Breath of fresh musical Ayr
 Capercaillie, Midge Ure, Dougie MacLean (plus Little Fire)
Burns an' a' That! festival finale, Town Hall, Ayr, May 29th 

May was a great month for live music in my neck of the woods, with Ayrshire presenting a number of festivals or weekend events including the Darvel Music Festival and the Burns an' a' That! culture, music and arts event (with both celebrating their tenth anniversaries).

Darvel, featuring four weekends of themed musical genres and a large number of great bands on display, won the Muirsical Award for Ayrshire event of the summer, but my home town of Ayr certainly finished with a flourish.
The Burns an' a' That! closing night was, for my money, the best of all the various concerts across Ayrshire during May, with the full house crowd enjoying more than three hours of music...

Dougie Maclean is one of Scotland’s finest singer songwriters and the phrase 'contemporary traditionalist' (which I may have just invented) describes his musicality perfectly.
Midge Ure is another with a solid song writing reputation (primarily in the pop/ rock genres) and Capercaillie continue to shine as the best of the traditional Celtic/ folk acts, featuring the wonderful voice of Karen Matheson.

Dougie MacLean’s acoustic performance only consisted of six songs but Dougie MacLean is also a storyteller, providing anecdotal stories or song-introductions between each tune.
Three songs from his latest album, Resolution, were played, and although each was well received it was, unsurprisingly, his most famous song 'Caledonia' (commonly referred to as Scotland’s alternative national anthem) that had the audience singing in full voice. To such an extent that they almost drowned out its creator.

A fine musical moment of many during the evening, but I must admit to having a particular fondness for the Resolution songs - and one in particular, due to another round of audience participation…

On Resolution the ballad ‘Loving One’ features a guitar melody line played by Dougie MacLean’s son Jamie and MacLean Senior had the audience learn the part before playing the song so they could sing the melody line in accompaniment.
The singer also explained the original was “performed on a vintage 1974 Fender Stratocaster” and asked the crowd to sing the melody with a guitar ‘twang’ to emulate the sound.
Unfortunately that came over more like an out-of-tune country guitar than it did classic Fender, but it was intentional tongue-in-cheek moment with the singer having some fun with the audience.

Thankfully the melody was delivered in normal-voiced mode and quite frankly the Stratocaster mimicking was never going to work because you can’t fool me, Dougie – the original was clearly a '76 Telecaster...

Midge Ure will forever be known as the co-songwriter and producer of the Band Aid charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and his time leading the new romantic hard-pop band Ultravox.
But Ure is a strong singer songwriter in his own right, with a number of solo albums and chart singles in the '90's and new Millennium.

Like Dougie MacLean, Midge Ure performed his numbers on acoustic guitar and told a number of stories between each song.
Primarily talking about his song writing, Ure also explained how some of the songs were conceived and spoke a little on Ultravox, the recent reunion of the classic line-up and the recording of a new album.

A number of Ure’s own songs were performed including ‘Breathe,’ one of his personal favourites, but highlights for many of the audience (referred to as “new romantics, now old romantics” by the singer) were the Ultravox numbers, which included the obligatory ‘Vienna’ and ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.’

The sign of a good song is when it still resonates at a stripped down level, just voice and acoustic instrument, and for me tunes such as ‘Dancing’ actually sounded better in this environment.
Ure's vocal (and he was in fine voice) became the lead instrument directing the song, as opposed to the original synth or percussive driven arrangements that so many British pop songs from the early to mid-80’s carried.

And for all the solid self-penned songs performed, the stand-out for me was a great, understated cover of ‘Man of the World,’ one of Peter Green’s finest songs, recorded while with Fleetwood Mac.

Capercaillie never disappoint, but then with their collective musicianship and Celtic folk mix of traditional and self-penned tunes they were a perfect fit and fitting finale for this festival.
Interestingly this particular Capercaillie performance was split between instrumental and vocal tunes – each song featuring Karen Matheson was followed by a reel or ‘set,’ showcasing fiddle, whistles/ pipes and accordion.

Highlight of the set was ‘Both Sides of The Tweed,’ a song by Scottish singer songwriter Dick Gaughan and covered by Capercaillie on their Sidewaulk album.
It was delivered beautifully by Matheson, with the singer describing the piece as “the best song Burns never wrote.”

Great triple-header night that it was there was the added bonus of an opening set by young local singer songwriter Jamie McGeechan.
Performing under the name Little Fire, McGeechan’s songs were well suited to an evening such as this and the only disappointment was not many people knew he was performing (his appearance was only advertised at the eleventh hour on the official website with no mention on the tickets or any of the pre-show promotional material).

Speaking to Jamie after the event he confirmed he was disappointed he hadn’t been advertised more prominently, especially as he was the Burns an' a' That! Ayrplay Battle of the Bands winner last year (and has since had airplay on BBC Radio 1 no less).
But that didn't stop him putting on a good performance and enjoying himself - he was like the kid in the proverbial candy shop, sharing the same billing with Dougie MacLean, Midge Ure and Capercaillie.
Jamie McGeechan could well be one to watch.

The second unforeseen bonus to the evening’s entertainment was meeting Scotland’s Wonder Woman…

The Celtic version of the famous female super-hero is in actuality Jane Crawford, who flies the Saltire flag for the Scottish based charity ‘Wallace’s Weans.’
The charity is aimed at setting up Freedom Centres (youth drop-in centres) for vulnerable and under-privileged children in Scotland and Jane, who has been campaigning for ten years, is on the march to make her cause heard on the way to a Freedom Scotland event in 2014.

Having recently been in New York where she recorded a song for a charity CD, Jane is now pursuing noted artists to gain approval for the use of other, specific songs, including Dougie MacLean’s ‘Caledonia.’ 

As fate and circumstance would have it Jane introduced herself to me just as I was speaking to Jennifer MacLean, Dougie MacLean’s wife and manager.
A quick introduction later and Jane was succinctly and passionately making her cause known to both Jennifer and Dougie, who were genuinely interested and only too happy to help.

Wallace’s Weans also promote via live music events with the next one, the Braveheart Rock Show, taking place in August in Lanark.
Information on the charity can be found here: http://www.wallacesweans.com/

The hottest triple bill ticket in the UK this year was without doubt the Journey - Foreigner - Styx tour, with every rock fan and his aunty trying to grab a seat for one of the shows.

Twenty-five to thirty years ago I would have been shoving every rock fan and their aunty out the way to get to one of those seats, but in recent years I’ve become a little jaded of the retro-rock music market and find myself disinterested in most of the big-name-big-arena shows.
 
I now find more vibrancy and resonance in the music of the Dougie MacLean’s and voice of the Karen Matheson’s of this world.
And in the current climate of so many re-imagined bands and greatest hits tours, hearing original material performed by new artists such as Jamie McGeechan is a breath of fresh musical Ayr.

And I certainly don’t recall meeting Wonder Woman at a Journey or Foreigner gig.

Ross Muir
June 2011