Sutherland and uses the visual imagery of Catriona Murray’s photography as well as notes on the page to set the scene.

ROB ADAMS: You’ve taken inspiration from your home turf – and surf – in previous works, including your Celtic Connections 2005 New Voices Commission, An Cuan, and more recently in a piece for the Caithness Orchestra. Apart from being where you come from, what is it about the area that gets the creative juices flowing?

JAMES ROSS: Well, it’s not that I’m homesick, living in Edinburgh, although it might seem that way because I keep coming back like this. There’s something reassuring about places you’ve known all your life, obviously, but I find that every time I go back to Caithness I’ll see small differences. Maybe it’s something that I just didn’t notice before or maybe it’s just the way I remember certain things.

I find looking at the coastline particularly brings out musical ideas. There’s a drama in it visually and of course the sea suggests rhythm, and it just seems a constant challenge to try and evoke the landscape through music. I sometimes think that, if I was a writer or a poet, the area would still trigger ideas or make me want to describe it.

RA: The difference this time is that you’ve collaborated with a visual artist, Catriona Murray, whose photographs are an integral part of the presentation. What was it like having a creative partner and how did it work?

JR: It was really inspiring, actually. We spent about two weeks going round locations that I’d thought about, visiting at different times of day – because places look totally different at sunset compared to, say, the early afternoon, and we wanted to get the different shades and colours that creep in.

Catriona’s an amazing photographer with such a great eye for detail and moods and just spending time with her and chatting about what we both wanted to bring to the project was really, really useful from a practical point of view. If we’d worked completely separately, with Catriona going off and photographing things and the two of us sending each other e-mails or something, it still might have turned out okay, I don’t know. But this way was great and felt like a real collaboration.”

RA: But once you had the photographs, you were on your own.

JR: That’s true, but it was really interesting actually having something to compose with or to. You know, I could look at Catriona’s shots and be back in Caithness. So it wasn’t totally like I was facing a blank sheet of paper every time I sat down at the piano, although I actually quite like that, too, in a way. Every time you get asked to compose something, there’s the fear factor: am I going to be able to do this? And then once you get over that initial challenge, you feel better, more confident. It’s kind of like stage fright, I suppose.

RA: What form does the music actually take?

JR: It’s in six chunks, although I should probably say movements, of about ten minutes each, and each movement is based on a traditional-style melody that I’ve written. So we state the melody and then it develops. For example, it might start off as an air but we take it into different meters and although it’s essentially the same tune as we started out on, it could finish off as a reel. I did that to try and communicate the changes in seasons and how landscapes evolve through time.

RA: When you’re writing parts for other musicians, do you compose with their particular musical personalities in mind?

JR: As far as possible, yes. I mean, I hadn’t written for the pipes before this piece, so that was something I had to do a bit of homework on beforehand. But I love the sound Fraser has on the saxophone and the McFalls guys are a total inspiration. They seem to be able to move effortlessly between musical styles, and I love people who can do that because I don’t think anyone – or at least anyone I know – only listens to one style of music.

There’s a whole lot of stuff goes into my music, maybe not in an obvious way, but I listen to a lot of jazz pianists – Esbjörn Svensson and Keith Jarrett are two big favourites – and I think what goes in through your ears comes out in the notes you play or write. And the thing with the McFalls was that I knew that whatever I wrote, they’d be able to make it come alive.

RA: Did you listen to other string quartet music as you were writing this piece, by way of research?

JR: Oh, totally. Learn from the masters is good advice because I learned a lot from listening to Bartok’s string quartets. I love his folky stuff, too, and Ravel and Messiaen have been inspirations as well. It’s a constant study, composing, because ultimately, you’re on your own.

I went on a two-week composers course on Orkney with Sally Beamish and Alasdair Nicholson about three years ago, and that was brilliant because they gave such good feedback. When you’re working by yourself, you can really only trust your own judgement. So having someone who’s been there and at a really high level, like Sally, point out where you’re going wrong or what might or might not work on a particular instrument, is really invaluable.

RA: The piece you wrote on Orkney featured piano but you didn’t play on the performance; what did that feel like?

JR: It was great, no pressure to perform – except I still had to pray that I’d got the writing right. But that was really interesting. I wrote for string trio, clarinet and piano, and being able to sit and hear the whole thing, just as a member of the audience, allowed me to be more objective about my writing. I love being in the band, too, like I am with Chasing the Sun, because the music evolves as it gets played and I like being part of that. But I don’t know, I see big name composers sitting in the auditorium, listening to their pieces being played for the first time and I sometimes think, that’s what I should be aspiring to.

