When the bass player Doogie Paul died last year, there was a stage for artists to perform at his wake, but no-one really felt like playing, crushed by the blow of losing a much-loved man to cancer at the age of 40.
So it was that, eight months later, a crowd of allies from Scotland and further gathered to celebrate Doogie's life at a charity show, as rallied by Fife singer-songwriter James Yorkston (with whom Paul played in backing band The Athletes). This time, they raised the roof.
Art-rock instrumentalists Mogwai did so in visceral and cathartic style, while Yorkston and King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson) did so with quiet, beautiful songs written in the memory of Paul.
Yorkston's folk lament remembered his late friend in "younger times and better years", while Anderson's offering, an exquisite dirge called Carry On Dancing, silenced the room.
Folk singer Sheena Wellington lifted our spirits and had us all singing with her "joiny-iny" a cappella folk capers, and contemporary folk bard Alasdair Roberts performed perhaps the night's most fitting elegy, The Merry Wake. "It's more about celebrating the life than mourning the death," he said. And so it was.
There's an old and wonderful punk-folk hymn from Withered Hand (aka Dan Willson) called I Am Nothing, in which the Edinburgh DIY idol sings: "I'm just trying to find my voice." Having debuted his second album to a packed Queen's Hall with a backing band that included King Creosote, Eugene Kelly and Chris Geddes from Belle and Sebastian, it's safe to say Willson has found it, and how.
There were plenty of sing-a-long favourites, the stunning No Cigarettes and Religious Songs among them, but the new songs were particularly striking. Highlights included Byrdsian indie-chorale Black Tambourine (with singer Pam Berry on backing vocals), the virtuosic thrash-pop of Heart Heart, and New Gods, which served as a sublime reminder that Willson's knack for an alt-rock anthem is equalled by his way with a ballad.
His lyrics remain gently subversive, revelatory and brilliant, as on raucous set-opener Horseshoe and Outro Song, which saw Willson backed by gorgeous chamber-pop ensemble The Second Hand Marching Band for a rapturous brass-and-choir finale. It was as life-affirming as music gets, from a man whose voice should find many more disciples yet.
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