Ewan Macintyre Album Launch, Pleasance

One time singer for the Southern Tenant Folk Union, Macintyre has been living in Montreal for some time now and has recorded an album over there.  Tonight saw the UK launch and the start of a short tour.

Backing Ewan's vocals and guitar were Gavin Taylor on dobro and mandolin, Roddy Nielson on fiddle, and double bass man Conrad Molleson.  As well as songs from his own pen there were a couple from his STFU past and other oldies.  Joining in for a song apiece were singer and guitarist Chris Purcell, and the cello maestro Su-a Lee.

Macintyre's vocals have improved every time I've seen him and this album looks to be another progression, with an eclectic mix of styles and subject matter, and there's the odd catchy hook in there.  He's a relaxed performer with an friendly stage presence and plenty of humour.  The band provided a constantly changing background through their embellishments and solos, with Molleson in particularly fine form.

Worth a look if he's coming your way.

Right Now, Traverse

Written by Quebecois playwright Catherine-Anne Toupin, Right Now mixes comedy, tragedy and a surrealist edge to deliver laughter, thrills and the unexpected in a bizarre and entertaining experience.  Thirty-somethings Alice and Ben quickly reveal that something serious is amiss with their relationship, but the cause is unclear.  Ben works all hours as a doctor, Alice stays at home with the baby, but neither seems to be making real contact with the other.

Enter Juliette from the flat across the corridor, a pushy older woman who says exactly what she thinks.  And soon, whether they like it or not, Ben and Alice find themselves playing frequent hosts to Juliette, husband Gilles and their disturbing son Francois.  As this trio worm their way deeper and deeper into the life of the young couple the latter find they no control of events and their own behaviour becomes as odd as that of their pushy guests.  But who does the final outcome suit best?

Despite being consistently laugh out loud funny, the script takes the audience into darker realms, evoking themes of manipulation, sexual rapaciousness, alternative lives and the disabling impact of bereavement, especially the loss of a child.  It is for us to decide who is being honest and who the liar, who the victim and who the predator.  And if maybe these grotesque scenes are all in the mind of.... who exactly?

All five members of the cast are superb, but Lindsey Campbell deserves a special mention for her Alice, a powerful study in pain and confusion.

A hilarious drama that twists your expectations and leaves you questioning your own values.  Highly recommended.

Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards / Russell deCarle Trio, Traverse

A US string quartet with a difference.  Cortese leads on vocals and fiddle, ably assisted by Jenna Moynihan on fiddle, long time collaborator Valerie Thompson on cello, and the bass of Natalie Bohrn.  Their material is largely from the pen of Laura herself, with a contribution from Thompson and some more traditional tunes, delivered in a style that's a mix of country, folk and pop.

Cortese has an excellent, if not particularly distinctive, voice and turns out some interesting lyrics and catchy tunes.  Many of her songs stem from her own personal experience, but she's not averse to getting more political when the mood takes her.   The playing is of a high standard, and it's easy to imagine that the band could turn their hand to any number of styles of music.

Highlights included an a capella rendition of the lovely Rhododendron, a set of Scottish pipe tunes with Moynihan taking the lead, and the rousing Heel to Toe.  They encored with a simple chorus song using 2 strummed fiddles and four voices, a beautiful way to end the set.

A generation of so older than the first act, Russell deCarle is a long time star of Canadian country music.  His trio play a mix of country, western wing, blues and some good old fashioned rockabilly.  DeCarle leaves the flashy musicianship to his fellow band members, providing solid rhythm guitar and a fine voice that has matured across the decades to become mellow, comforting and full of expression.  Singing a mix of his own songs and classics from several genres of North American music, there's everything in the mix from the pathos of country to full on rock and roll.

Simple arrangements serve to highlight the quality of deCarle's vocals and the talents of his companions' instrumental breaks.  Flanking Russell were Steve Briggs on guitar and Denis Keldie on piano accordion, both excelling when it came to their solos.  If Briggs was occasionally guilty of falling into 'the more notes the better' trap, Keldie's turns invariably started simple and developed into miniature masterpieces.