RA: So what’s next? Have you anything else on the stocks?

JR: I always have stuff that I’m working on. I like the line about inspiration striking when the cheque comes through the letter box but I really prefer to keep working on ideas and refining things because quite often something from the doodles and scrawls that I make between commissions comes in handy and can be reworked or developed. Or it might be that I can refine something from an orchestral arrangement into something smaller.

That happened in a couple of places with Chasing the Sun, in fact. What I’ve learned particularly from this piece is that this is really what I want to do. I still play on recording sessions – my girlfriend, Michelle [Burke, currently singing with Cherish the Ladies, also featured in the Blas line-up this year], has an album coming out and I play on that, and I played on the harper Ailie Robertson’s album, First Things First, earlier this year.

But it’s three years – nearly four – since I wrote An Cuan and I feel I’ve grown quite a bit as a composer since then, especially through doing other work like the Caithness Orchestra piece and the Sorley MacLean tribute I was involved in. So, yeah, more of the same, please, is what I’m after.

James Ross’s Chasing the Sun will be performed in the Coigach Community Hall, Achiltibuie (9 September); The Assembly Rooms, Wick (10 September); and Resolis Memorial Hall, Balblair (11 September). Blas 2008 runs from 5-13 September 2008.

© Rob Adams, 2008

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• Blas

ROB ADAMS catches up with fiddler DUNCAN CHISHOLM ahead of the premiere of his Blas commission, and found him in unusually hyperactive mode

DUNCAN CHISHOLM is a busy man these days. Between commitments with Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis’s band, his duo with singer-guitarist Ivan Drever and, of course, the ever popular Wolfstone, Duncan has been working on a major multimedia commission for the Blas festival, called KIN.

ROB ADAMS: Duncan, tell us how the new piece came about?

DUNCAN CHISHOLM: I’d been speaking to the people at Blas about writing an extended work and after a few weeks thinking about what I might do, I decided that I wanted to create something that was about more than just music.

It really all came from a recording that’s been in my family for a long time of my great grandmother talking about her life. She was born in 1879 and when she got married in 1900, she and my great grandfather moved to Strath Glass, way out in the wilds on the west side of Loch Affric.

I found how she described life at that time very interesting, not just from our own family’s perspective but from a social perspective too. So the idea was that I should I go and film myself at the house where she brought up my grandfather and use the recording along with music I would write to go with it.

It’s been the busiest year of my life – I’m dying to get back onto the golf course

RA: Did you find that having gained a sense of the place you were writing about helped when it came to actually composing the music?

DC: Absolutely. I came back from that trip really inspired in a few different ways. Firstly – and I found this with the other location work we went on to do, too – it’s so much easier to come up with music that suits the location when you’ve been there because you have something to relate to. You can really get a feel for the place and the people who lived there. Rather than writing melodies blind, you get something deeper, something with a real connection to that specific place.

The other main point was when I got back I thought, maybe we could expand this and get a wider picture of life in the Highlands. So I went to the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh where they have a vast library of recordings. The choice is so vast it’s daunting, but I was able to pick out a few people from different places.

In fact, the idea at that point was to work on six characters but in the end I had to restrict it to four because the material I was working with was so strong and I only had an hour to fill. To do the characters real justice, I felt we had to limit the number.

RA: Did you find other characters who, like your great grandmother, had connections with the current music scene?

DC: I did, yes. One of them was Rona Lightfoot’s grandmother, in fact. Rona’s a wonderful Gaelic singer and, of course, it was important that we had a strong Gaelic strain in the project. So I took Rona to South Uist where her grandmother was born four or five years after the American Civil War ended.

In the grand scheme of things, from then till now – about one hundred and forty years – is only the blink of an eye. Yet so much has changed in that time. I found that really fascinating and really quite sad in that Gaelic had gone from being this strong, vibrant language then to the fragile state it’s in now.

But the pleasing thing is that, with the wonders of modern technology, I was able to make a recording of a waulking song which has Rona’s grandmother and mother and Rona herself singing. One of the other characters is Effie Stewart, who is one of the last of the traveller Stewarts and who has inherited the mantle of hereditary storyteller – and the hundreds of stories that go with that title. Going back with her to the family’s campsites and hearing about their life on the road was really interesting and inspiring too.

