Showing posts with label Mugdock Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mugdock Festival. Show all posts

Wednesday 30 December 2009

Mugdock Music Festival 2009


This year the festival was held in a marquee in the walled garden, which seemed much simpler while missing the activities in the courtyard. The Mugdock festival brought together a broad range and depth of artists and had a strong international flavour. The Shawlands, Chinese and belly dancer dance groups brought colour. The flamenco dancers and musicians brought energy and colourful African drums with Arawarra. Seylan Baxter and Cheyanne Brown played their warm flowing harp and cello tunes. The Sighthill Project was a fresh, well taught group of talented youngsters from different countries, who sing and play violin together.

Headlining this year were John McCusker, Michel Marra, and the Battlefield band. The Battlefield band played a fun energy-filled set of Scottish tunes. McCusker. Woomble and Drever, three talented artists plus Heidi Talbot, have joined forces to produce a class album of contemporary tunes with folk influences. To our delight Scottish singing royalty Eddi Reader turned up and sang on a couple of songs with the group! 

Some artists are both unassuming and also brimming with talent and they play intelligent, insightful and instinctive music. Michael Marra and John McCusker both fall into the category in different ways. McCusker has that ability to sink into the emotion and grip you with his music through his expressive dynamic fiddle playing.
 
Michael Marra at Mugdock theatre
When he arrived at Mugdock he discovered the perfect small theatre. The theatre is fairly new and seats about 50 in a tiered semi circle and with a shiny grand piano to the left of the small stage. There is one side entrance and the door to the back stage room. It has been built with music lovers in mind. 

I managed a chat with Marra and he appeared to recognise me from last year. I sense he doesn’t miss a beat. He had his green shirt laid out on the side table and he said how much he loved the Mugdock theatre and the beautiful piano. You could feel his excitement. Last year in 2008 he said he had travelled through the rain and the winding country roads wondering where he was coming to. 

Marra's is unforgettable playing the small Murdock theatre. His songs are both very humorous (as is his chat) and insightful and his clever use of words and images in his songs, he takes himself into the others heads. There are echoes of his poet and musical hero, Bob Dylan. He cleverly uses humour and irony to describe the truths of the diversity of human nature. He draws on Dundee his home town often and of the football team Dundee United FC. All eyes are fixed on Marra throughout. 

Marra finished with the Robert Burn's song Green Grow the Rashes O and his smile said it all. For his encore he sang a beautiful, moving song, He talked about an uncle he never knew who died and about family being in the huff with each other 
He sang the words, ‘Did you forget the world and did the world forget you?’ 

You could feel Marra’s joy of it after his encore song. A perfect ending to the Saturday.
Whenever I think of the special audience connection this has to be the perfect small venue where that magic can happen. Buckley calls it the 'romance of the small venue'. 



Thursday 4 October 2007

Mugdock Music Festival 2007





The Festival brought young and old, Indian and Scot, European and African together in a celebration of world, modern, classical, traditional music, and ‘jazzy Afro grooves!’ The festival braved many hazards also fFrom wind, rain, midges, accidents and more ….. so that music from the cool of Norway to the warm breezes of Africa might bring us all together. We had Chinese and Indian dancers, Scottish and Gaelic singers and pipers, Norwegian songs, fiddlers and African drums. The headliners were Karen Matheson (Capercaillie), Caledon the three tenors, and world famous fiddler Ali Bain and Alle Muller.
Friday Concert - June 2007. This evening we had Erne’s Crossborder band, who combine English and Scottish folk and with Harry on tamblas and a cello player who were followed by the local Milngavie pipe band and the Islay choir

Saturday The Courtyard, Peter Donegan’s (son of Lonnie) upbeat skiffle band. The central hub of the festival was the Courtyard stage at the historic visitors Centre which staged a wide variety with colourful dancers, cool classical music, traditional Celtic and atmospheric Jewish wedding music, upbeat Scottish drummers, cheerful Barbershop, children’s choirs and enthusiastic young Indians.
Saturday Afternoon concert. Seylan and Cheyanne, Cheyanne on harp played delicate yet energetic rhythms that were like waterfalls that counterpointed perfectly to Seylan’s deep toned cello melodies. The band Caledon were next and included Alan Beck, Jamie MacDougall and Ivan Sharpe and they belted out Scottish songs, with Burns, traditional and modern tunes.

Saturday Evening Concert was a Night of Contrasts and a classy concert of Scottish traditional music and African rhythms. Fribo from Edinburgh, bean the evening with serene, innovative sounds, and they blend Scandinavian and Scottish music traditions, combined with a positive feel for contemporary sounds and rhythms.
Lovely Gaelic singer Karen Matheson was engaging with a beautiful, natural purity to her  voice, that takes you on a calm breeze. Karen sang Gaelic, Burns and modern songs. She has been hailed as the ‘finest Gaelic singer. She was followed by Diwan and Samba Sene, and their wild, infectious vitality and a chaotic stage presence, both loose and ragged, that added to their laid back yet upbeat feel. Diwan band members play African percussion instruments and are from Senegal, Mali, Colorado and Scotland. Catch them if you can!
Sunday - The Courtyard,  .
The Sighthill Project ,were enchanting and were led by two former RSAMD students. They consisted of asylum seekers and refugees from the likes of Kosovo, Albania, Ski-Lanka and Africa. They played Scottish and Irish traditional music.  They were followed by Two’s Company: a classical trio from Edinburgh, that included violin, piano ,clarinet and cello.  Vivien Scotson provided a contrast as a solo singer songwriter with only her acoustic guitar, her soul-searching voice and her emotive songs. Sunday afternoon concert, was led by accomplished players Ali Bain and Ali Moller on the bandstand stage. Here were two musicians, one the master of traditional Shetland music, the other on mandolin, an accomplished Norwegian musician. Ali Bain’s fiddle music has an unsurpassed clearness and a lyrical beauty.
The new festival included many accomplished, entertaining, diverse and interesting artists, performing both traditional and new music. From the expert and world travelled Ali Bain to enthusiastic young singers. We had two bands bringing together Norwegian and Scottish traditional music. One band, Diwan, that brought artists together from around the globe – from the USA, Mali, Senegal and Scotland. We had the two main stages, the Courtyard and the Walled Garden. The Highlights for me were the energy of Diwan, the beauty of Karen Matheson’s voice, the expert traditional violin of Ali Bain and the innocence and joy of the Sighthill project.
Mugdock 2008 -

Mugdock festival 2009 -