DeCarle a man who knows exactly how to handle an audience and between songs he is amusing, informative and immediately feels like you've known him for years.  After the encore the band looked liked they could have carried on all night.  And we would have been happy if they did.

John McCusker's 25th Anniversary Tour, Eastgate Theatre

John might only be 42, but he has packed a lot into his 25 years as a performer.  Steeped in Scottish traditional music, he has extended his repertoire into a variety of genres and is much in demand as a performer, composer and producer.  He not only leads his own band, but appears in a variety of other line ups, and is a regular member of Mark Knopfler's touring band.  This tour, unsurprisingly, coincides with the launch of his latest album, and a chance to play some of this favourite music.

Renowned as a multi instrumentalist, on this occasion McCusker concentrated largely on his fiddle playing, with just the odd foray into whistle, bouzouki and harmonium, whilst the role of Mr Versatile fell to young Toby Shaer on flute, whistles and fiddle.  providing a solid rhythm is Innes White on guitar,  and completing the line up is the wonderful Andy Cutting on button accordions, a man whose intuitive musical sympathy can enhance any line up.

Joining them on stage from time to time were singers Adam Holmes (who also brought some lovely guitar work of his own to the mix) and Heidi Talbot.  Holmes is getting well know for his solo work, but remains the voice of Scottish traditional band Rura, whilst Talbot has several solo albums to her name and has one of the warmest and most enticing voices on the folk scene.

There new sets of tunes from the new album, mixed in with older material, and songs from the vocalists.  The tunes may be new, but John's roots remain firmly within the tradition and and there was a comforting sense of familiarity about even the most recent works, but with an unpredictability deriving from the arrangements and instrumental interplay.  Shaer is twenty years McCuskers junior, but his contribution was superb, especially the improvisations on flute, whilst the equally youthful White proved a natural fit for the band's style of music.  Slow airs of haunting beauty mixed with rip roaring faster numbers and gave us two well balanced sets.  Holmes showed why he is becoming more and more sought after as a musical collaborator, and Talbot served a reminder of how delightful that Irish lilt is and how unique her interpretations of songs are.

You don't get to 25 years in the business without learning lessons about handling your audience and McCusker has developed a fine line in patter delivered with a dry wit.  Holmes, Talbot and Cutting contributed to the humour.  It all adds to the sense that this is a line up that know how to entertain - not just their audiences, but themselves too, and that sense of enjoyment is an important element in the fusion that makes this a near perfect musical evening.

Oh, and I should mention, for the one night only, the band were briefly joined on stage by a couple of tiny guest vocalists.  John and Heidi's 5 year old daughter Mollie Mae and her friend gave their interpretation of Coulter's Candy, aka Ally Bally Bee, and had the whole audience singing along with them.  Even I, a renowned child phobic, had to admit that was quite cute.

Ring Road (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

Lisa invites Mark to spend an evening with her, and she's hired a low rent twin bedded hotel room, with a view of nothing but 'a garage, a ring road and a quarry', for their liaison.  He's not sure why they're there, but he and Lisa have always got on well so he's not too concerned.

Until he finds that Lisa wants to have a baby, and she's asking Mark to make her pregnant.  Complicating matters, she's married to Paul, who is Mark's brother.  For Lisa Mark is the obvious answer - similar genes, similar looks to her husband, to there should be no shocks in the child's appearance.  She's planned it all down to the last detail.  Except for taking account of what Mark might think about the proposal, or, it turns out, really being aware of her own underlying motives.

Ring Road is both a hilarious sex comedy and a touching look at the complexity of human relationships.  The sex scenes are more comic than erotic, and there's fine use of a pair of Superman underpants.  A clever script gradually unfolds the backstory of the trio, and gives the characters life, but it's the voice of Paul, on Mark's speakerphone, that provides the most dramatic revelations.

