In the Company of Wolves...
Wolfstone - Celtic Connections Festival, Glasgow, January 22nd.

Wolfstone are one of my favourite bands and, as they were performing a set at the O2ABC in Glasgow on a Friday night as part of the Celtic Connections muiscal festivities, it was a win win for me. 
 
Wolfstone were supported by Felpeyu, an Asturian band (Asturias is an autonomous community within Spain) whose own brand of celtic fare ranged from contemporary to traditional, and a couple of the songs were even very Moorish in influence.
Felpeyu kept the crowd entertained, and clearly had a lot of fun playing which the Weegie crowd appreciated.
 
Wolftsone are one of those bands where it's impossible not to have fun at one of their gigs, and it's also fair to say that this band and their music thrive in the live environment - it's certainly where their music excels, which is not to say they don't deliver some fine studio albums.
If they are to be labelled it would be as Celtic Rock, but traditional celtic sounds and arrangements also feature, and the show was a perfect blend of both sides of the band.

Founder members Duncan Chisholm and Stuart Eaglesham are still the featured players (on fiddle, and lead vocals/ acoustic guitar respectively) but piper and long time member Stevie Saint is also very much an integral piece of the Wolfstone sound, which is completed and complemented by the rhythm section of Alyn Cosker (drums), Colin Cunningham (bass) and guitarist Davie Dunsmuir.

Not only was the concert a highlight of the festival events  featured throughout Glasgow, the band were also celebrating their 21st Anniversary and this show included a special guest appearance by Struan Eaglesham (a founder member who left the band in the mid-90's and brother of Stuart).
He added keyboard textures to a couple of songs as well as providing some lead vocals to 'The Prophet,' one of the band's most popular numbers.

It was also nice however to hear lesser known or under-rated numbers such as 'The Queen of Argyll', as well as a few from their last album (2007's 'Terra Firma') such as the lightweight rocker 'These are the Days.'

'Balivanich' was, as always, a highlight with its soft opening lulling those not in the know into a false sense of musical security before it's full steam ahead, although a better summation of how these more traditional numbers are delivered came from Stuart Eaglesham - "dancing is...mandatory."
It's quite a sight to see Wolfstone crowd in full-on-bounce mode complete with rebel yells while holding aloft their beers in their plastic cups... and not spilling a drop.
Mind you at the prices you're paying in these venues, I'm not surprised, and we Scots have a reputation to keep up...

'Cleveland Park' also got an outing, and this infectious little piece was given an introduction by Duncan Chisholm where he told the story of the man who came up to him last year while he was shopping in Inverness and shook his hand, thanking him for playing a gig in that very town back in 1991 where, it seems, this man's daughter was conceived - during Cleveland Park.
Duncan went on to say he found that a little unusual, especially as Cleveland Park "isn't the most romantic of tunes...and it's only three and half minutes long..."

Finest moment for me (and I suspect most of the crowd) was the encore, 'Gillies.' This instrumental is actually two pieces of music combined which starts with a lament ('The Sleeping Tune') played by Stevie Saint, but this version also included Jarlath Henderson on the Uilleann pipes. Henderson had come on to the stage for the last song of the main set as a special guest (he played on the Terra Firma album), and on the encore the band were again joined by Struan Eaglesham on the keyboards.

The song builds from the pipes and swells in sound before kicking into the second part of the song ('The Noose and the Gillies'), but what really stood the hairs on the back of the neck was the surprise inclusion of additional pipers who came on to accompany Saint as he was playing the opening melody.
I'm not the greatest fan of bagpipes, certainly not en masse, but individually, or in small numbers, playing a truly emotive lament or Scottish air...
Tear in the eye, lump in the throat, those aforementioned hairs on the back of the neck...and a warm beer in a plastic cup.
Where's me Claymore.
And where's the next gig, boys? *

Great night, and it almost made up for the fact that I wasn't able to make the Todd Rundgren concert in London in February.
Almost.

Ross Muir
January 2010

* For me it turned out to be the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in August.
And they weren't too shabby that night, either.