RA: So what form will KIN take in the four concerts you’re doing for Blas?

DC: We’ll be using the films I’ve recorded and voice recordings but the music will be played live. I’m working with Brian McAlpine on keyboards and Marc Clement on guitar, just a trio, which allows the musicians to make their own input. I’ve written about twenty-odd pieces of music but I want them to live and develop as we do the tour.

RA: It sounds as if this project has really fired you up. Would you like to take it further in future?

DC: It’s been an incredible experience. I haven’t written all that many tunes in my life, certainly not compared to some other fiddlers who are incredibly prolific, and in Wolfstone the composition I’ve been involved with has been mainly songwriting. So this has been a lot of music for me to come up with, which was quite hard work, but rewarding.

It’s also been great to have complete control because I was involved in the Big Music project for the Highland Festival a few years ago and certain aspects of it were taken out of my hands. This is all me, down to the editing, everything, and that’s been really exciting.

I could easily go on to do KIN 2, 3 and 4 and that’s certainly something I’d like to do because I’ve really got the bug now. It just gives you a whole new perspective and I hope it opens some doors because I’d love to get involved more with film music and production work.

RA: How did you manage to fit all the location work and composing into your schedule because you seem to have been gigging like a madman too this year?

DC: It’s been the busiest year of my life – I’m dying to get back onto the golf course. I’d no sooner started work on KIN than I was off on a thirty-five date tour with Julie Fowlis and then there was a thirty date tour with Ivan [Drever].

So I think every day off I’ve had I’ve either spent with a fiddle in my hand or filming, editing, what have you. I’m not generally the sort of musician who plays every available second. I like to have a good balance in my life between playing music and doing things outside music. So this has been an exceptionally hard-working period.

RA: And what’s next, once you’ve completed the KIN dates for Blas?

DC: I’m planning another solo album and looking at recording that in October. I was very pleased with the first two and after getting into a kind of Spanish influence with the second one, The Door of Saints, I’d like the next one to be more Highland with Gaelic melodies, possibly using some of the music from KIN. It’s been five or six years since I made The Door of Saints, so it’s probably about time I did another one.

I’m also going out with Julie Fowlis’s band in November for quite a long tour as support to the American singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman. I love working with Julie because she’s such an amazing singer, her band are a great bunch of people, very professional, and I just have to turn up with my fiddle. I don’t have to be the organiser, for once.

RA: And lastly, what are Wolfstone’s plans?

DC: We’ve had a quiet year, certainly by our normal standards, due to personnel changes. I think we’ve only played six or seven gigs in 2007. But we’re coming back strongly again. We’re looking at 2008 as a busy year of touring and generally getting out there and playing for our fans again.

KIN can be seen at Grantown Grammar School on 3 September; Glen Urquhart Public Hall, Drumnadrochit, 4 September; Resolis Memorial Hall, 5 September; and Glengarry Community Hall, 6 September.

© Rob Adams, 2007

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• Duncan Chisholm
• Blas
• Wolfstone

Bruce MacGregor.

IT WAS A very merry crew of shipmates that arrived back at Tomnahurich Bridge on the penultimate night of Blas, three hours after setting sail for a musical dinner cruise down the loch to Urquhart Castle.

Marking something of a pilot venture by the festival into higher-priced, added-value events in unusual settings, to complement the main concert programme in local halls, the evening proved a resounding success all round, with a near-sellout audience, largely comprised of tourists, taking away some truly special memories from their night of Highland entertainment.

Given the numbers, the very layout of the Jacobite Queen’s interior, with fixed seating booths overlooking the water, encouraged conviviality from the outset, by dint of the need to share tables.

Despite – or even because of – the habit of British reserve, the buzz of fresh acquaintance was soon happily filling the room, lubricated by the choice of wines accompanying a sumptuous three-course buffet, created by former Orient Express chef Nick Aburrow and his team, from the Red Poppy in Strathpeffer.

Also smiling on the proceedings was a rare hiatus in this summer’s climatic tribulations, as sunlit evening gave way to still, balmy night, furnishing ample opportunity to admire the views from on deck between courses, and observe the intriguing business – for all us landlubbers – of negotiating locks.

