EIF: Dàimh
For all the diverse origins of their members, Daimh (pronounced ‘dive’) are steeped in the West Highlands of Scotland. Musing on the joys of the return of live performance, guitarist Ross Martin observed that the recent Covid-related restrictions on playing of the pipes were not the first time that the pipes had been banned. The notorious Act of Proscription of 1746, which prohibited the bagpipes, native dress, and the very language of the Gaidhealtachd, still rankles in the folk memory of the Highlands. And yet, as Martin quietly declared, here they were playing the pipes and singing Gaelic songs at the Edinburgh International Festival, no less. Kudos to Festival Director, Fergus Linehan, for that.
Singer Ellen MacDonald’s sweet alto voice carried the love songs, waulking songs and the puirt a beul (vocalised dance tunes or ‘mouth music’) beautifully, some of them coming down to her from members of her own family. With a line-up of mandola, accordion, whistles, pipes great and small, fiddle and guitar there is always a temptation to pile into the songs, but the arrangements are tasteful and restrained. Ross Martin’s relaxed back beat to a song about a Gael’s spending spree in the Lowlands was a particular pleasure.
MacDonald would retire to the wings when her vocal duties were fulfilled leaving the stage to the lads who provided a variety of music with whistle, pipes and violin to the melodic fore, supported by chunky rhythms on guitar and Murdo Cameron’s mandola. A set of piper Mackenzie and fiddler McVarish’s own tunes dedicated to the island of Raasay showed some unexpected melodic twists, while Mackenzie’s Cape Breton heritage ensured that there is a governor on the speedometer, steady tempos and a swinging pulse allowing for the display of the full melodic value of the tunes. They even played a pair of Cape Breton reels well below their usual tempo, bringing out their simple beauty before leaning into a good-going set of strathspeys and reels. A set in 9/8 had the audience clapping along, once the big pipes had been acclimatised to the rapidly dropping temperature. The band describes what it does as ‘straight in the eye Highland music’. A fair description that omits the fact that they do it very, very well.