A joyous and sophisticated melange of an evening. With a total of sixteen talented musicians and singers on stage (I won't name them all...) and backgrounds in Scottish and Irish traditional music, and American Country and Bluegrass, how could it not be?
Of course there is some trepidation in going to a show which comes out of TV origins, but the overall format with some tweaking, transfers well. Helped out by plenty of laughs in the introductions and band interactions. Phil Cunningham is never one to be short of a funny story.
Fronted by American dobro maestro, Jerry Douglas, with fellow TA-founder Aly Bain from Shetland, the band played tune sets that mixed up the various styles of playing, with changes in tempo and mood. The singers all had a set in each half - Joshua Burnside from Ireland, Gaelic songstress Kim Carnie from Scotland, and country singers Lindsay Lou and Carlene Carter from the US. With Carter, daughter of legend June, showing her star quality and charisma (and channelling a bit of Johnny Cash, her stepfather). There was also a song from the band's guitarist John Doyle. And, an undoubted highlight, a solo from Appalachian bass player Daniel Kimbro. His chosen subject Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 crew member who didn't get to walk on the moon. Or, as Kimbro put it, the bassist of the astronauts.
But the biggest spontaneous cheer of the night went to Burnside for his lyric - "March up the Shanklill, March up the Falls, Doesn't matter where you're from, The tories fucked us all". Folkies are mostly decent people!
The encore was for the core band only, a set of tunes that once again demonstrated how that mix of styles and cultures can add delight and surprise to even the most familiar of tunes. Long may they continue to bring such imagination and joy to people.
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