Last weekend was time for the Dumfries Folk 'n' Ale festival again. Veterans of this blog may remember last years festival here. I wasn't at quite as much of it this year's as I had expected. A small tweak of circumstances meant that I drove through from Kirkcudbright on the days I was here rather than camping as planned. Still, I was there all day on the Saturday and for it starting, at the folk club of the Thursday. I also managed to slot the folk session at the Masonic in on Friday evening as a bonus.
The guest band at the folk club on the Thursday were Rudiegin. Visit their Myspace profile here where you will find a few tunes by them. Bit of a session afterwards as usual - it was well after midnight when I left to make my way back to Kirkcudbright.
On Saturday there was a concert at the Plainstanes in the middle of the town. Most of the people taking part were members of the Baw-Bee folk and blues club. Whigmaleerie kicked off the afternoon with a big pile of reels, jigs, and all sorts of other dance tunes.
A few tunes from yours truly.
I should thank my niece for taking these pictures (well I can hardly play and take pictures too). She took this bit of film too.
Yowan Byghan is the folk club's Cornish representative. I can't find any tunes from him online but I see he has a blog here.
Darcy Da Silva played a few tunes with Tasmainian fiddler (he lives over here though) Malcolm Bushby. Here's a tune written and sung by Darcy. She plays the piano on this by Malcolm.
Kenny Simpson has a show on TD1 Radio in Galasheils every second Sunday. He also plays a pretty good tune himself. Here he is.
No sign of Billy Henderson on the internet. He's one of the founders, perhaps refounders as it existed many years before, of the Baw-Bee folk club in Dumfries and a full well of guid Scots songs.
John and Rona Carson (on the left in this picture) are also founders of the folk club and I would be surprised if a stone dropped into John's well of songs would reach the bottom any time soon. Together with Gus on fiddle they make up Uisge Beatha (I'm most surprised to find Youtube quite devoid of their presence or can I just not find it?). On Saturday they asked Alec Cook (my next door neighbour) to join them on Bodhran.
There's no denying that Gus is a fine fiddler nor that he is a timid and shy creature. Here he is playing a a wee composition of his own.
Several of the pubs had sessions on through out the day - I have to say I didn't take many session pictures this time round.
That's a bit cheerier.
Gone to tea - Back shortly.
7 comments:
Looks (and sounds) like a fine time. The young lady has a very nice voice.
I agree with Sinbad - looks like a great time and that young girl has an amazing voice.
And you didn't do to badly yourself Sandy :))
Agreements on the above - I noticed I had a little trepidation about hearing your actual voice, like it is going to colour how I read the blog from now on, but I'm glad I did.
Thank you John, Ellie and Shundo. Good that you mention Darcy, she's the one you're likely to find somewhere other than sat round a table in a pub having a tune in the future.
I suppose Shundo that we have to fill in the gaps of people we don't have all of, and how a person sounds is a major part of them. It's difficult to tell how far this is from my speaking voice - it is quite a Scottish song though.
It looked a nice dry day Sandy, are you sure it was Dumfries ?
It sounds like Uisge Beatha must be a little bit video camera shy.
I was a little intrigued and after a search I came upon Fiddlin John Carson, but he died in 1949, so not the same one. He's well remembered though, there's a ton of music of his on Youtube.
Maybe they go under a pseudonym on their videos.
It was a nice day Jim, or at least it wasn't raining all day. My set was accompanied by a bit of a shower - at least I was under cover.
John plays guitar, mandolin and banjo - it's about as much as he can carry - I've never yet seen him with a fiddle. I still find it hard to believe there's no video of them somewhere - they do have frequently occuring names which make them hard to look up.
Looks like a fine musical event!
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