Southside of the Tracks Queen's Hall 11th January 2025 Review
Southside of The Tracks at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight saw John McCusker, Scotland's foremost fiddler, select some of the finest singer/songwriters and traditional musicians for a musical package that seems to grow in popularity every year.
The popularity of Southside of The Tracks as a musical event on many people's calendars, one which is selling out every concert, is in no small part down to John McCusker’s ability to bring so many well-known (and some new to many in the audiences) musicians together for a show, and also to the Queen’s Hall itself and the support that all the staff at this venue give to hosting a diverse programme of live music all year round, year after year.
The format of this show is always the same, and that is an all-star Celtic musicians house band with specially selected guest artists. It is also refreshing that no matter who you are as a guest, everyone is pretty much given the same amount of performance time. There is no musical hierarchy in this show, no one person a bigger star than the other, just simply musicians coming together to enjoy playing music with one another and with their audience, and perhaps this is really why this show works so well. Tonight that house band and guests were planned to be as below, but there were a few last minute changes.
House Band: Louis Abbott, Ian Carr, Phil Cunningham, Kris Drever, James MacKintosh, John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick and Ewan Vernal with guests Ricky Ross (Deacon Blue), Katherine Priddy, and Niall McCabe. Unfortunately, both Phil Cunningham and Katherine Priddy had succumbed to the winter virus that is afflicting so many people at the moment and last minute changes had to be made. For most people organising a show like Southside of the Tracks, this would have been the stuff of nightmares, but when you are John McCusker, you telephone a few friends, and Donald Shaw (who is also busy organising the final schedules for Celtic Connections) and Eddi Reader and John Douglas stepped into the show at very short notice.
There is always something special about watching long-time friends/performers together who know each other's music almost instinctively, and this is always the case with the house band, particularly so with John McCusker (fiddle) and Michael McGoldrick (pipes and flutes). Whether it be something very traditional on the fiddle or his own compositions drawing their inspiration from many sources (travels, the landscape, or his hero Billy Connolly), there is always something joyous in John McCusker’s music, something that comes from his heart, and his love of music that he obviously wants to share with his audiences.
There were so many highlights in tonight's show and only space for mentioning a few here, but amongst these was watching and listening to one of the finest songwriters of his generation, Ricky Ross, perform. How many writers can watch a happy dog crossing from one side of the street to another to unexpected owners and write a song like “Only God and Dogs” and write it from the dog's point of view?
Likewise, any song that Eddi Reader chose to perform this evening would have been just fine with this audience as her unexpected appearance was a real treat for many people. Both “The Wild Mountainside” performed with John Douglas and the Robert Burns classic “Willie Stewart” were instant crowd pleasers. Getting an equally warm welcome was Louis Abbott with “Isn’t This World Enough”.
This show always introduces new talent in music and tonight it was Niall McCabe - one of Ireland's fastest rising folk stars and even in a few songs, amongst them “The Ritual” and the Americana country themed “Pale Rider” it was obvious that here was a singer/songwriter that we will be hearing a lot more of in the years to come.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The popularity of Southside of The Tracks as a musical event on many people's calendars, one which is selling out every concert, is in no small part down to John McCusker’s ability to bring so many well-known (and some new to many in the audiences) musicians together for a show, and also to the Queen’s Hall itself and the support that all the staff at this venue give to hosting a diverse programme of live music all year round, year after year.
The format of this show is always the same, and that is an all-star Celtic musicians house band with specially selected guest artists. It is also refreshing that no matter who you are as a guest, everyone is pretty much given the same amount of performance time. There is no musical hierarchy in this show, no one person a bigger star than the other, just simply musicians coming together to enjoy playing music with one another and with their audience, and perhaps this is really why this show works so well. Tonight that house band and guests were planned to be as below, but there were a few last minute changes.
House Band: Louis Abbott, Ian Carr, Phil Cunningham, Kris Drever, James MacKintosh, John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick and Ewan Vernal with guests Ricky Ross (Deacon Blue), Katherine Priddy, and Niall McCabe. Unfortunately, both Phil Cunningham and Katherine Priddy had succumbed to the winter virus that is afflicting so many people at the moment and last minute changes had to be made. For most people organising a show like Southside of the Tracks, this would have been the stuff of nightmares, but when you are John McCusker, you telephone a few friends, and Donald Shaw (who is also busy organising the final schedules for Celtic Connections) and Eddi Reader and John Douglas stepped into the show at very short notice.
There is always something special about watching long-time friends/performers together who know each other's music almost instinctively, and this is always the case with the house band, particularly so with John McCusker (fiddle) and Michael McGoldrick (pipes and flutes). Whether it be something very traditional on the fiddle or his own compositions drawing their inspiration from many sources (travels, the landscape, or his hero Billy Connolly), there is always something joyous in John McCusker’s music, something that comes from his heart, and his love of music that he obviously wants to share with his audiences.
There were so many highlights in tonight's show and only space for mentioning a few here, but amongst these was watching and listening to one of the finest songwriters of his generation, Ricky Ross, perform. How many writers can watch a happy dog crossing from one side of the street to another to unexpected owners and write a song like “Only God and Dogs” and write it from the dog's point of view?
Likewise, any song that Eddi Reader chose to perform this evening would have been just fine with this audience as her unexpected appearance was a real treat for many people. Both “The Wild Mountainside” performed with John Douglas and the Robert Burns classic “Willie Stewart” were instant crowd pleasers. Getting an equally warm welcome was Louis Abbott with “Isn’t This World Enough”.
This show always introduces new talent in music and tonight it was Niall McCabe - one of Ireland's fastest rising folk stars and even in a few songs, amongst them “The Ritual” and the Americana country themed “Pale Rider” it was obvious that here was a singer/songwriter that we will be hearing a lot more of in the years to come.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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