Bruce MacGregor and Friends
Eden Court Theatre - 05/05/22
Bruce MacGregor is the voice of folk music in Scotland as the presenter of Radio Scotland’s ‘Travelling Folk’, but he is also the founder of Blazin’ Fiddles which has brought some of the best musicians in the Highlands together over the last 20 years. Like many musicians Bruce’s musical activity has been somewhat limited in lockdown but he has worked on a new record ‘The Road to Tyranny’, which after several postponed dates due to COVID he finally launched tonight at Eden Court. The title comes from his reaction to some of the things the UK government are doing, including taking away powers from the Scottish government. Ironically since this is a record without songs it is difficult to articulate his discontent, but then maybe the music will!
Bruce was aided by some members of Blazin’ Fiddles on a lovely, red-lit stage at Eden Court and a big crowd was there to greet them. It’s clear that Blazin’ Fiddles has a real fan base in the Highlands, including a big contingent from the Black Isle, who gave vocal support to a short song from guitarist Anna Massie. Anna has a decent voice and it would have been nice to hear some more songs but then that’s not Blazin’ Fiddles’ style. Bruce was joined on stage by Angus Lyon on piano and accordion, Jenna Reid fiddle and Su~a Lee, who is more normally seen with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, but tonight showed she could play a mean folk cello! Duncan Lyall on double bass and Ian Sandilands on percussion and of course Anna Massie on guitar. They are all very fine musicians and the music flowed seamlessly from the stage as they went through the tracks on the record and got a great response from the audience. We were sitting next to a mother and daughter from Arkansas in the USA and they said, “we laughed, we cried, we stomped our feet and shouted ‘yee~haw’ - it was such fun”!
Bruce hasn’t released his record on Spotify or Apple as musicians get very little back from them; instead you can buy it on Bandcamp at £12. It’s worth it.
