Fiddlers’
Bid International, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
ROB ADAMS
January 29 2007
Fiddlers'
Bid certainly made connections in this well-deserved showcase
in Celtic Connections' flagship venue. Never mind the tediously
persistent preoccupation with whether such connections have
a Celtic qualification, they were broad but musically compatible
ones.
Indeed, Olov Johansson's nyckelharpa slotted in like a natural
eighth instrument. This Swedish hurdy-gurdy-cum-fiddle combination
often suggests itself in the Scandinavian overtones within
the Shetlanders' music and Johansson's duet with the Bid's
Catriona McKay, on harp rather than piano, was typical of
the high-end accomplishment the latter consistently brings
to her role in the band.
Crossing different waters introduced a country music element
with Shetlanders' favourite Cape Bretonner, J P
Cormier, Irish-American vigour with Solas's Seamus
Egan and Winifred Horan, the ear-catching musical energy
and sartorial colour of cellist Rushad Eggleston from contemporary
bluegrassers Crooked Still, and a haunting other-worldliness
from Faroese singer Eivor Palsdottir.
If
expanded arrangements just occasionally slipped into the
"everyone managed to finish at the same time and nobody
was hurt" category, such rough-hewn moments can't detract
from Fiddlers' Bid's essentially harmonious nature and only
added to the evening's character and spontaneity. >>
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