It was a shrewd call to hold the music until after dinner, when everyone – including the performers – was well fed and watered. Blazin’ Fiddles founder Bruce MacGregor was the aptest of choices to lead the band, having released an entire album of tunes inspired by Loch Ness a few years back, and was flanked by the equally select talents of accordionist Sandy Brechin, singer/guitarist Brian Ó hEadhra – taking a boatman’s holiday from his role as Blas’s artistic director – and cellist Christine Hanson.

Squeezed as they were onto the tiniest of stages, they delivered a big, full, multi-layered sound, with MacGregor and Brechin forging a powerful frontline partnership, whether diving through the dance sets or throttling sweetly back for the airs and waltzes, over Hanson’s rich, woody, harmonic undertow and Ó hEadhra’s warm-hued chords.

Both the quality of their performance and their warm audience rapport ensured our full attention to both the quieter tunes and Ó hEadhra’s Gaelic songs, before a last blast of reels incited some in the audience to dance off their dinner with a Strip the Willow.

© Sue Wilson, 2007

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• Blas

Donald Shaw.

SO WHAT is there left to say about Donald Shaw’s traditional music extravaganza that has not been said before? Apart from the blue shoes on fiddle leader Lauren MacColl’s feet, that is!

We’ve seen what a fantastic piece of musical tapestry it weaves, we’ve seen the enthusiasm of the young participants, and we’ve heard some truly great European Celtic sound and rhythms since the performance of the first Harvest at Celtic Connections in 2004.

So, on its third outing, are we in danger of becoming complacent about the programme whilst accepting the great talent on offer? A resounding no is the answer. The Macdonald Highland Resort played host for the first time to what really has to be THE highlight of the Blas festival.

A reasonably sized audience was treated to some of the best traditional music on offer anywhere in Scotland, if not the world, and when you consider that the age range of the youngsters performing stretches from 13 upwards, it becomes all the more astonishing that they manage to sustain the level of musical drive and enthusiasm from the first to the last set.

Donald Shaw must yet again be congratulated for managing to marry the best of Scottish youth music with the cream of professional talent from across Europe, in a combination that continues to stun and delight.

Alongside such world class musicians as Mike McGoldrick, fiddlers Aidan O’Rourke and Gordon Gunn, (standing in for Harvest veteran Charlie McKerron, out of action with a broken arm), Capercaillie’s Ewan Vernal on bass, James Mackintosh on drums and percussion, and Ross-shire’s own Anna Massie, more than 20 young music students from Feis Rois presented a programme of sets and songs which would easily sit on any world music stage.

They were joined by Brittany’s outstanding flautist Jean-Michelle Veillon, open-tuning guitar specialist Gille le Bigot (also from Brittany), and Guillermo Fernandez, who accompanied the truly passionate singing of Galician singer Guadi Galego.

Through the sets there was certainly no sense whatsoever of déjà vu – the audience was just drawn into the melting pot of musical melisma, which instantly transforms music into a flowing and fluid art form.

The Harvest ‘pipe band’ of seven young pipers and two snare drums, gave heart stirring performances of tunes such as the traditional Gaelic ‘Tha mi sgith’ and then later the moving ‘Sleeping Tune’ from the pen of the late Gordon Duncan.

As Gaelic is at the heart of the Blas festival it was particularly gratifying to be treated to fine Gaelic vocal performances from three young Gaelic singers, two of whom, Deidre Graham and Katie Mackenzie, are Harvest veterans, now delivering performances of such high calibre and confidence that will stand them in fine stead in their chosen careers, and young Mischa Macpherson, who will assuredly become a firm feature of future events such as Harvest.

In particular, the audience relished the stunning performance of Donald Shaw’s own original Harvest song ‘Luadh an Toraidh’ with the girls being joined by Irish singer Karan Casey and Guadi once more.

The most important and stunning aspect of Harvest is the verve and enthusiasm with which the young players attack their music – playing with passion beyond their years and with incredible skill and control. Without exception, they display commitment to a tradition they are obviously proud to uphold and when led by someone such as Donald Shaw, who brings the wealth of experience and talent of someone who has been leading the way in Scottish traditional music for more years than he would probably care to think about, they can not but succeed once more.

The evening was finished with a set of stunning Gaelic puirt a beul from the girls and Karan Casey, building up to a climactic explosion of driving cross-rhythms on all instruments which left us wanting to dance in the aisles. A highlight was the stunning flute duet between Mike McGoldrick and Jean- Michelle Veillon, then overtaken by the fiddles of Gordon Gunn and Aidan O’Rourke.

