Concert review: Blas Grand Opening Concert

Published on Sunday 5 September 2010 21:21

Blas Grand Opening Concert **** Eden Court Theatre, Inverness

The official rather than actual opening event of Blas 2010, after Friday's first five concerts across the Highlands, this was one of six more shows the next night, but one which single-handedly embodied the ten-day festival's Gaelic name, offering a "taste" or "savour" of the variously folk-based musical fare it annually dishes up. The accompanying strapline, "Celebrating the Highlands", was also proudly illuminated by an all-homegrown line-up.

The teenage quintet who've been plying the Caledonian Canal Ceilidh Trail, a summer performance season co-sponsored by Highland Council and British Waterways, hit the ground running with some tight, top-speed reels on fiddles, whistle, guitar and accordion. Their short but sparkling set ranged confidently from slow strathspeys through Gaelic song to a final flamboyant Jewish tune.

Next up was the much-loved West Highland outfit Meantime, whose instrumental sound – comprising fiddle, pipes, accordion and guitar, plus guest piano – showed its roots with all the rhythmic solidity, lift and swing of their native ceilidh-dance style, winningly complemented by some beautifully harmonised Gaelic songs, both traditional and original.

Then the young team were back – albeit marginally older than the Ceilidh Trailers – in the shape of five-piece squad Bodega, whose dynamic balance of deep traditional fealty with absolutely up-to-the-minute technique and creative ambition confirmed them as a real powerhouse in the making.

After the interval, Blazin' Fiddles' Bruce MacGregor, with cellist Christine Hanson, pianist Brian McAlpine and guitarist Marc Clement, delivered some gorgeous renderings of such diverse material as a stately yet restive Scott Skinner Waltz, a sublimely inconsolable self-penned slow air, and a stunning hornpipe/reels/ragtime duet with Clement.

Exploring yet another highly individual and distinctive relationship to tradition, Lewis singer-songwriter Iain Morrison and his six-man band compellingly closed the show, with a forceful, deeply felt blend of anthemic, poetic lyricism and beefy rock muscle.