Snow fails to put accordion club off
MEETING for the opening night of 2017, Inveraray Accordion and Fiddle Club chairman Niall Iain MacLean welcomed a surprisingly good crowd, despite the earlier threat of snow.
In the Inveraray Inn on Wednesday January 11, Fyne Folk got the evening under way with renditions of Highland Wedding and a Burns medley by Jake MacKay, Sally Hall and Alex John MacLeod on fiddles and Agnes Liddell on keyboard. Colin Sutcliffe, on melodeon, played a couple of sets, including Kate Martins Waltz.
This was followed by Jake on moothie and Agnes on keyboard with a couple of toe-tapping sets.
Guest artistes were the ever popular MacAllister brothers from Campbeltown - Archie on fiddle and Alex on accordion - joined by Ally Murray from Oban on drums, making up an all-Argyll ensemble. They delighted the audience with a great selection of sets, including some with Archie taking the lead on fiddle and giving it ‘laldy’, as only he can.
Jake and Agnes opened the second half with sing-a-long of Gaelic waltzes and a set of reels. The Archie MacAllister Trio played for the remainder of the evening, finishing with a set of reels - or so the audience thought.
A superb encore from Archie, ably backed by Alex and Ally, truly wound up the evening and resulted in thunderous applause from the crowd.
The chairman thanked all the artistes for a great night and next week the club welcomes, for the first time, Alan Small on accordion and 2006 Glenfiddich Fiddle Champion Gemma Donald.