Celtic Connections review: Jenna Reid & Harris Playfair with Mr McFall’s Chamber, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

SHETLAND fiddler Jenna Reid’s latest album, made in collaboration with the celebrated left-field ensemble Mr McFall’s Chamber, is titled Working Hands, and this launch concert, in which she and McFall’s were joined by her longstanding piano accompanist and fellow Shetlander Harris Playfair and her percussionist husband, Iain Sandilands, generated much deft fingerwork.

Jenna Reid & Harris Playfair with Mr McFall’s Chamber, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ****

There was also nimble fretwork, old-timey, ragtimey, in the genial opening set from Canadian mandolinist Andrew Collins and his trio, before Reid and Playfair came on, to kick off with a fine auld Scots air – Hey Tuttie Tattie, alias the melody of Scots Wha Hae, before launching into a vigorous stream of hornpipes, jigs and reels, the rolling and cascading keyboard confirming Playfair’s reputation as an accompanist of smeddum, and Reid’s fiddle fairly singing, although the skelp at which she took Scott Skinner’s The Hurricane precariously neared that danger point where speed and articulation confound each other.

Joined by McFall’s, the album exposition, featuring mainly Reid’s compositions with some traditional Shetland material, opened with her joyfully brisk title tune, the ensemble strings providing pizzicato emphasis and rich harmonies, while the winsome Su-a Song saw its dedicatee, McFall’s cellist Su-a Lee, joining in fine duet.

The traditional Freddy’s Tune had Reid in heart-melting slow air form, with Robert McFall providing a delicate upper-register violin harmony, while Hallgrimkirkja, Reid’s serene evocation of Reykjavik’s cathedral, was eloquently supported by string harmonies and the murmur of Sandilands’ xylophone. - JIM GILCHRIST