Gig review: East meets west

Published on Monday 7 September 2009 18:58

EAST MEETS WEST: KAREN MATHESON, MICHAEL MARRA & JAMES GRAHAM **** AVIEMORE CENTRE

NOT an Oriental/Occidental encounter but a meeting of music from Scotland's opposite coasts, this Blas Festival triple bill opened with a short set from the outstanding Lochinver-born Gaelic singer James Graham, a former Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year.

Sensitively accompanied by the equally outstanding young pianist James Ross, Graham performed a mix of traditional and contemporary material, including a lovely paean to the beauties of Lochnahope in Barra, and a richly articulated piobaireachd/puirt-a-beul set. Graham's singing, as ever, combined measured gravitas with ardent warmth, immaculate phrasing and subtly applied vibrato.

By contrast, Michael Marra's deeply gravelly, tobacco-weathered tones could hardly be termed beautiful, but are nonetheless peculiarly suited to his bittersweet, worldly-wise, wry yet whimsical songwriting, here addressing such topics as General Ulysses S Grant's 1877 visit to Marra's native Dundee, and the imagined romantic adventures of a fondly-remembered cat.

There may be, as Marra observed when introducing another number, "more to life than Dundee", but his unique perspective, rooted in that vantage point, together with his deft use of the city's patois, illuminates the wonders and tragedies of the human (as well as feline) condition.

In the night's headline slot, Capercaillie lead vocalist Karen Matheson was flanked by a veritable supergroup line-up comprising bandmates Donald Shaw, on piano, harmonium and accordion, and double bassist Ewen Vernal, plus James Grant on guitar and dobro, Anna Massie on guitar and mandolin, and New Zealand harmonica maestro Brendan Power.

Their vibrantly textured arrangements were a dynamic but never obtrusive foil to Matheson's marvellously lustrous, velvety voice and vividly nuanced delivery, in a set that took in material by Sorley MacLean, Sandy Denny and Robert Burns as well as traditional Gaelic fare, nicely rounded off by a joint finale with Marra and Graham.