Many of the audience were heard to say on leaving that ‘That was the best Harvest yet.’ And may we see many Harvests more. Taing mhòr gu Feis Rois agus Domhnull Seadha ‘son oidhche sonraichte! Thank you to Feis Rois and Donald Shaw for a special evening.

Fiona MacKenzie is the Mhairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellow

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2007

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TMSA Young Trad Tour 2007.

PROMOTED by the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland, this annual roadshow of emerging folk talent has become a valuable extension to Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition, decided each January at Celtic Connections.

The winner and runners-up gain both the experience and the exposure of a professionally organised three-week tour, meanwhile offering audiences up and down Scotland the proverbial chance to catch tomorrow’s stars today.

Further enhancing the benefits for all parties, the show is much more than the series of individual turns that might be expected. This opening night of the tour, one of three Highland dates at the Blas festival, followed several days’ intensive rehearsal, under the musical direction of singer, harpist and Unusual Suspects co-founder Corrina Hewat, to create a fully-fledged concert set, albeit one that successively highlighted each performer’s contribution.

Reunited from that close-fought night at the start of the year were the eventual victor Catriona Watt, an 18-year-old Gaelic singer from Lewis, and her five fellow finalists: Mike Vass (fiddle), Calum Stewart (flute), Calum MacCrimmon (pipes/whistles), Martin Hunter (accordion) and Darren MacLean (Gaelic song).

They were joined by last year’s competition winner Shona Mooney (fiddle), plus accompanists Innes Watson (guitar) and Mhairi Hall (piano/flute).

The set comprised a mix of full-band numbers, both songs and instrumentals, with others featuring fewer performers, such as a beautifully interwoven jig set solely on flutes and whistle, from Stewart, MacCrimmon and Hall, and a stark yet lyrical solo slow air from Sliabh Luachra by Hunter.

The larger ensemble pieces displayed impressive ambition in both choice of material (including a good many originals by band members) and style of arrangement, with an equal preponderance of tricksy asymmetric time-signatures and syncopated, groove-based backing – if anything, perhaps, a slight over-preponderance.

Arresting and exciting as these Balkan-style and/or jazzy rhythms are, a few more straight-ahead jigs and reels might have made for a better balance, enabling both the band and the show as a whole to settle and gel more easily.

For the most part, though, a degree of tentativeness and the odd glitchy moment can readily be ascribed to first-night raw edges, which will surely smooth themselves out over subsequent gigs. And there’s no disputing the calibre of the musicians involved, underscoring the competition’s credentials as a crème de la crème affair.

On the vocal front, Watt proved herself a worthy winner, her gorgeous velvety timbre and delicate phrasing reminiscent at times of Karen Matheson, though with a higher, brighter upper register, while MacLean adds another name to Scotland’s fast-growing contingent of outstanding young male Gaelic singers, his warm-grained, pliant tones allied with tremendously assured delivery.

Each of the six, though, shone in turn, from MacCrimmon’s brilliantly fiery, fleet-fingered piping to Hunter’s soulful, sinewy button-box tunes; Vass’s edgy, quicksilver vitality to Stewart’s spirited, adventurous blowing.

Competitions don’t always get a good press in the folk world, and there are valid arguments against them, but as an illustration of how their rewards can extend far beyond the individual prize, the Young Trad tour makes a winningly persuasive case.

(The TMSA Young Trad Tour runs until 28 September – see TMSA link below for details)

© Sue Wilson, 2007

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Ashleigh Bell.

THE FIRST of two bagpipe-centred events at this year’s festival – prior to the following night’s tribute show for the late Gordon Duncan at Tulloch Castle – this one-off Blas concert focused on the great Highland pipes, as wielded by two of the instrument’s greatest contemporary exponents, Angus MacDonald and Duncan MacGillivray, along with one of its brightest rising stars, Ashleigh Bell.

Bell, whose recent competition wins include the Gold Medal at last year’s Cowal Highland gathering and the Scottish Junior Championships at Carnoustie, is a willowy slip of a thing who looks as far from the customary image of a Highland piper as it’s possible to imagine.

Which didn’t stop her opening and closing the proceedings with admirable assurance and panache, despite her pipes displaying a certain amount of traditional temperament in matters of tuning and timbre. Clean, crisp articulation and solidly measured rhythms were balanced with flowing momentum and a vivacious lightness of touch, creating plenty of space for nimble ornamentation.

