EDINBURGH FOLK& HARP FESTIVALS MUSIC
mix of self-penned pop, traditional fiddle and hooley hoe-down. Bass. drutns and guest Edinburgh fiddler Jenny Gardner raise the volume. I Concert Hall. 7.30—9.30pm. £5 (£4). The TMSA presents Debatable land. the major concert of traditional Scottish song hosted by Brian Millar and featuring Scots singers Maureen Jelks. Andy Hunter and Joe Aitken. Gaelic singer Eilidh Macltenzie and Ulsterman Kevin Mitchell. I Concert and Premier Queen's Hall. Clerk Street. 8pm. £8 (£6). American harpist Deborah Henson-Conant in a concert of harp in a classical context with members of the SCO and RSNO including David Nicholson on flute and Eluned Pierce. harp. Central to the performance is the world premier of her Jazz Suite. See Music preview. Edinburgh Harp Festival. I Dance Hall. l().30pm—lam. £5 (£4). Wildest dance band in town, but forget all the normal ceilidh dance rules. ‘cos it‘s Shoogleniity.
I Late Show Park Rootn. Midnight. From two of Edinburgh‘s best knowtt jazz families. Sophie Bancroft and Gina Hae perform jazz-slanted original songs, re-work some old ones. and play some tin whistle and guitar.
MONDAY 28
I Session Park Room. 8.45—1 1.45pm.
I Lunchtime Music Teviot Bar. i2.30—2.30pm.
I li Lan Liao/la Botta Pleasance Theatre. 7.30pm. £5 (£4). Spectacularly accomplished Ku-Cheng player shows what the horizontal harp-like Chinese instrument is capable of. including the possibilities inherent in being able to bend the pitch of individual strings. Sharing this international concert with her is the acoustic multi-
I Hard, tangy and sharp, this young Shetland band’s
music pushes ltseli iorward with edgy coniidence, disrespectful oi convention and exuberantly rolling the old iiddle tunes in with their own rockabilly songs. Rock Salt and Hails, Sun 27.
instrumental German band
which so impressed the
: organisers on their last visit some years ago.
Edinburgh Harp Festival. I Showcase Gig Park Rootn. 7.30—8.30pm. Super vocal harmony from the much admired
duo of GreenTrax
Record‘s Janet Russell and Christine Kydd.
I Dance Hall. 8.30pm—midnight. £4 (£3). Fleaman’s Folly.
TUESDAY 29
I Session Park Room. 8.45—l 1.45pm.
I Lunchtime Music Teviot Bar. l2.3()—2.3()pm.
I isobel Mieras
Pleasance Theatre. 7pm. £5 (£4). Scots song frotn ancient ballad. through Victorian drawing room to contemporary settings of recent works for voice and clarsach. Edinburgh Harp Festival.
I Open Platiorrn Pleasance Theatre Bar. 60 Pleasance. 8.30pm. Free. Students and others from the Harp Festival.
I Showcase Gig Park Room. 7.30—8.30pm. Edinburgh songwriter Gill Bowman releases a new album.
I Dance Hall. 8.30pm—midnight. £4 (£3). ()ne of the leading bands of the new ceilidh movement, the Ceilidh Collective.
l2.3()-2.30pm.
; I Workshop Panel 60
Pleasance. 5pm. £2. A light-hearted discussion/forum on aspects of playing and
performing presented by the Edinburgh Harp
Festival.
I Harp Festival Concert
Pleasance Theatre. 7~—8.15pm. £5 (£4). Harper and concertina
. player from Ceolbeg ; Wendy Stewart in a duo
with bandmember and singer Davey Steele. and the ancient art of storytelling with the harp revived by Fiona Davidson.
. I Harp Festival Farewell Ceilidh Pleasance Theatre
Bar, 60 Pleasance. 8.30pm. Entrance by
limited number of free
tickets.
I Showcase Gig Park Room. 7.30—8.30pm. One of the great results of the folk revival has been the
' generation of a number of
younger singers inspired by the example of the great Scots traditional singing styles. Heather Heywood is one of the
finest. Husband Pete and
daughter Fiona accompany on guitar and piano.
I Take The Floor Hall. 7.30pm. Free. Tickets from Teviot Box Office or BBC Queen Street. Recording for Radio Scotland of the Jim
i Johnstone Dance Band.
WEDNESDAY 30
I Session Park Room. 28.45—11.45pm.
I lunchtime Music Teviot Bar.
‘2' i‘ _J
l ‘3"
I Gaelic song is at its best unaccompanied, despite
the rise of the Gaelic choir this century. But it you are going to hear it put through the marketing process, best listen to Mac-Talia, a band with three iine singers in Arthur Cormack, Christine Primrose and Eilidh Maclfenzle, and clarsach, accordion and the ubiquitous Gaelic synthesiser. Mac-Talia, Sat 26.
THURSDAY 31
I Session Park Room. 7.30—9.15pnt;
l().45—l l.45pm.
I Lunchtime Music Teviot Bar. l2.3()-2.3()pm.
I Showcase Gig Park
‘ Rootn. 9.30— 10.30pm.
Brother of Cathal. songwriter Mickey McConnell has a humorous, understated vision of life. love and lreland.
I Concert Hall. 7.30-9.30pm. £5 (£4). Cathal McConnell and Len Graham carry the torch for true lrish traditional music. especially song. From Fermanagh and Antrim, they combine on flute and bodhran or spoons, and have a huge repertoire of Ulster song. One of the
certain bests of the Festival.
I Dance Hall. iO.30pm—lam. £5 (£4). Favourite group from Glasgow. the Michael Philip Ceilidh Dance Band.
I late Show Park Room. Midnight. Dave Francis and Mairi Campbell. collectively known as The Cast. tnix fiddle tunes with guitar and songs. from Scotland and North America.
