EIF: Duncan Chisholm

Old College Quad

Duncan Chisholm, the fine Scots traditional fiddler from Inverness, has in the past few years become a national treasure. He has produced six excellent albums which have won awards. He has accompanied Julie Fowlis, played with Runrig and Wolfestone, and composed some of the finest new tunes for the fiddle in recent years. In lockdown, whilst, like all traditional musicians, suffering from the lack of live gigs, he has kept us entertained by playing these tunes from some of the most beautiful places in Scotland and posting them live on YouTube, and they are still available on his Facebook page. 

However it was clear that Duncan had missed live music. At the end of his first set he greeted us with a loud hooray for live gigs, his first one he said for 18 months. He was loving it and so were his audience who greeted him with warm applause. It was clear that this audience of around 200 plus in the socially distanced big tent of the Old Quad were Chisholm fans, indeed the concert sold out within 2 hours, despite costing £26 for a one hour concert, something I guess the economics of outside venues and socially distanced audiences requires. 

Duncan was the star of the night, his fiddle was soulful and melodious in his slow airs, particularly in ‘Sandwood Bay’, and driving his band in the faster paced numbers which could be termed as folk/rock .He was ably assisted by Hamish Napier on piano, by Jarlath Henderson on pipes and whistles, Innes Watson on guitar and James Mackintosh on percussion. Together they created a very integrated sound which showed that Scottish traditional music is alive and well and embracing more modern forms. There were  also a couple of readings of Scots poems one called ‘The Wife Came Back’ and another by Norman MacCaig – unfortunately, the sound wasn’t very clear on the readings so I didn’t catch all the words or the details of the readings. The amplified sound balance on the music was excellent and fortunately there was very little traffic noise from outside. 

At the end of the concert I met Fergus Linehan, the Festival Director, and congratulated him not only on this concert but more generally for making Scots traditional music one of the key parts of the festival. I told him I hoped he would stay on as Festival Director because he had done a great job, but, as he reminded me, it has been eight years as Director, and he thought that was enough! 

So it was a great first night in the big tent in the Old Quad. Just a word of warning, it gets cold at night in Edinburgh, so wrap up warm. I wait to see what it will be like in the rain when it patters on the roof and creeps in the open sides! The big tent is pretty safe against COVID; you have to wear a mask when moving around but thankfully not when sitting down and the seats are comfortable. It does get cold, but the music keeps you warm!