Charlie Mckerron and friends: Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club
May 4, 2018 17:35:02 GMT
ocarolan, leoroberts, and 4 more like this
Post by Andy P on May 4, 2018 17:35:02 GMT
After 30 years living in a cultural backwater (west Cornwall), we're making up for lost time and seeing as much live music as we can. This is a fantastic venue, holding about 80-90 in an intimate setting, with an excellent PA.
On "stage" (there isn't a stage actually) were Charlie Mckerron of Capercaillie, Session A9, etc on fiddle, Ross Ainslie of Treacherous Orchestra etc on Border pipes and Marc Clement, also of Session A9 and other collaborations, on guitar. These are all awesome, brilliant, vastly experienced, award-winning musicians at the top of their respective games. They played a mixture of Scottish, Irish, French, Spanish and North American traditional and contemporary traditional-type tunes, from slow airs through strathspeys to breathless jigs and reels. In addition Marc sang a couple of contemporary songs - I asked him later if it was a coincidence that they both feature on Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl album - yes he said (though he admitted he knows that album and loves it, as do I).
I know you're waiting to hear about the guitar. I didn't recognise it and when I read the maker's name at the interval, I was none the wiser. It's a Northwood Jumbo, Marc told me that a while ago he decided to buy a new guitar. He was in Morecambe at the time, popped into the local music shop, saw this guitar and really liked it; in fact he would have bought it but thought that would be too impulsive as he'd only that day started looking. A year later, he still hadn't taken the plunge. He happened to be back in Morecambe - lo and behold there's this Northwood Jumbo still there. So he bought it. They're made in British Columbia by John McQuarrie. He's been in business since 1994, after spending seven years with Larrivee.
The guitar sounded pretty wonderful in Marc's hands - he's an absolutely brilliant player. When I first got into traditional music back in the early 1970's, accompaniment was all very uncomplicated major chords. How that's changed over the years. Marc was chucking in a bewildering array of stuff, moving way too fast for me to keep track of, totally driving the music and constantly changing the mood.
He told a great little story when they were briefly discussing airline baggage handlers between tunes. It concerns the Northern Irish guitarist Arty McGlynn. He had booked his guitar on to a transatlantic flight and reluctantly had to accept that it was going in the hold. Arty plays mostly in DADGAD and the guitar had been in that tuning when he put it in the case. When he was eventually reunited with it at the other end, it was in standard tuning
Unfortunately we'll be away when these guys visit the club in three weeks time:
On "stage" (there isn't a stage actually) were Charlie Mckerron of Capercaillie, Session A9, etc on fiddle, Ross Ainslie of Treacherous Orchestra etc on Border pipes and Marc Clement, also of Session A9 and other collaborations, on guitar. These are all awesome, brilliant, vastly experienced, award-winning musicians at the top of their respective games. They played a mixture of Scottish, Irish, French, Spanish and North American traditional and contemporary traditional-type tunes, from slow airs through strathspeys to breathless jigs and reels. In addition Marc sang a couple of contemporary songs - I asked him later if it was a coincidence that they both feature on Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl album - yes he said (though he admitted he knows that album and loves it, as do I).
I know you're waiting to hear about the guitar. I didn't recognise it and when I read the maker's name at the interval, I was none the wiser. It's a Northwood Jumbo, Marc told me that a while ago he decided to buy a new guitar. He was in Morecambe at the time, popped into the local music shop, saw this guitar and really liked it; in fact he would have bought it but thought that would be too impulsive as he'd only that day started looking. A year later, he still hadn't taken the plunge. He happened to be back in Morecambe - lo and behold there's this Northwood Jumbo still there. So he bought it. They're made in British Columbia by John McQuarrie. He's been in business since 1994, after spending seven years with Larrivee.
The guitar sounded pretty wonderful in Marc's hands - he's an absolutely brilliant player. When I first got into traditional music back in the early 1970's, accompaniment was all very uncomplicated major chords. How that's changed over the years. Marc was chucking in a bewildering array of stuff, moving way too fast for me to keep track of, totally driving the music and constantly changing the mood.
He told a great little story when they were briefly discussing airline baggage handlers between tunes. It concerns the Northern Irish guitarist Arty McGlynn. He had booked his guitar on to a transatlantic flight and reluctantly had to accept that it was going in the hold. Arty plays mostly in DADGAD and the guitar had been in that tuning when he put it in the case. When he was eventually reunited with it at the other end, it was in standard tuning
Unfortunately we'll be away when these guys visit the club in three weeks time:
Jo whoever he is.