Martin Donaghy is convincing as the unambitious plumber who shows his vulnerable side, whilst Angela Darcy's Lisa begins all business like and in control, but descends into a jumble of emotions as her plan unravels.  Robbie Jack's voicing of Paul is wonderfully lugubrious and pained.  Laughter and pathos are combined well in an absorbing and entertaining fifty minutes.

Jo Caulfield and Friends, The Stand

Following a brief, but enjoyable, introductory set from the reliable Jojo Sutherland, Caulfield delivered a superb solo half hour.  From Brits trained to do US style greetings in coffee shops (we're not very good at them) to the overly friendly couples you meet on holiday (Rose and Fred West were a couple....) this was Jo at her caustic, observant best.  A few tried and trusted routines mixed with some new material she was trying out, there were plenty of surprises and no let up in the laughs.  And it isn't often that a joke about the threat of anal rape provides the best laugh of the set.

After the interval  there was a good short set from Tony Sloan with subjects including his mother issues, (in)ability to deliver chat up lines, and stalking.  Good fun and a he looks like an interesting young talent.

Caulfield brought four weel kent local faces to help record her regular podcast, "The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected".  Keir McAllister, Gareth Waugh, Richard Melvin and Stu Murphy are Stand familiars and big names on the Scottish comedy scene.  Jo reads out a series of daft questions, or hypothetical scenarios, and invites her panelists to come up with the funniest answers, points being randomly awarded for their efforts.  The contestants are given an hour's notice of the questions, so they do have some time to prepare their material.  They may be asked to take us inside the mind of one of their colleagues, or regale us with the stories of their own most embarrassing moments.  All four had some great lines, but Waugh produced some outstanding routines, and highlight was surely Stu Murphy's advice to Melvin on improving his comic performance - Murphy was consistently the most naturally funny of the group.

Great value at only £5 a ticket, the show played to a packed house and there will be no need to dub laughs on to the soundtrack of the podcast.

Dallahan, Traverse

A Scots/Irish/Hungarian outfit playing a mix of traditional material, from all three traditions and beyond, and a few of their own tunes.  With such diverse influences they have created a sound that is very much their own and now, with the launch of their second album, they are showing signs of moving that sound on whilst retaining the signature elements that marked them out from the start.

Jack Badcock provides guitar that hints at an admiration for the work of John Doyle, whilst delivering lead vocals that are distinctive,mellow and beautifully enunciated.  Jani Lang plays Irish style fiddle with Balkan flourishes, and sings a delightful Hungarian folk song.  The multi talented Ciaran Ryan excels on banjo, mandolin and fiddle, with complex rhythmic work and sparkling solos.  New boy Andrew Waite plays piano accordion.  He's the third squeezebox player in the Dallahan line up to date and, in my opinion, the best yet, so it's to be hoped his tenure in the role will be a long one.  Completing the line up on the night was a guest appearance from the original double bass player with the band, the charismatic Balázs Hermann, one of the most visually entertaining musicians you could come across.

Take a standard set of jigs or reels, apply the Dallahanisation process, and what emerges is not just a stream of improvisations, but drama, unexpected changes of direction, multicultural influences and that wild Hungarian fiddle sound.  The band delights in uncovering some of the more obscure Irish and Scots tunes, and making them their own.  Song selection is eclectic too, a mix of lesser known murder ballads and love songs, and their now standard encore of the comic song 'Shame and Scandal in the Family'.  Whilst there are some haunting slower airs within the set list, this is mostly a high energy evening and exhilarating for the audience (who also get invited to join in on a few choruses).

Badcock continues to grow in confidence as the band's primary front man, Lang providing an alternative lead voice, between them letting us know something about the band's working methods, the origins of the music and providing a few laughs.  Waite adds a few amusing comments, whilst Ryan seems content to let his deft fingering speak for him.  As for Hermann, it's a simple joy to watch him work through a range of emotions as he plays, or seemingly disappearing into a wee world of his own....

