On cue, just as we’ve hit the dark nights, fiddler Chris Stout and harpist Catriona McKay bring White Nights to Lochgoilhead on Sunday afternoon (7th November 2010).
Chris and Catriona are both acclaimed as individual leaders in their chosen instrumental fields but together they undertake a dynamic and adventurous exploration of traditional Scottish music, challenging boundaries while still somehow remaining true to their original roots.
They are touring their five-star rated new album, White Nights, which is inspired by the varying light of the long Shetland summers and the equally dramatic light and landscapes of the island winters.
This pair have been sparking creatively off each other for years and this album sees them at their collaborative best so far. It’s worth buying for its stunning opening track alone, Missing You – a plangent, meditative lament which seems to hover somewhere between a numinous north and a sultry far east.
There’s a clear Nordic ring to Stout’s fiddle (made in his native Fair Isle, after all), a gentle nod to Shetland’s wee folk in Da Trow’s Jig, and a decidedly Scandinavian accent to the headlong rush of Roddy Sinclair, with McKay’s nimble and often fiercely syncopated harping urging on the pace and similarly putting an intense spin on Edges and High Water. They push their instruments hard and far, but come home to touch base beautifully with the auld-farrant Scots melancholy of the closing air.
Rob Adams, of the Herald, clearly likes their new album, but particularly recommends their live performances: ‘The Scottish harp and Shetland fiddle descriptions below Catriona McKay and Chris Stout’s names on the cover of the duo’s first album since 2005’s exceptional Laebrack seem like quaint understatements alongside the music that they play. McKay frequently sounds as if she’s playing not just the harp but a whole rhythm section of string and fretted instruments, and while Stout undoubtedly has the Shetland fiddling tradition in his soul, the restless quest for adventure that has seen him experimenting and collaborating with Brazilian, Scandinavian and even Singaporean musicians brings an immense richness of tone and expression to his playing. White Nights itself may well be a slight understatement. This is wonderful music played by musicians who are at the top of their game.’
Chris Stout has established himself as the leading Shetland style fiddler of his generation, yet he brings enormous variety to his playing. With such a versatile outlook, he has been busy playing with many bands such as Fiddlers Bid, and his own Quintet, taking him on tour all over the world, where his playing never fails to excite and inspire people from all walks of life and musical tastes. Chris is one of the most effective ‘cross over’ musicians between the classical and traditional styles in modern times
Catriona Mackay became harp champion at the O’Carolan International Harp Festival when she left school. A desire to master harp techniques to an advanced level took her on to study pedal harp, Celtic harp and electro acoustic composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where she gained a first class honours BA and several solo and chamber music prizes. Catriona McKay was voted ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ in the 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards.
This is a ‘not to miss concert’, put on by FiddleFolk and Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop.
Details are: Lochgoilhead Village Hall, Sunday afternoon, November 7th, at 3:00 p.m. Ticket reservations at 01301 703504: (Adults £10 Schoolchildren FREE).
Mark Morpurgo, Folk and Traditional Music Editor
