Folk review: Dean Owens/Brendan Begley, Breanainn Begley and Kevin Henderson - A house in Edinburgh

HOUSE concerts can offer a good many advantages over regular gigs, but having the resident dog mosey onstage mid-song, as happened here to Edinburgh singer-songwriter Dean Owens, might be seen as rather a downside.

Owens, however – once he and the audience had stopped laughing – professed himself honoured: in the several years he’s been playing this particular residence, it was the first time said pooch had chosen to make an appearance.

The easy-going shared hilarity between performer and listeners further highlighted the setting’s alluring intimacy, an ambience especially well suited to Owens’s Americana-hued solo songcraft, foregrounding the expressive shadings of his heart-tugging voice, with its understated, intensity and vivid dynamics, and the poetic economy of his writing, in material ranging from his former band The Felsons’ back-catalogue, to tracks from his forthcoming album New York Hummingbird.

Irish accordionist and singer Brendan Begley also expressed his approval of “bringing the music back into the house … so much better than playing official concerts”. With guitarist son Bréanainn and Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson, he performed a varied selection from their respective traditions, displaying both superb individual prowess and fine-tuned ensemble empathy. Standouts included Begley Sr’s potent vocal balance of lyricism and gravitas, in a traditional Gaelic love-song and a macaronic contemporary lament, a dazzling pair of solo tunes from his son and a dreamy Estonian waltz.

Rating: *****