Dallahan continue to confirm their place as one of my favourite bands, both live and at home, and I'm looking forward to giving their new album a lot of listening time.

Lorraine and the Borderlands

A local band usually draws a good sized crowd to The House, and Lorraine McCauley's outfit was no exception.  Singer/songwriter and guitarist McCauley originates from Donegal and her fellow band members hail from a variety of different backgrounds, so there are a lot of influences at work in the final sound.  There's Jonee Duggan playing accordion and glockenspiel, Nick Jenkins on fiddle and viola, the joyous Calum Ingram on cello, and Gordy Duncan providing the percussion.  With one album behind them, tonight was about the launch of a new single, Good Things, itself presaging a new album later in the year.

Perhaps most obviously categorised as folk, there's a broad mix of ballads, love songs, and sociopolitical observation.  Lyrically and melodically the songs, composed by McCauley, stand up well and there are catchy tunes and singalong choruses.  I was impressed with a new number, Rosscrea Robbery, written from the point of view of an inmate of the Magdalene Laundries which conveyed a heartfelt poignancy mixed with anger at the injustices inflicted on so many young women.

But it's less the quality of the songs themselves than the performance of them that marks this band out.  McCauley's voice has power and passion, a decent range and some imaginative phrasing, with the underlying warmth of her Irish accent adding a welcoming tone.  She's backed up some clever arrangements and excellent musicianship.  There's little in the way of solos from the accordion, the instrument mostly used as a filler to enrich the overall sound, and the minimalist percussion, and glockenspiel, provide their contributions to both rhythm and melody.  The fireworks come from Jenkins and Ingram, with both demonstrating lyrical beauty, jazziness and sheer energy, leaving you wondering why rock cello isn't more of a thing for it's an amazing sound.  The climax to the set comes from the rampaging Wild Green Nettles where a strong gypsy influence builds up to a storming finish.

A great live band, amusing and relaxed between numbers and very friendly in mixing with their audience.   I look forward to hearing the next album, with there being every sign that it will surpass their enjoyable previous effort.

Here's a rendition of the aforementioned Wild Green Nettles from the last time Lorraine played at The House.  Enjoy.

Neither God Nor Angel (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

If Rab C Nesbitt was king....

We meet James VI on the eve of his departure to London to take up the English crown, and in two minds about his decision to accept the reluctantly made offer from down south.  What's in it for him?  Or for his people, the Scots?  His internal deliberations are interrupted by the arrival of William, a lower order servant who has just been sacked, and largely unafraid to tell his monarch some home truths about how his people view him.  He provides James with the material to develop fresh insights, self reflection, and even a breath of humility.

Jimmy Chisholm's James is many things - foul mouthed absolutist, eloquent man of letters, lecher, philosopher, and a man of vulnerable temperament.  William, played by Gavin Wright, might be a simpler soul, but his honesty and passion for social justice makes him the perfect foil to draw out the king's doubts and worries.  Whilst there is some tedious stereotyping of both the Scots and English national characters, the script is otherwise sharp, witty and gives both actors scope to play around with their roles.

It also offers some depth when drawing parallels with current day events.  We find ourselves looking into the genesis of a process, which would eventually result in the formation of the UK, at a time when that union might well be in it's dying days.  (With James' will he/won't he dilemma a clear reflection of our current national dialogue.)  And I did enjoy William's put down of the fantasy notion of 'trickle down' economics.  There are  ruminations on the loneliness of leadership, the ludicrous nature of monarchy and the negative impact of massive social division.

As an audience member you can choose to ponder on these issues, or simply accept the play as a rollicking entertainment, with both Chisholm and Wright extracting every last laugh from their lines.  Both look as if they enjoy the opportunity to take a potentially serious subject and deliver a sparking comedy from it.

There might be a few flaws, and it's certainly no history lesson, but this is a hugely enjoyable way to spend an hour.