Reviews
Live Reviews
Hootananny, Inverness
28th March 2012
Northings
Joy Dunlop & Twelfth Day | Live Performance Review
A PUNTER, leaving the bar, pauses at the door. “You’re beautiful”, he says, rather wistfully, to Joy Dunlop, Catriona Price and Esther Swift.
Indeed they are, and they’re also brave. It takes courage to perform what is essentially a classical suite of songs in the spit-and-sawdust-shebeen ambience of the Hootananny downstairs bar. It turns out that this is a last minute change of plan by the bar management – they were originally booked to play the quieter, smaller bar upstairs, two hours earlier, which would have been an entirely different affair. Michael Marra sings yearningly of Frida Kahlo coming back to life in the Tay Bridge Bar but if Elvis himself took the stage late on a Wednesday night at Hootananny, he’d be hard pushed to get an audience to notice him.
Top marks for self-possession, then, as the young trio forge through the suite, gradually winning over a good half of the crowd with their selection of poems by Scotswomen set to some truly lovely tunes. Jackie Kay’s ‘Darling’ comes zinging out, set to music by Swift that briefly hushes the bar chatter, followed by ‘Firewirks ower Bressa Soond’, an Orkney/Shetland fusion with music by Price and words by Christine de Luca.
Price’s music for Sheila MacLeod’s ‘Maid’ (based on the ancient Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens) is also lovely. Dunlop’s waulking songs catch the Invernessian ear and there’s a small outbreak of feet tapping at the bar. But most of this audience is not in the mood for the carefully crafted beauty on offer – they want simple singalong tunes with strongly marked beats. More’s the pity for those of us who are straining to hear through the noise.
In the second half, Liz Lochhead’s ‘Two Birds’ and Violet Jacob’s ‘The Lost Licht’ stand out. Throughout the evening Price’s fiddle playing is remarkable, and Swift’s performance on the concert harp is a rare treat, while their voices entwined with Dunlop’s beautifully pure, clear, true tones are exquisite. This reviewer looks forward to hearing Fiere performed in a venue where it will be treated with the respect it undoubtedly deserves. Until then, there’s the CD.
Argyll’s Got Talent
Campbell Cameron: Argyll’s got talent
Joy Dunlop | Live Performance Review
So….Argyll’s got talent. We never doubted it …not the sort of plastic manufactured talent that the X Factor or The Voice produces ….but real honest to goodness ability that comes of endless hours of practice and much performance experience.
It all began with Joy Dunlop (top with the Argyll band) – a great product of the Gaelic choir and Fèis movements. Following in the footsteps of Karen Matheson, Joy has found the old Gaelic standards born of Argyll have not been heard by audiences further afield. Both have spent many hours individually at the School of Scottish studies in Edinburgh trawling through the rich seam of recorded music archived there. Joy found many of them recorded on the original wax cylinders.
The new album is complete and a few of us lucky souls got the chance to take one home from her recent run of concerts with the Argyll Band. Comprising all Argyll musicians to reflect the songs she sang – it is apparent that our girl; for she hails from Connel, within earshot of the Falls of Lora, has come on in leaps and bounds. Joy’s range and depth is fantastic and she has a confidence that makes her a great entertainer with stories and jokes between the songs to entertain the audience. If I marry I shall not marry a big girl opens the album in ironic style as Joy is a generous 6 foot tall beauty and well worthy of the suitor who penned the song. The album takes us a tour of Mull, The Isle of Luing, Glen Ure, to lament Colin Campbell, Colonsay Coll and Tiree, Carsaig Beach and back to the water’s edge of Loch Etive with Taigh an Uillt, the loch where the Falls of Lora ebb and flow daily. Treat yourself when Joy comes by or get on her website and be sure to get wind of the albums official release later this year.