Gig review: Mackinnon / MacColl / MacPherson

Published on Wednesday 16 June 2010 20:24

MACKINNON / MACCOLL / MACPHERSON *** THE VILLAGE, LEITH

ORIGINALLY seeded by the double billing of Gaelic singer Maeve Mackinnon and fiddler Lauren MacColl at Celtic Connections 2008, this new Scottish trio is completed by Fribo's Ewan MacPherson on 12-string guitar and mandolin.

Despite their relatively tender age, each member already boasts an impressive individual track record, and while this Leith Folk Club performance – only their second gig together – had its share of rough edges, there was also plenty to highlight the collaboration's mutually added value.

The bulk of their core material derives from Mackinnon's stock of songs, mostly venerable Gaelic fare, with the occasional foray into Scots, English and US tradition.

Both her voice's beguiling original timbre and her rapid interpretative development were abundantly in evidence, with the overt jazzy or bluesy inflections of her previous solo work richly integrated into the restive, sensuous play of brightness and shade, lyrical sweetness and grittier sinew.

Some numbers, however, sounded dynamically flat and underpowered, also afflicted at times by wobbly intonation but both failings were readily ascribed to nerves, as well as to the inventiveness of MacColl and MacPherson's accompanying arrangements, whose choice of complementary or contrasting colours and rhythms displayed a laudable avoidance of the obvious, necessarily rendering the vocalist's role more challenging.

There's already a beautifully close-knit empathy apparent between Mackinnon's singing and MacColl's fiddle, in particular, with the latter also showing her considerable mettle in a stunning solo slow air, a clear standout among the instrumental sets that interspersed the songs.