“Oh, to be young again and have fingers like that,” enthused Rona Lightfoot, the evening’s MC, who – as one of Scotland’s pioneering female pipers – must have derived a particular satisfaction from seeing the torch so securely passed on.

Both of the programme’s remaining performers are famed not only for their numerous premier-league successes across the competition circuit, but for their wider vanguard contributions to Scotland’s music in expanding the bagpipes’ repertoire and popularising them with new audiences.

As a member of the Battlefield Band from 1978 until 1983, Duncan MacGillivray was among the earliest pipers to appear in a folk-group context, and remains an inspirational figure to many a young player today.

His choice of material, including such venerable tunes as ‘The Battle of Harlaw’ and others sourced from numerous different name-checked localities, conveyed a potent sense of the bagpipes’ intricately-woven relationship with Highland history and landscapes, enhanced by his playing’s implacable muscularity, majestic stateliness and buoyant rhythmic lift.

The World War I lament ‘Festubert’, meanwhile, commemorating a battle in which two of MacGillivray’s great-uncles died, highlighted the instrument’s timeless capacity for capturing the inexpressible.

As ever, an especially warm welcome was reserved for Dr Angus MacDonald, the eldest of Glenuig’s celebrated fraternal triumvirate, and – as original co-instigator of the Fèis movement, from its earliest beginnings in Barra in 1981 – arguably deserving of substantial credit for Blas’s very existence.

He underscored his musical allegiance to both past and present with a set featuring contemporary compositions from well beyond the conventional piping repertoire, including tunes by fiddlers Jerry Douglas, from Cape Breton, and Chicago’s Liz Carroll, as well as a stirring tribute to the legendary bard Ruraidh Dall – who, MacDonald observed, would surely be rolling in his grave at the sight of Elton John adorning the Highland 2007 brochure: a comment that earned some of the night’s warmest applause.

The mighty power and awesome technical fluency of MacDonald’s playing were allied with an unerring grasp of each tune’s overall shape and movement, as well as utmost sensitivity to colour and harmony. It seemed a shame not to hear all three players together, which would have made a fitting finale to the show, but there was certainly no quibbling with their individual performances.

© Sue Wilson, 2007

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The Hendersons (l-r: Megan, Ewan, Ingrid, Allan) .

YOU MIGHT be forgiven for thinking that a mid-week evening concert in early September in the midgie ridden Highlands might not be the most attractive option for many, but this concert proved a great attraction to both locals and visitors alike, and the beautiful old village hall was packed to the gunnels.

This was a celebration of Cross-Atlantic Common Culture, illustrating the true meaning of the Gaelic word ‘Clan’ – children, family and community. The first half of the evening was led by the Clan MacNeil from Barra Glen near Iona, on Cape Breton. Rod C. MacNeil is one of Cape Breton’s greatest tradition bearers and a truer Highland Gentleman you never did meet.

Now in his 83rd year, Rod kicked off the set with a gentle Gaelic song, one which we know well here, ‘Eirich ‘s tiugainn leam’. Yes, there are more “beautiful” Gaelic singers around, but there are not so many who sing the songs with the genuine feeling that comes from the heart. You know when you listen to such singers as Rod C Macneil that you are getting ‘the real thing’.

Rod then gave the stage to his son Paul who is one of Nova Scotia’s best-known pipers. Again Paul has good honest genuine musicianship in his fingers, tunes played with feeling, learned at his fathers’ knee. Paul’s wife Tracy Dares is one of Nova Scotia’s’ finest Cape Breton-style pianists, and together the couple gave us some fine sets of tunes on piano and fiddle, a combination not so often heard here.

Paul then joined his father in some old Gaelic love songs, relating them to the audience with stories of trees and birds and ships going aground – not so different from Scottish Gaelic love songs! Tracy also gave a fine demonstration of Cape Breton step dancing to the pipes.

The Macneils gave us a genuine, fine set of very traditional Cape Breton music, music which has the sense of family and community imbued in it.

This sense of clan or kin was only strengthened by the following performance by the Clan ‘ic Eanruig – or the well known Henderson Family from Fort William. Brought up in the heart of traditional music since they were all babies, this ensemble featured the two youngest (of seven) Hendersons, Ewan and Megan, and the two eldest, Allan and Ingrid.

They gave us sparkling sets of tunes and songs on clarsach, fiddle, piano, pipes, whistle and box, with each member playing at least 3 instruments or singing during the course of the set [Ewan modestly restrained himself to all two instruments – Ed.].

