So. Another great evening of dancing and merriment at Fife’s foremost village hall shindig.
We’d been trying for some time to get Amy Rayner to the hall and we finally managed it on Saturday. Amy blew everyone away with a polished and confident performance which belied her young age. Her amazing composure and stage presence is a result of much hard work on the cabaret circuit but this was by no means music for the disengaged diner. A great selection of covers and equally strong original songs included one youthful call to arms which may have raised an eyebrow or two amongst the Letham Nights baby boomers. And what a voice.
Letham Nights is nothing without the community and it was a pleasure to welcome Lynne and The Letham Lullaboys to the stage for their ‘fifth rehearsal’. Inspired to start the band by attending Letham Nights (Lynne is practically an ever-present) they warmed hearts, raised smiles and packed the floor with their specially penned Letham Nights Blues.
All of which loveliness brought us to the bonkers and brilliant The Banana Sessions. Roberta Banana is no stranger to Letham Nights having once deputised heroically for a poorly Bevvy Sister. Tonight she returned with her usual amigos musicale to delight us once again. Musical nerds (such as your own humble correspondent although I prefer ‘aficionado’) will be rapt to note that the band utilised all four orchestral groups namely woodwind, brass, percussion and strings uniting them to toe blistering, shoe leather shredding effect. A mixing of tempos and musical flavours that one can only describe as a euphoric aural anarchy led the crowd down a rabbit hole and a Prodigy medley (all of this with acoustic instruments remember) very near took the roof off. Get your Buckfast here!
Neil Adams said this:
what an amazing time we had a couple of weeks ago. We were blown away by the Banana Sessions – what an amazing set!. Is there another band who could fuse elements of: folk; pop; jazz; blues; acid techno; hardcore …into the same song, never mind gig, and make it work? Absolutely awesome! Musicians on top form leaping from one musical genre to the nextt: at times it was like listening to someone scouring the airwaves trying to find a particular radio station and unearthing great tunes along the way. Thanks for a brilliant night to everyone involved.