Polwart is one of Scotland’s best
loved songstress with her beautiful voice and relevant moving songs.
Many
folk artists fill the folk clubs but not so many can fill halls the size of the
Oran Mor church auditorium. Her pure softly soothing voice captivated the full
house in the clear acoustic church setting with its ornate stained glass
windows and with Scottish artist Alastair Gray's colourful mural ceiling.
.
Karine
sang the flowing harmonies and melodies of her story-telling and honest songs.
She had her usual two backing musicians, her brother Steven on guitar and Inge
Thomson on accordion, plus for this larger event - percussionist Iain
Sandilands who added depth and energy to the new songs along with a wind
section that included flute and clarinet.
She performed
songs from her well received third album Traces - Strange News, We’re all
Leaving, Tears For Lots Wife,
Salters Road and Sticks and Stones.
One
highlight was a lovely duet of the song Solstice
with the guitarist Craig from the Scottish band Unwinding Hand. Another set highlight was a haunting solo song from
Inge Thomson.
The
set included songs from Polwart's new album Traces.
The song Tinsel Show was written
about the lights of Grangemouth which shone in the night sky near to where
Karine grew up in East Lothian. Karine also
included a few of her classic well loved songs from previous albums - Daisy, Rivers Run.
She
spoke of her fascination with birds and how many of her songs reflected this.
One stand out song from Traces was
the song King of Birds. For an encore
she sang Follow The Heron. Her new
album has her classy songs and a more intricate depth to it.
Karine
said that as she wasn’t an Indie artist she wouldn’t simply come on and play
the album songs and leave and that as she had come up through the folk circuit
she would play two full sets with an interval and a raffle!
I’ve
heard Karine at several of those smaller folk venues, as well as her leading a
Celtic Connections concert on Scottish songs at the Glasgow concert hall. This was another
perfect setting for her intimate songs.
I
have met Karine a couple of times and just a week later at the Lake of Monteith
Hotel Bar the night before my son's wedding!
She recognised me by name which made me feel just that little bit
famous!. She is such a genuine person and this reflects in her music.
I recommend checking out Karine Polwart's fourth studio album
'Traces' - http://www.facebook.com/karinepolwart/