Stories from Allan kept the audience amused whilst technical problems were fixed, in that familiar, easy manner which can only come from someone who was born to perform, with the complete absence of arrogance found in many such talented performers.

All four possess fine voices, and Megan in particular gave us some lovely Gaelic songs including the traditional Skye song ‘Oran do Iain Bhreac MacLeoid’. The four musicians all totally complemented each other, not one over shadowing the others, while beautiful fiddle playing from Allan demonstrated why he is deservedly regarded as one of Scotland’s finest young fiddlers.

When we are shown what true musicianship such as this is like, we are left feeling totally satisfied and happy that the future of Gaelic and Highland music and song is very safe in the hands of such young people as the Hendersons.

As Ingrid rightly pointed out, Allan and herself have not yet allowed Ewan and Megan to produce CDs – they are too worried that the youngsters would outsell their better-known older professional siblings!

The Macneils and the Hendersons joined together in a ceilidh-style finale, with songs, step dance and tunes. A truer image of Clan could not be found – separated by the ocean these two clans may be, but they maintain a unified and true spirit of Clan culture and kinship.

Fiona MacKenzie is the Mhairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellow

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2007

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Kathryn Tickell (photo - Derek Maxwell).

IF ANYONE appreciates music with a sense of place, it’s the Gaels, which would be one reason for the warm reception earned here by Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell, appearing at Blas with her regular three-piece band.

Almost the entire set had its roots in her home turf in north-east England, from venerable clog-dance tunes she learned as a child from various musical uncles, to her own celebrated compositions, many of them – as with the traditional material – named for local landmarks and beauty-spots.

The descriptive powers of Tickell’s writing were brilliantly epitomised in three such descriptive pieces. Firstly ‘Hareshaw Burn’, an aptly capricious imitation of a river’s alternately placid and boisterous course as it wends towards the sea, captured via adroit switches of tempo, and featuring the pipes at their most winningly effervescent.

It was followed by the magnificent ‘Yeavering’, which saw Tickell partnering her brother Peter on fiddle, evoking the austere grandeur of Northumbria’s big hills and skies in a blend of almost classical stateliness and Nordic-hued lyricism, awash with rich, ringing harmonies.

‘Music for a New Crossing’, co-written with jazz saxophonist Andy Sheppard, was part of a piece commissioned for the opening of Gateshead’s Millennium Bridge, and vividly conjured the ebulliently hectic bustle of a newly re-energised city – in adroit contrast to the opening waltz with which it was paired, the lovely pastoral paean ‘Rothbury Hills’.

Besides Tickell’s sublime prowess at the helm, the band’s ensemble work – also featuring Julian Sutton on melodeon, and Ian Stevenson on guitar and acoustic bass – was a model of close-knit empathy, simultaneously highlighting their consummate individual fluency amidst an array of subtly jazzy tonalities and inventive rhythmic twists. Sheer class, through and through.

With MC / Fear an Taigh Arthur Cormack having firstly warmed up the sellout crowd by instructing the non-initiated in a smattering of Gaelic, taken from the phrase-cards distributed around all Blas gigs – at which all announcements and introductions are also made bilingually – the show was opened by a trio of pupils from the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music at Plockton High School.

Accordionist Roya MacLean, fiddler Coralea Mackay and pianist Shona Masson delivered a short but impressively accomplished set, testing themselves to the max with some nifty arrangements of tunes by Gordon Duncan, Michael McGoldrick, Donald Shaw and Liz Carroll.

The odd wobble and waver betrayed an understandable degree of nerves, but in the main their performance offered yet more exhilarating proof that while youth – according to the adage – may be wasted on the young, traditional music nowadays certainly isn’t.

© Sue Wilson, 2007

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Dàimh.

WE’VE SEEN a bit less of Dòchas lately, since two of their number, Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis and Shetland fiddler Jenna Reid, have been forging ahead with their solo careers, but the formerly all-girl outfit (prior to the arrival of bodhràn player Martin O’Neill) sounded in fine fettle opening this Blas double bill.

The sweetness stereotypically expected of female-dominated groups has always been one component of Dòchas’s sound, as highlighted by the radiant layers of harmony that arrayed a couple of slower Gaelic songs, immaculately led as ever by Fowlis.

