The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Elephant Sessions
Perth Concert Hall, May 31
They have had a beer named after them, audiences crowd surfing and they’ve even caused a festival marquee dance floor to break due to the weight of their bouncing, excited fans.
But more importantly for the band’s reputation, Elephant Sessions have taken their very individual take on Scottish traditional music into the heads and hearts of American reviewers.
They have twice brought crowds to their feet at Australia’s Byron Bay Bluesfest, where the definition of roots music is elastic, to say the least.
Then, last month they made their debut at the world’s leading bluegrass festival, Merlefest in North Carolina.
It’s the heartland of one of the most American of musical styles, with an audience of hard-to-please, bluegrass devotees who know just what they want.
“We went to Merlefest wondering whether we’d fit in,” says Invernessborn mandolinist Alasdair Taylor, who formed the band with friends from Ross-shire learning festival Feis Rois, the University of Highlands and Islands courses and Newcastle University’s folk and traditional music degree course.
“It could have gone either way and at the first of the two gigs we played that day, it was all people sitting on camp chairs,” Alasdair says.
“We were a bit nervous but very quickly people were dancing and clapping and being incredibly appreciative and the second gig, a latenight session, ended up being a very dancy, jumping-around affair.”
The five-piece have just released their third album, What Makes You, and Alasdair feels it marks a maturing of the band’s sound.
When they got together their idea was to highlight the frontline of mandolin and fiddle while integrating the highly melodic nature of the music with electronic dance beats and the urgent rhythms of guitar, bass, synths, programming and drums.
They quickly became a hit live attraction and added to their reputation by winning the Best Album title at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2017 for their second album, All We Have is Now, which saw their folk-rock approach gain a harder edge.
The Live Act of the Year title at the same awards followed in 2018 and earlier last year they were shortlisted in the Best Band category at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
“We feel that What Makes You is a musical progression from the previous album,” says Alasdair.
“We’re now writing and playing the music that we really want to be playing.”
The album title reflects the band’s experiences over the past two years, touring hard and striving to be the best they can be.
“We’ve pushed the sound further, dropping in electronics, more layering,” Alasdair adds.
“At the same time we went for a live feel so that the recorded sound would give listeners a similar impression to the one audiences get on gigs.”