Gig review: Saltfishforty / One Fine Day

Published on Monday 1 February 2010 20:05

ÒRAN MÓR, GLASGOW ****

IT MIGHT seem odd to have a five-piece band supporting a duo, but then the Orcadian partnership of Brian Cromarty, on mandola, guitar and vocals, with fiddler Douglas Montgomery – aka Saltfishforty – is far from your average twosome. Through a combination of outstanding musicianship, resonant open tunings and a seemingly shared delusion that they're a heavy metal band, their sound's scale and impact belie the fact that there are just two of them.

That said, on this occasion they were three for about half their set, which was enlivened by beautifully subtle, adroit guest contributions from drummer Erik Laughton – a fellow member of eight-piece outfit the Chair – complementing the signature percussive punch of Cromarty's playing and Montgomery's implacable bassy thuds on a stomp-board. It certainly wasn't all about welly, though: their mix of traditional, contemporary and original tunes and songs, stirred together with Scottish, country, blues, Balkan and rockabilly influences, also delivered a wealth of lyricism and finesse – even if, as Cromarty observed, a weekend's Celtic Connections immersion had left them feeling, "like we should be sponsored by Gaviscon and Red Bull".

The young Scottish flautist Calum Stewart's new project One Fine Day, featuring four musical friends from Denmark, Sweden and Brittany, made a highly promising debut at last year's Blas festival, but didn't seem here to have progressed much since – though that was only a few months back. Their cross-matching of traditions and genres still sounds promising, but was sabotaged by overly diffident stagecraft.