The Stockbridge Music Hub: Hannah Rarity
Stockbridge Parish Church - 03/03/23
Hannah Rarity, traditional singer | Rory Mathieson, piano | Gilly O’Flaherty, guitar
A tuneful Friday lunchtime
Clea Friend, the Edinburgh cellist has created a new musical initiative for Friday lunchtimes; the Stockbridge Music Hub plans a regular series of Friday lunchtime concerts in the setting of the Stockbridge Parish Church with its lovely painted panels, and this time a well heated performance space. The Edinburgh Music Review covered the last concert, with Clea on cello and John Kitchen on organ, which was very good but a little chilly as the heating hadn’t been switched on in time!
This concert featured the fine young traditional singer, Hannah Rarity, who won the Young Traditional Musician award in 2018 and since then has been making a name for herself in Scotland and in Europe. Hannah collaborates with a wide range of musicians and today she is accompanied by Rory Mathieson on piano and Gilly O’Flaherty on guitar. Together they created a delightful lunchtime concert for the very healthy audience of over 100 people in the church.
Hannah began her concert with the great ballad ‘Erin Go Bragh’ which people often assume was written by Dick Gaughan as he brought it to our attention in his great record ‘A Handful of Earth’, but the truth is that it is a much older Scots traditional song from the 19th century which deals with the prejudice that the Irish and the Highlander found in Lowland Scotland. Hannah is clearly a fan since it appears on her first EP and CD. She followed this up with one of her own songs ‘Home’ from her 2022 album, ‘To Have You Near’. Hannah also encouraged and taught her audience how to sing the chorus in a couple of songs and was rewarded by a very tuneful response from the audience. I suspect there were a few members of the church choir in our ranks. She was very ably accompanied throughout by Rory Mathieson on piano and Gilly O’Flaherty on guitar.
Hannah sang about 10 songs in her concert and the majority of these were either her own material or by other contemporary song writers. Only 2 of the 10 could be classed as traditional songs, although the song she ended with, Davy Steele’s splendid ‘Scotland Yet’, written for the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum, has become an established part of the tradition. I asked Hannah about this focus on new material at the end of the concert and she explained that traditional singers liked to explore new material, as others like Karine Polwart have done. Of course some of these songs will in time become part of the tradition; others will disappear; it’s part of the folk process. As I explained I’m more of a traditional song lover myself, having been educated in Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger’s club in the 1960s, but I accept that I may be in the minority. Certainly, the audience in the church loved the concert and Hannah was rewarded with warm applause.
The next Stockbridge concert is on Friday 31 March 6pm at Stockbridge Parish Church with The Wallace Collection trumpet player, John Wallace’s, brass quintet. The Stockbridge Hub is now an important part of Edinburgh’s music scene and congratulations to Clea Friend and sponsors Amati, Chamber Music Scotland and the Stockbridge Church. More information about their wider activities can be found on The Music Hub website. The concerts are free but donations are welcome.
