FolkWorld Issue 33 05/2007; Live Report by Adolf „gorhand“ Goriup


St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Festival
Delémont, Switzerland, 23rd March 2007

Delémont is situated in the Swiss canton of Jura on the border to France. The region is an ancient place of the Celts and the word Jura means in the Celt language woodland hills.
Rachel Hair & Michael G Rose

www.st-patricksday.de
The old castle hall is a brilliant venue hosting several hundred people and they organize regularly concerts with Celtic music.

Rachel Hair on the Scottish clarsach opened the celebration together with her husband Michael G. Rose on keyboards. Their pure instrumental music was mostly lyrically beautiful and sometimes rhythmical. Especially towards the end of their set they enjoyed the audience with some brilliant dance tunes.

After a short break the Canadian group „The McDades“ mounted the scene and with their first track Jeremiah McDade (whistles, fiddle and vocals) and his two siblings Solon McDade (bass) and Shannon Johnston (fiddle and vocals) together with Yann Falquet on guitar and François Taillefer on percussion and vocals rocked the hall. Soon no one in the audience was able to keep seated quietly, either they danced and sang along or at least they started to clap their hands or stamp their feet with the rhythm. The McDades Jeremiah's passionate and virtuous whistling as well as his beautiful singing was even topped by Shannon's fiddle. Her playing was breathtaking and she also has a wonderful voice. Solon together with Yann and François produced the most brilliant rhythms and managed to keep us dancing till the last encore.

The last set was played by Canterach, a typical Scottish line up with pipes, guitar, two fiddles piano and percussion. Singer and guitarist Ross Kennedy has gathered his long time friend Steve Lawrence (both Tannahill Weavers and Iron Horse) on percussion and bouzouki and a bunch of young talented musicians. Lorne MacDougall is a grade 1 Piper and brought a touch of Edinburgh tattoo to Switzerland. His playing together with the two fiddle players, Fiona Cuthill and Sarah Naylor, was exceptional and made the music very dynamic and unique. Douglas Millar on piano made some beautiful jazzy improvisations and the final session was a perfect showcase for his inspired playing.

Canterach St Patrick's Day Celebration Festival Session

As usual with concerts organized by Magnetic Music all the musicians came together at the end to make a radiant session and to reward the audience with a furious final. No matter if the three fiddles played together in perfect harmony or if Solon McDade and Douglas Millar seemed to play some kind of contest in improvisation you usually rather hear with jazz musicians, the session was certainly the highlight of the evening.

Photo Credits: (1) Rachel Hair & Michael G. Rose; (2) The McDades; (3)-(4) Canterach (by Adolf Goriup).


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