2007 press

Press - 2007

THE SHETLAND Blues Festival kicked off with concerts in the Scalloway and Lerwick Royal British Legions last Friday.

The concert in Scalloway started with a set from Alaskan Son Henry who is now resident in Aberdeen. He was making his first visit to Shetland and played a spellbinding set to an enthralled crowd in the Legion function room.

Son took the audience through a journey from Delta acoustic blues, up to Chicago on his electric guitar and his acoustic lap steel guitar, of which is a master player.

The new song Sackcloth and Ashes which was played on the lap steel and will be on his forthcoming new album brought the Legion to a standstill. You could have heard a pin drop in the room as the notes just dripped from Son's guitar and filled the room.

The crowd were rewarded with an encore at the end of the set as a thank you for their appreciation.

Next up was Jamieson's Big Pockets who put in a stellar performance and got the crowd dancing and warmed up for the headline band of the festival, Blues 'n' Trouble.

A few folk were on a nostalgia trip, having seen Blues 'n' Trouble in Edinburgh in the early 1980s with a few folk mentioning the legendary Preservation Hall in Victoria Street as the place that they saw them.

Tim Elliot, the only original member left, led the band on stage and they launched into their first number with all the energy of 25 years ago. Unfortunately sound problems plagued the first song and after a short delay to sort the problems out the band put in a fantastic performance with Elliot's harmonica playing being a highlight.

The rock solid rhythm section of Andy "Mr Boom" Munro and Gus Boyd drove the band sound and pulled the crowd onto their feet who kept the dancing going right through the set.

The surprise for me was seeing Mike Parks taking so many of the solos as I had assumed that Sandy Tweeddale was the main guitar player before the festival, but the interplay between harmonica and guitar players was terrific.

Highlights for me were Train Time which was a harmonica solo with just drum backing and interplay between the two and a Sonny Boy Williamson number Bring It On Home.

Friday night finished up with Molly Brown, from Warwick, playing a fantastic late night set in the Lounge Bar.

When I came into Lerwick halfway through the set the bar was heaving with people dancing and joining in on some of the singing of the songs.

The band was made up of keyboard, double bass, guitar and banjo and singing handled by double bass player Kelly Elliot. By all accounts the gig in Da Mish on Saturday night was just as good, if not better.

Saturday lunchtime rolled around and an afternoon gig in Baroc with the Cadillac Kings. I'd just like to say a big thank you to Jackie Robertson and Norman Goudie for being able to step in and be the double bass players for the Cadillac Kings over the weekend, again proving the depth of talent in the Shetland music scene.

The swing blues of the Cadillac Kings tore the place apart with some excellent soloing from Paul Garner on guitar, Mike Adcock on keyboards and Gary Potts on harmonica.

It was hard to leave to go over to the Lounge to see how the session was going with Son Henry, Sandy Tweeddale and Dave Arcari.

The session started with each player taking turns to play two or three songs at a time, but Son Henry worked some magic and managed to get Dave Arcari to play a couple of songs with him and by the end of the session all three players were up together, with Dave Arcari even sitting down!

All in all it was a great afternoon of guitar-based blues with different shades being played. Maybe next year if this is done it would be good if some of the local players could come along and join in.

The Sunday afternoon saw a slimmed-down Rumshack Blues band playing a session in the Lounge and then Paul Garner, Gary Potts and Roy Webber got up and played a short set which was amazing.

Garner's touch and feel on the guitar just keeps getting better each time I see him play and if anyone plays guitar solos with the philosophy of less is more then he is your man.

This effectively brought the festival to an end. I'd just like to thank all the artists, helpers, the venues and sponsors for helping to make this the best Shetland Blues Festival yet . Roll on next year number five.

J Carlyle

LOCAL band The Vinyls kicked off the evening's entertainment at the Lerwick Legion on Saturday as the Shetland Blues Festival really got under way in the town.

The band has been playing for nearly 15 years now although there have been several changes among the band members.