FRIDAY 1
I Classes and Tuition Alasdair Fraser‘s Fiddle School; ALP Band Workshop; Piping Masterclass. all at 10.30am. By advance booking only. The Cauld Wind or bellows~blown pipes of Scotland with Hamish Moore.
I Lunchtime Music Teviot Bar. l2.30—2.30pm.
I Session Park Room. 7.30—9.15ptn;
l0.45—l 1.45pm.
I Showcase Gig Park Room. 9.30—l0.30pm. Pat Shaw and Julie Mathews. Piano, guitar and strong vocal harmony, from contemporary English folk/country rock duo.
I Concert Hall. 7.30—9.30pm. £5 (£4). Deanta. A bit at Dundee‘s Folk Festival a few years ago. this young sextet includes a token male and a couple of harp players among the flutes, fiddles. whistles etc, and represents the best of the emerging ln'sh bands.
I Dance Hall. lO.30pm—lam. £5 (£4). From Shetland, led by the eponymous fiddler, the Margaret Couper Band. I late Show Park Room. Midnight. Blues. songs and brilliant slide guitar from California's Kristina
l Disen.
SATURDAY 2
I Session Park Room. 2.15—5pm; 7.30—9.15pm; 10.45—11.45pm.
I Tuition and Music Courses 10am—5pm. Alasdair Fraser's Fiddle School; ALP Band Workshop. both at l0.30am: Scottish Dance Workshop. £2; Slide Blues Guitar Workshop. £2, both 2pm.
I Piping Showcase Park Room. 1—3pm. £4 (£3). Piper and promulgator of the bellows blown faith, Hamish Moore has been convening to Cape Bretonism lately, and recently recorded an album of pipes and piano over in Halifax. His accompanist is flying over here to add that special Nova Scotian drive to the Scots tunes.
I Piping Competition St Anne’s Community Centre, Cowgate. 2—5pm. £l admission. Lowland and Borders Plpers’ Society annual competition and get- together of the bellows- blown Scottish pipes.
I Concert Hall. 7.30—9.30pm. £5 (£4). Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy.
I Showcase Gig Park Room. 9.30—10.30pm. With clarsach, keyboards. pipes. whistle, concertina and percussion Stewart, Mathieson. Walker and West are Ceolbeg minus two, and taking a different musical tack.
I Pipe Line BBC Studio One, Broadcasting House, 5 Queen Street.
l Admission from 7.30pm; ' music at 8pm. Free.
Advance tickets from BBC reception. The BBC with the Edinburgh Folk Festival presents a recital/recording featuring two masters of the
Hi bland bagpipe.
Wi Iiam McCallnm and Allan MacDonald.
I Dance Hall. 10.30pm—lam. £5 (£4). The outrageously festive Tartan Amoebas insinuate Latin licks, brass and bagpipes into their country dances; quirky- humoured young Martyn
I Bennett composes and } performs with bagpipes ! and violin. Sequenced
? synth is incorporated to
create neo ceilidh club dance grooves.
SUNDAY 3
I Session Park Room. 24.45pm; 7.30—9.15pm; 10.45—1 l.45pm. The Adult Learning Project’s Folk Orchestra of instrumental learners will perform at 3.30pm.
I Piping Festival Hall. 10.30am—6pm. Free. Pipemakers exhibition.
ITheBarely
Works, Scarp and other bands have
brought the modern English iestival sound north oi the
"border over the last iew years. Caravaneerai are in that
soundscape, mixing brass, reeds, accordion and strings bet with an exotic penchant ior Eastern European compound-time dance tunes, and a determination to entertain. Caravanseral, Sat 26.
I Back again after the stunning success oi the Fiddles on Fire tour, Scotland’s premier iiddler-ln-exile Alasdair Fraser leads his always-tun classes and inspires in sessions. His latest band sets the Scots iiddle in an adventurous musical setting, always concentrating on the implicit drive at the root oi the tradition. Alasdair Fraser Band, Sun 3.
Live music.
I The Lang neel Teviot Bar. 2—4pm. £3. A ceilidh/history of Scots dance with Dave Francis, Mairi Campbell and members of the Adult Learning Project.
I Storytellers Ceilidh Teviot Bar. 2—4pm. £3.50 (£2.50).
I Common Ground Hall. 2.30—5pm. £2 at door. Relaxed concert of varied piping styles and instruments hosted by the Goodacre Brothers.
I Stories irom the Celtic Kingdom Park Room. 5—7pm. Ancient tales from lreland and the West of Scotland with Skye traditional tale bearer George McPherson, and David Campbell and Paraig Macneil from the Guid Crack Club. Fiona Davidson mixes songs and clarsach with her stories. I Alasdair Fraser Dand/Somotherland Queen's Hall. Clerk Street. 7.30—9.30pm. £6.50 (£5). Farewell concert of the Festival features two interpretative approaches to traditional music, with Fraser‘s classy vision of Scots fiddle in a modern. richly harmonic setting. Jim Sutherland has assembled a wild eleven-strong band mixing contemporary pop, jazz and a strong folk element with improvisation and vocals. See Music preview.
I Showcae Gig Park Room. 9.30—10.30pm. Rankin File’s leader back from two decades in Canada with his new band and new album leaning to soft rock and country folk. I Farewell Ceilidh Hall. 10.30pm—lam. £5 (£4). Dance away the end of the Festival with a one-off band built round Occasional’s ace accordionist Freeland MIT.
I Late Show Park Room. Midnight. The favourite young traditional group
'on the club scene,
Sangsters features the harmony vocals of Anne Combo, Fiona Forbes and Scott Murray.
The List 25 March-7 April 1994 39