Arts / Mexican magic and Canadian curiosities as folk festival starts with a flourish
Opening night at the big kirk in Lerwick provides plenty of excitement ahead of weekend
AND SO here we are again, back at the big kirk in Lerwick to worship the latest Shetland Folk Fest offerings being served up to ease us into this wild weekend.
This gig is always a unique opportunity to hear and see some of the festival’s best offerings in a grand but intimate setting, and every year I choose to come here it comes on a gloriously night with the sun streaming in to illuminate the point further.
For most this is the opening night of the 44th Shetland Folk Festival, but for compere Danny Peterson – in pure merchandise selling mode – this is “get yourself a dish cloth day”. It doesn’t quite have the same prestige.
We’re welcomed in and warmed up by the Shetland Community Choir, and as Peterson rightly says if ever there was a venue suited to them it’s this one.
They regale us with songs about the brave whalers going to Greenland, and one about rowing too. There’s an early call for some audience participation which, judging by the reaction, shows that most patrons are just getting warmed up.
Incredibly in the front row of the choir is SNP election candidate Hannah Mary Goodlad. Where does she find the time?
As the choir pack up their lyric books we’re whisked quickly over to our second act of the night, West Lothian singer-songwriter Hannah Rarity.
An easy and warm stage presence, Rarity immediately pulls the audience into the palm of her hands and does not let go. Her voice carries just as much weight and heft as the 25-odd choir members who departed the stage before her.
Rarity elicits laughs when she explains the lyrics to Wander Through This Land were initially “we’ll wander through this land forever” – before she split up with her then partner and hastily changed them.
She asks the audience what the changed lyrics are, with a correct shout of “together”.
“Some people say never,” Rarity says to more laughter. “You can sing never if that’s how you’re feeling.”
The three-piece managed to conjure much better audience participation this time around, with no lack of singing.
In stark contrast, their cover of Madison Cunningham’s Life According to Raechel is so tender and heartfelt that the room is rapt in a united silence.
A final rendition of her own Hard Times has some of the audience on their feet in appreciation of Rarity and her band’s short set, which will certainly have converted more than few into fans.
At this point I wonder if it’s this majestic venue which brings out the best out of performers year on year – or maybe just that the folk festival organisers are really good at what they do.
We reach the halfway stage with a chance to stretch our legs, which is much-needed in the wooden church pews – not conducive to a comfortable gig-going experience.
Some veterans of the big kirk concert game have brought their own cushions – lesson learned.
And so next we have the intriguing Los Vega, the festival’s furthest travelled act, coming all the way from Mexico.
Before a note is even played the setting up of a plywood board under the feet of one performer piques my interest already.
The four piece appear a long time before they begin, a four-piece featuring three men in matching hats and one woman decked in an almost full-body scarf.
The man on the wooden board is wearing a stylish set of distinctive red shoes, leading one audience to quip: “You have to know what you’re doing if you wear a pair of shoes like that.”
We’re left in no doubt that Los Vega know what they’re doing. The group exhibit some of the fastest, most frenetic and aggressive strumming you will ever see, which is almost impossible to watch without a sense of wonder and a smile on your face.
Luckily the group have 23 years of experience, because they will need it for this marathon weekend. The stamina they exude is absolutely incredible.
It almost seems at times like their instruments will just break in half in their hands because of the ferocity with which they play.
Peterson describes their musical style as son jarocho – with some help from the band – which apparently is a regional folk styling from the Veracruz region of Mexico.
Whatever you want to call it, however you want to describe it, Los Vega are not to be missed this weekend. You can scarcely believe the skills that they exhibit.
However three-quarters of the way through the set, not a single sound has been made on the wooden board. A joke rider request come true? The Mexican equivalent of asking for a phonebook to stand on?
But no, with a sudden machine-gun rat-a-tat across the floor we hear what it’s there for, with a barely believable display of music and dance at high speed.
As Los Vega bow, most of the audience take to their feet to applaud. I get the sense a lot of people will be hearing from those in attendance about what they saw tonight.
And so that just leaves the perplexingly named The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter to bring the curtain down on opening night.
Even more intriguing is Peterson’s description of the group as “part band, part comedy performance” complete with “theatrical flair”.
That proves a pretty accurate brief. ‘Hezekiah Procter’ is a character leading a live medicine show act, with his band the orphans he has supposedly taken under his wing to give them a better life.
Initially I’m unsure of what to make of them, and I can sense that most of the crowd is similarly uncertain – particularly when we get an early song about a trip to the doctor.
But when Procter – ‘real’ name Li’l Andy – introduces their next song by explaining how he believes Jesus was a Marxist (song title: Jesus Was a Marxist) then you can hear the audience laughing their way over to his side.
And you can almost hear the laughter of whichever folk festival committee member decided to book a band playing a song called Jesus Was a Marxist into the big kirk.
Each band member gets their chance to shine, the sousaphone player’s (basically a large tuba) Two for a Buck a particular highlight.
Li’l Andy clearly revels in the role of Procter, at one point heading out into the audience to deliver postcards and at another to shake hands as the band plays a song about how great he is.
In long form, it’s an amusing and impressive musical show. I do wonder if audiences may be baffled by it when Procter and co. have just three songs to impress during Sunday night’s foy concerts.
But that’s for another day, and the band play us out into the night. The folk festival is truly back, and this opening concert has given plenty to be excited about in the coming days.
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