HHHH
St Andrew's Night at the Tolbooth brought together the artists responsible for two of this year's most impressive albums to come out of the Scottish tradition, and while their expected meeting at the end didn't materialise, their respective performances had lots to recommend them.
Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes wears her talent lightly, introducing songs that could break your heart with some of the scattiest repartee this side of Lucille Ball. Possibly as a result of her acting experience, she has a great ability to get inside the characters in her songs, not least the heroine of Gur Millis Morag, who is confronted by the lover she thought dead while nursing her new husband's child, and singing both alone and with Allan Henderson's beautifully judged keyboard accompaniments, she gave a strong sense of narrative that required no translation. Her singing of Tha Sneachd' air Druim Uachdair, the song that's charmed the BBC Folk Awards panel, was another superbly moving highlight in a set without a weakness.
The Halton Quartet's music may owe as much to jazz and bluegrass as it does to the group's Scottish roots but what makes this one of the joys of the current scene is the sheer melodiousness of their fiddle, mandolin, accordion and guitar adventures. There's reflectiveness in tunes for departed friends and mentors, but even these convey the sense of celebration and the spirit of dynamic, full-flavoured music-making that flows freely through the whirl of Balkeerie Lights and the genuinely heart-swelling Washington Square Park.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article