SKERRYVORE - Live Across Scotland
Tyree Records TYREE10CD
Scottish icons Skerryvore celebrate their 15th anniversary with a belting live album recorded right across their native country – from Skye to Selkirk and umpteen places in between. Their first fully live release has been a long time coming; for a band which thrives on live performance it is long overdue to capture them at their most comfortable – performing to the converted.
The brothers Gillespie remain at the heart of the music, but the song writing prowess of guitarist Alec Dalglish is the soul of the outfit. The rhythm section of Fraser West (drums) and Jodie Bremaneson (bass) is as tight as ever here. Vital to the live band are Craig Espie on fiddle and Alan Scobie on keyboards, with excellent piper Scott Wood the driving force behind the overall sound. And the overall sound is the essence that can only be fully appreciated in a live setting – these guys have it in spades.
Old live favourites such as Happy To Be Home and Take My Hand are balanced by medleys such as The Ginger Grouse Jigs which are a perfect complement to each other.
This is one of those albums that deserves to be played loud – and that is easily the best way to reproduce the atmosphere of the live event. With Skerryvore you get the full package – everything from the production values of the recorded music, via the superb packaging of the CD (courtesy of Craig Espie) to the outstanding website is to the highest standard. It’s such a shame that live music is currently in abeyance due to the dreaded COVID, but we can all console ourselves that albums such as this can remind us of what good events provide us with. Stunning.
www.skerryvore.com
Grem Devlin
This review appeared in Issue 136 of The Living Tradition magazine