TANNAHILL WEAVERS
Musician Pub 5th September 2023
I first saw the Tannahill Weavers in the early '70's at the Cambridge Folk Festival, and more recently at the Guildhall in, I think the 1990's... and now after 55 years on the road they were back tonight at The Musician Pub to deliver their exhilarating brand of music.
The band are rooted in scottish traditional music, but play with an energy and spirit more akin to rock'n'roll.
The spokesman and singer in the band, Roy Gullane really has a way with words and his warmth and between song banter is really captivating. His guitar playing and singing are spot on and he is a perfect frontman for a band
They are one of the few bands to feature bagpipes, and the piper, Ian MacGillivray is a master. He also told the story of how this actually set of pipes was plaved by his relative going in to battle at the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. .
Phil Smillie plays flute & whistle, and we had the feeling that he could play anything that shape with holes in it.
The line up is completed by Malcolm Bushby playing fiddle and harmony vocals
The set started with a march which fair galloped along before changing into a couple of jigs all led by the bagpipes, from there on the set virtually switched from a tune set to song all played with the unmistable Tannahill Weaver spirit and enthusiam... this was really upbeat, inspirational fair which jigged and rocked from the first note to the last.
We got two encores, the first a glorious bit of gaelic mouth music from Ian accompanied by Phil on bodhran before the band came back to deliver a monumerntal rousing version of "Johnny Cope", there that fair ripped along ending the gig on a real high.
Superb, uplifting gig... traditional scottish music played with the fire and verve of a
rock'n'roll show... loved it!
Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venue
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