Allan MacDonald
Griogair Labhruidh
John McSherry
Niteworks with Donald MacDonald & the Islands
Òran Mór • January 21, 2012 DONALD MacDonald and the Islands are a young collective fronted by singer songwriter Donald, son of Runrig’s Calum MacDonald. Their songs are in English and Gaelic, supported by
Stewart Hardy
Laurence O’Toole in a way that I don’t think traditional Scottish music has influenced the repertoire of any Scottish pipe bands who tend to only play tunes writ- ten specially for the Highland bagpipe. Most of the concerts I went to during Celtic Connections featured top pipers from the Highland, Border, Northumbrian, Irish, Galician, Catalonian and Breton (and I am sure others as well) piping traditions. Disappointingly, I saw very few Highland pipers at these concerts. I am sure there are many reasons why pipers have missed out on this fantastic festival, but I hope that my review of a few of the performances will inspire you to take in an event or two next year. Celtic Connections is an annual reunion to cel- ebrate the friendships made and sustained through music. It is an 18-day marathon of meeting up with good friends, enjoying terrific music, and dare I say, a pint or two. The festival is probably the only envi- ronment where ‘good’ musicians don’t cut it, as it is renowned for exposing exceptional talent and there was plenty of it in all forms of piping.
The 19th festival seemed to be the most success- ful yet. Speaking to friends who have been out and about defying the January blues, music venues have been sold out and restaurants buzzing. To get a ticket for the festival club at the weekend required either extraordinary organisational skills or a stroke of luck. Now in my sixth year of attendance at Celtic
PIPING TODAY • 24 Frank McLaughlin
Connections, the festival continues to grow in size and evolve in musical genres included in the programme. Throughout, I have heard many criticisms of the
rather tenuous “Celtic” connections of some of artists programmed, but I think that Donald Shaw, Artistic Director and founding member of Capercaillie, has certainly kept high-calibre traditional Scottish music at the heart of the event, and the inclusion of other world music traditions has created a festival unrivalled anywhere in the world for its diverse artistic pro- gramme.
Over the 18 days, I took my job researching for this article very seriously, and attended 13 programmed events, as well as a Burns supper and several informal breakaway sessions at pubs in the city centre. I took in a wide range of musical styles: lots of Scottish, Gaelic and Irish music, English folk, Afro-Cuban, Electronica, Breton, Galician and Catalonian. My festival experi- ence began with a concert at the Tron Theatre from Damien O’Kane & Cathy Jordan, supported by a formidable line-up of musicians: Michael McGoldrick, John Joe Kelly, Ed Boyd, and Duncan Lyall — some of the best instrumentalists on the scene today. Both artists performed material from their debut solo albums: Damien’s Summerhill is a collection of songs from Northern Ireland and Cathy’s All The Way Home is an album of songs she grew up hearing in her family home in Co. Roscommon. l ANDREA BOYD
guitar, accordion and percussion. Oran Mòr is always a bit of a hit or miss venue for sound quality, and unfor- tunately the sound wasn’t very good for the opening act, dominated by too much bass and percussion. The concert was sold out, and there was a wide range of ages in the audience for a night of contem- porary Gaelic music, which is seeing a revival at the moment as bands such as Donald MacDonald, Niteworks and Mànran combine traditional tunes and Gaelic song with contemporary pop music themes — a new generation to carry on from Runrig? The band have a huge enthusiasm for the music they are playing but their performance is still rather unrefined with a lot of jumping about and a fairly unpolished stage presence. I first heard about Niteworks over the summer when they were invited to play at Hebridean Celtic Music Festival in Stornoway. Dubbed an ‘electronica fusion act’, not a genre of music I am very familiar with, I thought I’d give this gig a go. Their sound is heavily influenced by the Gaelic culture of their col- lective upbringing on the Isle of Skye, and features in their line-up piper Allan MacDonald, son of Dr Angus. They take their name from an account of an elderly man from Skye describing how life on the Island has become easier and less manual and he speaks about the diminishing need to do ‘Obair Oidhche’, literally translated as ‘night work’. From the moment they took the stage, the band had a refined and professional stage dynamic. The opening set featured Allan playing smallpipes alongside the electronic beats, which has created a really exciting new fusion of electronica and traditional music. Allan also played a variety of whistles on other sets and drum kit player Ruaraidh Graham invited his sister Deirdre on stage to sing a Gaelic puirt a beul, which had their large fan base of young Highlands and Islanders singing along in the chorus. Niteworks are certainly introducing Gaelic song and piping to new audiences in a contemporary and exciting way, creating another avenue to showcase piping. l ANDREA BOYD
All photos: John Slavin@Designfolk Ltd
FESTIVAL
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52