There was also plenty of thoughtful attention to detail in the alignment of colours and textures within their extensive instrumental armoury, completed by Carol-Anne Mackay on pipes and accordion, Eilidh Macleod on clarsach and Kathleen Boyle on keyboards and accordion, as well as Fowlis’s whistles and pipes.

But Dòchas can give it laldy, too, and did so with relish in an abundance of jigs and reels, with Reid’s livewire fiddle and Mackay’s authoritative piping at the heart of the charge. The finer points of their playing were sometimes lost amid undue haste, but shone through in the more measured weight and swing of midtempo numbers like ‘The Stirlingshire Militia’.

When it comes to fast’n’furious dance tunes, though, few do it better than Dàimh, who somehow contrive to combine blistering pace with both fearsome precision and dazzling heat-of-the-moment flourishes.

The central partnership between fiddler Gabe McVarish and piper Angus MacKenzie, in particular, is a marvel of near-telepathic synergy, and never more so than on this occasion, while guitarist Ross Martin, Colm O’Rua on mandola and banjo, and James Bremner on bodhràn dovetailed the melodies with spring-loaded grooves and fiendishly agile cross-rhythms.

The dynamic and tonal range of their sound is another key asset, building in plenty of contrast and arresting harmonic colour – and with the recent addition of Calum Alex MacMillan to the line-up, this instrumental prowess is now complemented by one of today’s finest young Gaelic singers.

His voice’s beguiling blend of gentleness and strength, warmth and yearning was showcased in a diverse selection of material, from a haunting lament for a dead bride to a rousing diatribe against the evils of butter. The inclusion of vocal material also opened up fresh opportunities for MacMillan’s bandmates, who framed his singing with artfully imaginative yet sparse, always apposite accompaniment.

© Sue Wilson, 2007

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Caledonian Canal Ceilidh Trail.

BY COMMON consent, one of Gaelic music’s greatest current strengths is the quantity and quality of young talent it has nurtured over recent years, a flowering now annually showcased through the numerous “Cèilidh Trail” concerts, featuring such budding performers, which are staged around the Highlands each summer.

As well as those promoted by the Fèis movement itself, this year’s programme has again included the Caledonian Canal Cèilidh Trail, sponsored by British Waterways, whose six participants – all aged under 20 – opened this sellout show on the first night of Blas with terrific gusto and verve.

Among a line-up that also included fiddlers Anne Nicol and Rachel Campbell, singer and piper Rachel MacDonald, Alasdair Taylor on guitar/mandolin and accordionist Cameron Kellow, perhaps their key secret weapon was percussionist Ross Anderson, sitting on a customised cajon, or Cuban percussion box, complete with built-in snare.

The emphatic force and booming resonance of his snappy, deftly-patterned grooves, ranging in style from funk to reggae, lent exhilarating extra muscle to his bandmates’ fiery attack in the dance sets, while forming a richly textured rhythm-section partnership with Taylor’s guitar.

The sextet’s wealth of youthful energy built up a splendid head of steam through the set, which also featured ample dynamic contrast, as with MacDonald’s opening solo rendition on the pipes and her vibrantly assured Gaelic singing, the latter adorned with delicate backing harmonies by Nicol and Campbell.

Despite having started life when most of their support band were barely out of nappies, Shooglenifty can still show the youngsters a thing or several when it comes to keeping it fresh. Rarely happier than when playing a rural Highland hall, the veteran creators of “acid croft” steered their characteristically wayward yet unerring course between intricately meshed precision and free-ranging adventure, sublime melodic sweetness and bare-knuckle aural assault.

Much of the set-list comprised tracks from their latest album, Troots, among them a brilliantly out-there rampage through ‘The Eccentric’, complete with otherworldly sampled vocals from Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq.

The similarly genre-melting ‘Trim Controller’ progressed from mellow, moody opening chords, beneath a wistfully lilting jig, via a nimble African-hued guitar solo from Malcolm Crosbie, before finishing with the crunching central riff from the Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’, sawed from the strings of fiddler Angus Grant.

As ever, though, the band’s distinguished back-catalogue also featured prominently, including the haunting twists and turns of ‘Two Fifty to Vigo’, all the way from their first album, Venus in Tweeds, and still as lovely as ever, and the eponymously cosmopolitan ‘A Fistful of Euro’, introduced by Grant as “a Highland/Tasmanian bellydancing crossbreed”: a sound, as with virtually all of Shooglenifty’s oeuvre, you’re unlikely to hear from any other band.

© Sue Wilson, 2007

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