Unique atmosphere in Mid Yell

Gavin Morgan

5 May 2008

A BEAUTIFUL Shetland night set the scene for an evening of musical virtuosity in the Mid Yell hall on the second day of the isles’ 28th Folk Festival.

Scottish band Breabach kicked off the concert with their tunes initially matching the calm vibe of the weather outside, fuelled by the lovely voice of Patsy Reid, before blasting off in a whirl of bagpipes, whistle, fiddle, flute and guitar.

The youthful group’s star is climbing on the world folk scene with guitarist and singer Ewan Robertson recently being named Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year.

Ewan had an easy manner and the sense of camaraderie between the quartet was displayed when he mentioned the birth of flute/pipe player Donal Brown’s first child.

There followed a story involving a long car journey to Wales when on tour and a breast pump was discovered by Ewan under the seat which, Donal reckoned, was a tale Ewan had been “milking for a long time”.

A high point of the set was ‘Loch Arbour No More’ which Patsy sang in the role of a man who goes away to fight leaving his love on the shore with a lovely whistle interlude amping up the emotion.

A rousing couple of reels finished off the performance with Donal breaking into a jig then grabbing his pipes and off again, while Patsy’s bouncing the bow off the strings fiddle style got many a head bobbing in the island hall.

Next up was local lad Kevin Henderson who plays in Shetland fiddle super group Fiddlers’ Bid, he was teamed up with famed Irish accordionist Brendan Begley at very short notice, as original partner Fionan De Barra was not able to attend.

The older Irishman introduced himself as the one without the wig, referring to his bald head, to which Kevin responded he was the one without Viagra.

The lack of rehearsal time the duo had did not take away from their individual talents which followed a very traditional musical path.

The crowd responded positively to Brendan’s part acapella tune in Gallic about a lady lying on her deathbed regretting the things she had not done in her life and the song ended with a heartfelt accordion coda.

As the drink started to flow freely the gig really hit its stride with the next two acts, amazing fingerstyle guitarist from Kansas City Andy McKee and colourful Danish based act the Henrik Jansberg Band.

McKee has had more than 13.5 million hits for his videos on the YouTube website and it was hard to drag your eyes or ears away from the amazing techniques he was using to pull sounds from his guitar.

The 29 year old American had a happy, warm character which drew the capacity audience in despite his style not being as traditional as the previous acts, shown by his arrangement of the 80’s song Africa by rock group Toto.

It was not just the crowd that was enraptured as good natured heckling came from fellow musicians during some of the more showy moments in the set.

Andy also drew first blood in the battle of the strange instruments when he produced a harpguitar which he had been playing for about six years and called his “boom stick”.

One particular song he played inspired by the Californian coast called ‘Into the Ocean’ somehow summed up the mythic allure of the sea.

Swapping back to his standard guitar he again proved that his playing was anything but, with a song called ‘Common Ground’. This again emphasised his power rock influences with the instantly recognisable riff of Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’ smuggled into the tune.

McKee’s powerful set prompted comments from audience members about burning or throwing away their own guitars as soon as they got home.

The Henrik Jansberg Band further impressed the crowd and was definitely the most humorous act of the night, even before they said anything the five member band’s various appearances and facial expressions was enough to entertain, then came the music.

Fiddle player Jansberg is the nominal leader, but the group blended perfectly with massive Swedish multi instrumentalist Perry Stenbäck bursting with fun and talent.

Themes of their tunes ranged from humans being compared to pigs and rats as they are all animals that eat anything to the largest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro, to an erotic tune that translated as Sex Trip.

The strange instrument contest reached its climax when the huge Swede produced a fiddle harp hybrid that was played with a bow and called a keyed harp in English.

After performing the two finger Satan signal, Perry preened like a guitar rock god with his weird instrument during another unusually themed song called the Cannibal Waltz.

Accordionist David Munelly at work - Photo: Billy Fox

The crowd was hooked on this rowdy act which mixed stand up comedy, circus performance and tight musical talent with most of the hall on their feet by the climax of the set.

The rowdy atmosphere continued for the final act of the night The David Munnelly Band from County Mayo in Ireland, whose laddish vigour was offset by the unusual, but powerfully deep voice of Shauna Mullin.

Munnelly is a button accordion wizard who has found international recognition and his rough Irish demeanour was exemplified when he silenced the audience applause so more music could be slotted in, as time was running out.

During one of the jigs, as if from nowhere, Donal from Breabach again appeared to dance in his very lively and bendy style which pleased everyone.

The very bubbly Shauna also bounded in from offstage announcing how honoured and humbled she was to be sharing the stage with the acts that had been on that night.

She then sang in a voice that took a few people by surprise with its unusual force, at the same time summing up the Shetland Folk Festival with the lyric in the chorus stating “by night and by day, we’ll sport and we’ll play”.

So with the enthusiastic chatter of music fans who had come to visit the north Shetland Island from Devon ringing around the hall, the event proved why the folk festival holds such a strong position in the world music scene with its range of talent and unique atmosphere.