Ranald and Iain Midsummer Concert
Jun. 24th, 2012 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcYep, it's that time of year again. Still brilliant, still less-than-cheerful.
They started as ever with "The Rout o' the Blues", and then Ranald sang "You Never Wanted Me", apologising to the Americans in the audience for singing an American song[1], and went through a potted biography of Jackson C. Frank that prompted Iain to feign checking his watch and finally comment "If they already knew who he was, they'll have forgotten now!" He also said that regular attendees would know they generally do happy songs. "Happy, happy songs ... see, you're laughing already."
The unintentional "songs the Americans could probably hear at home" theme continued with "The Indian Lass", the Canadian "Four Strong Winds", and "a song by a man from Largs ... about New York", which was of course Gallagher's "Would The Last One Leaving New York Town".
Then we moved to something Scottish, but not traditional, with Iain's end-of-the-fishing-industry song "The Beacon"[2] and his Afghanistan war song that I'm afraid I've forgotten the title of[3]. The first act finished with another end-of-the-fishing-industry song "The Final Trawl", which despite being a modern song about subsidies had a very sea-shantyish feel, complete with chorus of "Sing heave-ho, my laddie-o!"[4]
The second session started with the rapidly-becoming-traditional Inverness Folk Club guest star, who this year was Hamish Grant, who I hadn't heard before and who Mum hadn't heard for decades. He sings a capella, and did a song about getting stood up at a Glasgow dance hall, one about an idyllic Scottish childhood, and was then rejoined by Ranald and Iain for a pro-immigration song called "All Jock Tamson's Bairns Are Coming Home".[5]
The next song was "Let Ramensky Go", which prompted Ranald to do another potted biography, this time of Johnny Ramensky. This time Iain feigned sleep[6].
Iain sang "7 Mile Road", another of his own songs, and Ranald sang "Deportee" by Woody Guthrie, and recommended Dolly Parton's version. And Ralph McTell's "From Clare To Here" was in there somewhere as well...
They then sang a Trad. song, which is unusual for them, "The Broom o' the Cowdenknowes"[7], followed by "Mr Bojangles". After the usual pretence that they weren't doing an encore, Hamish rejoined them for the traditional "Rolling Home".
[1]For some reason there were a lot of Americans in (maybe a flyer made it to one of the tourist hotels), and Iain joked that they were probably expecting something more traditionally Scottish. Since there seemed to be a lot fewer after the intermission, he may have been right.
[2]Apparently, last year they were asked to sing it by a couple who missed most of the concerts and said "Well we can't, because we haven't practiced it". This year, of course, said couple wasn't there again...
[3]It's a girl's name, the song being about a woman whose husband gets sent to Afghanistan. Iain explained that the reason it's written from the woman's POV is that he wrote it for a female singer who then never performed it.
[4] Having established that the intermission was coming up, Iain managed to sing the line "Riding high and empty beyond the bar" with a meaningful glance towards the one at the back of the room...
[5]"When I asked them to sing a capella, Iain said he didn't speak Gaelic, and Ranald said he didn't have maraccas."
[6]Before this they presented a book about Ramensky to someone in the audience. When Ranald had finished, the guy Iain calls their offical heckler called "Now you don't need to read it!"
[7]"Now you all know this one, but you've never heard us do it. And we've got our own way of doing it. So if you join in, try to do it our way or we'll be swamped.""
They started as ever with "The Rout o' the Blues", and then Ranald sang "You Never Wanted Me", apologising to the Americans in the audience for singing an American song[1], and went through a potted biography of Jackson C. Frank that prompted Iain to feign checking his watch and finally comment "If they already knew who he was, they'll have forgotten now!" He also said that regular attendees would know they generally do happy songs. "Happy, happy songs ... see, you're laughing already."
The unintentional "songs the Americans could probably hear at home" theme continued with "The Indian Lass", the Canadian "Four Strong Winds", and "a song by a man from Largs ... about New York", which was of course Gallagher's "Would The Last One Leaving New York Town".
Then we moved to something Scottish, but not traditional, with Iain's end-of-the-fishing-industry song "The Beacon"[2] and his Afghanistan war song that I'm afraid I've forgotten the title of[3]. The first act finished with another end-of-the-fishing-industry song "The Final Trawl", which despite being a modern song about subsidies had a very sea-shantyish feel, complete with chorus of "Sing heave-ho, my laddie-o!"[4]
The second session started with the rapidly-becoming-traditional Inverness Folk Club guest star, who this year was Hamish Grant, who I hadn't heard before and who Mum hadn't heard for decades. He sings a capella, and did a song about getting stood up at a Glasgow dance hall, one about an idyllic Scottish childhood, and was then rejoined by Ranald and Iain for a pro-immigration song called "All Jock Tamson's Bairns Are Coming Home".[5]
The next song was "Let Ramensky Go", which prompted Ranald to do another potted biography, this time of Johnny Ramensky. This time Iain feigned sleep[6].
Iain sang "7 Mile Road", another of his own songs, and Ranald sang "Deportee" by Woody Guthrie, and recommended Dolly Parton's version. And Ralph McTell's "From Clare To Here" was in there somewhere as well...
They then sang a Trad. song, which is unusual for them, "The Broom o' the Cowdenknowes"[7], followed by "Mr Bojangles". After the usual pretence that they weren't doing an encore, Hamish rejoined them for the traditional "Rolling Home".
[1]For some reason there were a lot of Americans in (maybe a flyer made it to one of the tourist hotels), and Iain joked that they were probably expecting something more traditionally Scottish. Since there seemed to be a lot fewer after the intermission, he may have been right.
[2]Apparently, last year they were asked to sing it by a couple who missed most of the concerts and said "Well we can't, because we haven't practiced it". This year, of course, said couple wasn't there again...
[3]It's a girl's name, the song being about a woman whose husband gets sent to Afghanistan. Iain explained that the reason it's written from the woman's POV is that he wrote it for a female singer who then never performed it.
[4] Having established that the intermission was coming up, Iain managed to sing the line "Riding high and empty beyond the bar" with a meaningful glance towards the one at the back of the room...
[5]"When I asked them to sing a capella, Iain said he didn't speak Gaelic, and Ranald said he didn't have maraccas."
[6]Before this they presented a book about Ramensky to someone in the audience. When Ranald had finished, the guy Iain calls their offical heckler called "Now you don't need to read it!"
[7]"Now you all know this one, but you've never heard us do it. And we've got our own way of doing it. So if you join in, try to do it our way or we'll be swamped.""