Vocalist Victor Sandison wasted no time in letting the audience know what to expect as he started with a gutsy rendition of Dr. Feelgood's I can Tell. Throughout the entire set he was more than ably accompanied by guitarist Brian Nicholson very well known throughout Shetland as a versatile guitarist who can adapt to any style of playing required for the occasion.

The blues sound that the band were aiming for on Saturday didn't limit Brian at all as he played some masterful riffs and solos for various tracks. Terry Leith on mouth organ added to the overall feel along with bass player Graham Malcolmson.

Gordon Tulloch was in fine form on drums. He is also the guitarist with local band Shoormal and blues playing was certainly a deviation from the more folk and traditional sound of that band. But it was good tribute to Gordon's talent that he crossed the musical boundaries so well on the night.

The band finished with Route 66 by The Rolling Stones. They covered the track and certainly set the mood for the rest of the evening.
After the break was the main event, Blues 'n' Trouble a band first formed in 1985.

The original members hailed from Edinburgh but now the line up comes from all over the UK. The musicians are often busy doing other things and working with other bands so don't get together as often as they would wish to play together nowadays.

However, a general comment from the audience on Saturday night was that this band was "blinding". Tim Elliott is the lead vocalist and he also plays harmonica does he ever!

People are often mistaken in thinking that the harmonica is easy to play after all it's very small and you only have to blow and you should get it to work. It is actually very difficult to play the harmonica well. Tim Elliott could be one of those people who has every kid in the country begging for a harmonica as he made it look so easy.

During the set Tim played a harmonica solo called Train Time . It was a great sound and together with some superb drumming from Andy Munro there were times when you looked round the audience and could literally see jaws hanging open.

Blues 'n' Trouble were smooth and professional from start to finish, just what you would expect from a band that has worked with the Rolling Stones and recently supported Gary Moore on tour.

The band has produced several CDs and on Saturday night they played some tracks from their latest album Devil's Tricks . The first track, from which the title was taken, has a wonderful underlying bass beat that really moves the track along. The band went on to play several of their own compositions including a track called Got me Spinnin' which gave guitarist Sandy Tweeddale a chance to show of his skills as a natural and very talented musician.

It is always a good sign when a band has people up on the floor dancing from the very first track and this is just what happened with Blues 'n' Trouble. The audience didn't seem to want the music or the dancing to stop and so the band came back for an encore and played a track called Why? Why? Why?.

Yes, why did it have to stop when things were just starting to hot up? Although it was 1am the band looked as though the night was still young. Despite their highly energetic performance they still seemed as fresh as when they hit the first chord. Excellent stuff.

L Friedlander

A SMALL gathering of folk at the Pierhead bar at Voe experienced a rare treat on Saturday afternoon when the blues/jazz band Molly Brown turned up to play.

There were less than 20 people in the audience and hard luck to those who didn't turn up you really missed a pretty amazing set.

Molly Brown is the name of the band, not the name of the lead singer as many people assume. The name is taken from the singer on the Titanic.

Kelly "Kel" Elliott is the lead vocalist with Molly brown and what a voice. Rich and strong and very powerful.

The first question I asked the petite singer was where did you train? She gave me a puzzled look and said: "I've never trained, this is just my voice." Blimey!

Kel comes from a musical family with Irish roots. They all sang and her father played the double bass and taught Kel to play.

The band played a varied selection of covers as well as one or two of their own songs written by keyboard player Mark Steeds. The numbers ranged through Norah Jones to Louis Jordan to Hank Williams. Quite an eclectic mix, all delivered with wonderful harmonies too. Before the half time break there was a really smooth rendition of Gershwin's Summertime.

All the band members can really sing and they are talented musicians too. Dave Page on guitar and Kelvin Leitch on drums also led the vocals for some of the tracks.

The band hails from Warwick in the Midlands and they have been playing together for four or five years now. Kelly is currently working on a solo album of her own work. This is her first visit to Shetland but she hopes to return.

The band finished the set with their own distinctive version of the Soft Cell number Tainted Love. The song seemed to go on and on, but I think that was because the audience didn't want them to stop.

L Friedlander