Well, well, well.
Folks, they came, and folks they saw, and what they saw was folk, by Gaw!
What a splendiferous evening of vocal virtuosity and acoustic accoutrement! The Hall was packed, packed, packed, I say and what an entertainment we all had at the hands of Breabach and Elisabeth Flett.
Elisabeth began playing the piano and violin aged four and just kept on going. Her CV includes such varied collaborators as Dundee Symphony Orchestra, St Andrew’s Baroque Ensemble, Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra and folk group Three’s a Crowd. With a pedigree like that we might have expected a certain poise and technique and Elisabeth certainly showed us a good time mixing up flute and violin with a voice full of power and clarity. Elisabeth’s playing is an absolute, foot tapping delight, but it was her a cappella numbers which really made the hairs prickle especially on more traditional numbers when the Letham Nights faithful took up an understated harmony that was as beautifully haunting as it was unexpected. Who knew we had a ready-made choir? Jings!
You wait all day for a multi-instrumentalist and then a whole bunch come along at once. We haven’t had many (if any) more accomplished bands in our humble hall so expectations were, understandably, sky high for Breabach. But this is an outfit geared to satisfying the appetites of the most voracious audiences. Voted ‘Best Group’ at the most recent Scots Trad Music Awards, Breabach have also received nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and as ‘European Folk Group of the Year’ in the German Folk Awards. Combining highland bagpipes (Calum MacCrimmon & James Duncan Mackenzie), fiddle (Megan Henderson), guitar (Ewan Robertson), double bass (James Lindsay), flute (Calum & James again), bouzouki (Calum… again), step dance (Megan & Calum again) and voices, Breabach poured forth their billowing torrent of Gaelic and Scots songs & tunes turning sadness to gladness and boo hoo hoos into dancing shoes. Able to turn on a sixpence from spine tingling laments to boot-stomping feel-goodery, Breabach gave us all a musical talking to we’ll not forget for a long long time.
Come back soon, y’all!
Check out Breabach’s website for songs and dates
And see Elisabeth’s facebook page
