Southside of the Tracks Queen's Hall Edinburgh 13th January 2024 Review
Southside of the Tracks at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, curated by John McCusker, featured a strong line up of singer/songwriters and traditional musicians that included guests Kim Carnie, Boo Hewerdine, Karen Matheson and Cammy Barnes.
The format for the Southside of the Tracks shows, with a house band made up of some of the best musicians on the contemporary traditional music scene (and further afield) plus selected guests, was originally a one-off show to celebrate the Queen’s Hall’s 40th anniversary of being a live music venue in 2019. The show was such a success that it is now in its 5th year and growing in popularity with every performance. Tonight’s show was sold out.
As well as curating this show and acting as compere, John McCusker was also dazzling the audience with his own skills as a musician and showing clearly why he is currently regarded by many people as Scotland’s foremost fiddle player. Included in the many songs performed by John this evening were two very personal ones – “Jessica’s Lullaby” written for his daughter and “Billy’s Reel” a tribute to one of his heroes, Billy Connolly. Here, as always, the combination of John McCusker and multi-instrumentalist Mike McGoldrick (Irish flute, uilleann pipes, low whistle and more) was a perfect combination of two musicians who just know each other so well and instinctively to be just there for each other on stage.
A strong house band made up of James Mackintosh, Ewen Vernal, Ian Carr, Phil Cunningham, Louis Abbott, Tom Walsh, Graeme Blevins and of course Mike and John must have been the “dream team” for the guests on this show.
The first guest to perform tonight was singer-songwriter Boo Hewardine and the two opening songs of this show, “Follow My Tears” and “Patience of Angels” perfectly show why he is considered by so many people to be one of the finest of contemporary songwriters. Boo Hewardine’s gift of bringing the people that he writes about in his songs to life is a very special one.
Karen Matheson is someone who needed no introductions tonight as her talents as a soloist and leading the hugely popular group Capercaillie have gained her many followers over the years. Singing mostly in Gaelic this evening, the songs were simply a display of instinctive phrasing and timing that few vocalists possess.
Southside of the Tracks shows always feature a strong line-up of firmly established musical talent with space for emerging, newer and fast rising names and tonight that included Kim Carnie (Gaelic singer of the year in 2021) and the powerful voice of Cammy Barnes.
There was one special surprise guest vocalist on this show with a special place in John McCusker’s life and heart, his daughter Mollie May. Hopefully this was the first of many Southside of the Tracks performances for father and daughter.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The format for the Southside of the Tracks shows, with a house band made up of some of the best musicians on the contemporary traditional music scene (and further afield) plus selected guests, was originally a one-off show to celebrate the Queen’s Hall’s 40th anniversary of being a live music venue in 2019. The show was such a success that it is now in its 5th year and growing in popularity with every performance. Tonight’s show was sold out.
As well as curating this show and acting as compere, John McCusker was also dazzling the audience with his own skills as a musician and showing clearly why he is currently regarded by many people as Scotland’s foremost fiddle player. Included in the many songs performed by John this evening were two very personal ones – “Jessica’s Lullaby” written for his daughter and “Billy’s Reel” a tribute to one of his heroes, Billy Connolly. Here, as always, the combination of John McCusker and multi-instrumentalist Mike McGoldrick (Irish flute, uilleann pipes, low whistle and more) was a perfect combination of two musicians who just know each other so well and instinctively to be just there for each other on stage.
A strong house band made up of James Mackintosh, Ewen Vernal, Ian Carr, Phil Cunningham, Louis Abbott, Tom Walsh, Graeme Blevins and of course Mike and John must have been the “dream team” for the guests on this show.
The first guest to perform tonight was singer-songwriter Boo Hewardine and the two opening songs of this show, “Follow My Tears” and “Patience of Angels” perfectly show why he is considered by so many people to be one of the finest of contemporary songwriters. Boo Hewardine’s gift of bringing the people that he writes about in his songs to life is a very special one.
Karen Matheson is someone who needed no introductions tonight as her talents as a soloist and leading the hugely popular group Capercaillie have gained her many followers over the years. Singing mostly in Gaelic this evening, the songs were simply a display of instinctive phrasing and timing that few vocalists possess.
Southside of the Tracks shows always feature a strong line-up of firmly established musical talent with space for emerging, newer and fast rising names and tonight that included Kim Carnie (Gaelic singer of the year in 2021) and the powerful voice of Cammy Barnes.
There was one special surprise guest vocalist on this show with a special place in John McCusker’s life and heart, his daughter Mollie May. Hopefully this was the first of many Southside of the Tracks performances for father and daughter.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Please note that unless requested by performers/pr/venues that this website no longer uses the "star rating" system on reviews.