End of year ceilidh at Inveraray club
The December meeting of the Inveraray and District Accordion and Fiddle Club was more of a ceilidh night - and a very entertaining one at that!
Chairman Roddy MacDiarmid welcomed a large crowd and the evening opened with three of Stuart Liddell’s pupils on chanter, accompanied by Stuart on accordion, with their rendition of Scots Wha Hae.
This was followed by another pupil, Bryce Griffin, on pipes, accompanied by Stuart and Agnes Liddell on piano. It was a treat to hear the youngsters and the club looks forward to watching their progress.
Next on stage were Fyne Folk and it was more of a “stramash” – with Jake MacKay, Sally Hall and Alex John MacLeod on fiddle, Agnes on piano, Stuart on accordion and Angus J MacColl on small pipes. Jake followed this on the “moothie”, accompanied by Agnes with fine toe-tapping pipe marches. Angus J then played some stirring tunes on the Highland bagpipes – all their selections were much enjoyed.
The guest artistes were the Calum MacColl Trio – Calum, a native of Lochaber, as is his keyboard player, Martainn Skene and on fiddle was Anna Garvin, of the well-known musical family from Oban.
They played some great pipe marches of various tempos, lovely Gaelic waltzes, pipe jigs and Gaelic reels and much more, with Calum explaining the background to the tunes in his own inimitable style.
The second half opened with Angus J giving another few tunes on the Highland bagpipes, accompanied by Agnes.
Next on stage was Michael Garvin, accompanied by his daughter, Anna, on keyboard with a lovely couple of sets.
It was then back to the Calum MacColl Trio for the remainder of the evening and this they did in style – including a lovely fiddle solo from Anna.
Calum was in great form and also treated the audience to a medley of Gaelic songs and finished off with some rousing tunes on the Highland bagpipes to rapturous applause - what an entertainer!
The chairman thanked all the artistes for a wonderful night of music. Next week, on Wednesday January 10, at 7.30pm at the Inveraray Inn, the club welcomes back fiddle maestro Archie MacAllister and accordionist Sileas Sinclair – which promises to be a great start to the New Year.
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