“What’s the difference between an onion and a set of bagpipes? No one cries when…” at that the Folk Club’s Ant Miles is drowned out by the sound of proper Scottish bagpipes filling the tittering church.
This is how the astonishing multi-instrumentalists Mairearad and Anna started the second half of their Downend set. To further compound the joke the first tune of the second set is a banjo and bagpipe duet. Surely it’s something invented in “Fast Show” hell. Yet…oh my word! What a sound! Put simply these two young Scots make the most joy-filled, smile-inducing, largely instrumental traditional folk music that you have ever heard.
When she’s not wringing incredible sounds from her bagpipes Mairearad plays accordion. No, that’s wrong. She doesn’t just play accordion. She makes it sing, she coaxes and caresses utter beauty from that wheezing box. She was awarded Composer of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2009 and forms part of the current line up of folk goddesses The Poozies . For every jig, reel and polka that they play Mairearad Green’s accordion playing is breathtaking. Possibly best of all is her own composition, “Maggie West’s Waltz”, a sedate, delightful, warm evocation of remote Scottish village life. Oddly, they tell us, it is used by BBC Scotland as their soundtrack to the hyper-violent hockey variant Shinty.
On Mairearad’s left stood Anna Massie. She’s chattier, charming and funny and when she picks up guitar, violin or banjo she has a deft touch that adds a muscular note the tunes. She is incredible on a set of reels from Nova Scotia called “Jerry and Otis”, the violin and accordion bringing a touch of Cape Breton to this West Country evening. As if to prove that JUST playing brilliantly is something so easy Anna sings “Always Will”, a song learned from Nanci Griffith. That this version is almost as lovely as the original should tell you how good it is.
Both of these can be found of the pair’s latest album, “Best Day”, and a very fine album it is too. The highlight of the both the album and the evening is a reel inspired by gin. It is impossible to sit still whilst listening to “The Botanist”; fingers fly across guitar strings and accordion keys as the two descend in to a boozy, heady flurry. The Downend audience is always appreciative, they whoop and raise glasses. This is music to dance to and music to fill hearts with joy. In the hushed pews these two proudly Scottish, warm and vital musicians have to make do with rapturous applause and wide smiles.
Before all of this we are treated to another great local find. Steffan Lewis and Rachel Foster play music tinged with the merest hint of Americana. The songs are simple and often inspired by Yate (!) but played with intelligence and flair. When the two voices wind around each other something magical happens and those songs are lifted to something even more impressive.
The entire evening ended with a version of “Wild Mountain Thyme”; Mairearad and Anna leading the audience in some gentle singing, as hushed, warming and mellow as a decent drop of Scotch.
Gavin McNamara
TallFolk 