Had a rather nice evening last night at Montrose Folk Club. The guests were Fiona Hunter on Vocals, Cello and Shruti Box accompanied by Mike Vass on Tenor Guitar, Fiddle and Guitar.
They opened the set with the old Robert Tannahill chestnut "The Braes of Gleniffer" and it was a fine assured version. They moved on immediately with "The Cruel Mithir".
The "Cruel Mithir" is a hard song to get across. It is lengthy and deals with weighty themes of infanticide and supernatural haunting and damnation. Many times I have heard it attempted and the effect has been one that trivialises and makes one want to snigger. Not so this version.
The interplay between the Fiddle and the muted Cello between the verses called to mind the strings in the shower scene of Psycho. The singing was clear and told the story in a way that seemed effortless. The effect was chilling.
The mood was lightened by the "Laird O' Drum" his courting described in all its tragicomic glory. Ms Hunter acknowledged the influenced of the late Lizzie Higgins in her reading of "Young Emslie", another muckle sang of murder and execution. A wonderful telling of the story.
The show brought to mind Dick Gaughan's notion of musicians who want you to listen to them or musicians who want you to listen to what they have to say. Dick clearly preferred the latter category and so do I. I am happy to include Fiona Hunter in that kind.
Hunter & Vass are touring in support of the former's first solo album. Well worth the seeing and well worth the investment. It is a pleasure to see an act at a Folk Club that actually treats the tradition with some respect. This is rather more of a novelty than one would hope for.
After the show last night, this afternoon brought the funeral of a friend's mother. Walking into the kirk in Ellon I found myself listening to the sounds of the Strathmore Ceilidh Band's album, "Advance & Retire".
It was an odd feeling to listen to one's own recording at a funeral of someone who enjoyed listening to the Band's music. Very moving in a way I never experienced before. Yet I must have heard that recording a hundred times.
This evening I am heading out for a tune in a local pub. That will be a different musical experience again, a more active one hopefully. I am never comfortable with simply consuming music.
Will it be the polished performance of last night? No, but it will fill a different musical need and be able to provide different musical expressions and joys. There will be sausage rolls provided by the pub as well. They are always fine.
Finally for this weekend before I jet off to Barcelona for a break I will be playing in a Ceilidh Band setting for a birthday party in Dundee tomorrow evening. That will be fun in a different way I hope. Unlike a wedding where people are often in attendance out of familial duty, birthday parties are usually attended from a sense of conviction. This often means a more intense desire to enjoy the event. We shall see.
From my point of view there are anxieties stemming from unfamiliar band members but these are easily sorted out. One of the guys in tomorrow night's three piece I have not played with for several years. I know he can do the business though. I hope he knows the same about me.
Four very different musical experiences from passive listening to active participation to direction in the space of a few days. This reflects the power of music to involve people in so many different ways. Music literally does belong to everyone.
Whether you play an instrument or sing or simply listen more or less actively, there is a music for you. It doesn't matter much what music does it for you either. The benefits of it can be immense in terms of our well-being. Music rewards us in ways that are profound and moving but this effect doesn't rely on anything other than the attention we pay it.
Music that engrosses us, music that speaks to us, that calls forth in us anything from joy to sadness and every other human feeling. That kind of music makes us richer people. Richer in our emotional vocabulary. Richer in the things that make us human.
This didn't set out to be a piece of music criticism or a concert review. It was inspired in some respects by the way in which popular music criticism these days speaks about everything EXCEPT music. I can learn about the relationships of musicians, their drug habits, their clothes, their favourites foods and colours.
I will very seldom be able to read about their music though or what about it would move me or make me enjoy it, or what it might make me feel or how it goes about doing that.
That makes me feel a bit cheated really.
They opened the set with the old Robert Tannahill chestnut "The Braes of Gleniffer" and it was a fine assured version. They moved on immediately with "The Cruel Mithir".
The "Cruel Mithir" is a hard song to get across. It is lengthy and deals with weighty themes of infanticide and supernatural haunting and damnation. Many times I have heard it attempted and the effect has been one that trivialises and makes one want to snigger. Not so this version.
The interplay between the Fiddle and the muted Cello between the verses called to mind the strings in the shower scene of Psycho. The singing was clear and told the story in a way that seemed effortless. The effect was chilling.
The mood was lightened by the "Laird O' Drum" his courting described in all its tragicomic glory. Ms Hunter acknowledged the influenced of the late Lizzie Higgins in her reading of "Young Emslie", another muckle sang of murder and execution. A wonderful telling of the story.
The show brought to mind Dick Gaughan's notion of musicians who want you to listen to them or musicians who want you to listen to what they have to say. Dick clearly preferred the latter category and so do I. I am happy to include Fiona Hunter in that kind.
Hunter & Vass are touring in support of the former's first solo album. Well worth the seeing and well worth the investment. It is a pleasure to see an act at a Folk Club that actually treats the tradition with some respect. This is rather more of a novelty than one would hope for.
After the show last night, this afternoon brought the funeral of a friend's mother. Walking into the kirk in Ellon I found myself listening to the sounds of the Strathmore Ceilidh Band's album, "Advance & Retire".
It was an odd feeling to listen to one's own recording at a funeral of someone who enjoyed listening to the Band's music. Very moving in a way I never experienced before. Yet I must have heard that recording a hundred times.
This evening I am heading out for a tune in a local pub. That will be a different musical experience again, a more active one hopefully. I am never comfortable with simply consuming music.
Will it be the polished performance of last night? No, but it will fill a different musical need and be able to provide different musical expressions and joys. There will be sausage rolls provided by the pub as well. They are always fine.
Finally for this weekend before I jet off to Barcelona for a break I will be playing in a Ceilidh Band setting for a birthday party in Dundee tomorrow evening. That will be fun in a different way I hope. Unlike a wedding where people are often in attendance out of familial duty, birthday parties are usually attended from a sense of conviction. This often means a more intense desire to enjoy the event. We shall see.
From my point of view there are anxieties stemming from unfamiliar band members but these are easily sorted out. One of the guys in tomorrow night's three piece I have not played with for several years. I know he can do the business though. I hope he knows the same about me.
Four very different musical experiences from passive listening to active participation to direction in the space of a few days. This reflects the power of music to involve people in so many different ways. Music literally does belong to everyone.
Whether you play an instrument or sing or simply listen more or less actively, there is a music for you. It doesn't matter much what music does it for you either. The benefits of it can be immense in terms of our well-being. Music rewards us in ways that are profound and moving but this effect doesn't rely on anything other than the attention we pay it.
Music that engrosses us, music that speaks to us, that calls forth in us anything from joy to sadness and every other human feeling. That kind of music makes us richer people. Richer in our emotional vocabulary. Richer in the things that make us human.
This didn't set out to be a piece of music criticism or a concert review. It was inspired in some respects by the way in which popular music criticism these days speaks about everything EXCEPT music. I can learn about the relationships of musicians, their drug habits, their clothes, their favourites foods and colours.
I will very seldom be able to read about their music though or what about it would move me or make me enjoy it, or what it might make me feel or how it goes about doing that.
That makes me feel a bit cheated really.
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