the Whistlebinkies

A return visit to Moffat Music Society – in a new venue! This what was written for the Moffat News:

AROUND THE COMMUNITIES

MOFFAT MUSIC SOCIETY

Moffat Town Hall was alive with the music of Scotland on Friday night. The Whistlebinkies were back in town with a programme ranging from eighteenth century fiddle music and Gaelic mouth music to Eddie McGuire’s Moffat Suite, a work commissioned by Moffat Music Society in 2008.

Two lively introductory quicksteps had feet tapping before piper Rab Wallace introduced the other members of the group: Stuart Eydmann (concertina, violin and the wooden equivalent of spoons), Alastair Savage (violin), Peter Anderson (bodhran and Scottish side drum), Rhona Mackay (clarsach and vocals), Eddie McGuire (flutes) and Iain Crawford (double bass). After talking about his Lowland pipes Rab led the ensemble into a Strathspey and hornpipe; bittersweet leading to elation. Catriona McKay’s Swan LK234 made an excellent contrast. It was easy to picture sailing gently to the sound of water broken by a dinghy’s progress. Farewell to Sicily, harking back to military events of 1942-3, featured the pipes again, and then fiddle and bass played two reels by William Marshall, an eighteenth century Jock-of-all-Trades. A gifted fiddler and composer, he was also a mathematician, clock maker, surveyor, architect and astronomer, amongst other things.

Inner Sound by Eddie McGuire conjured up watery images again. Seeds rolling in a bodhran became waves lapping on a beach, before harp, concertina and violin took us out to sea. A plaintive, yet serene flute melody led to a lively tune joined by double bass and pianissimo concertina. Then, after a crescendo and side-drumming, a flute cadenza took us beach-wards till breathy sounds and rolling seeds set us ashore. Rab Wallace’s Wee Eddie Reels had hands clapping, and feet tapping until it was time for the two jigs of Loch Ness Monster to herald an interval.

The second half of the concert opened with the spirited Fiddlers’ Rally, followed by a revised Moffat Suite. The addition of harp and double bass added to the atmospheric impressionism of the Loch Skene episode, and the extended use of percussion added a touch of drama in the more discordant `troubled past’ section. Undoubtedly the music touched the hearts of local listeners. Lady Elizabeth Cole’s Air and Jig took us back to the poised elegance of the eighteenth century. Farewell to St Kilda which followed also used tunes of that period, but to very different effect and ending with a melancholic flute and harp adieu. After this Rhona sang Mouth Music, dance music in which tunes are often more important than words and in which the tempo usually increases. Her lovely voice and the sensitive backing made this a delightful interlude. The lament of Bonnie at Morn, begun by clarsach and concertina and joined by other melodic instruments, followed. It was linked with the Earl of Dunmore’s Jig in which bass and bohdran pointed the rhythm until a reprise of the opening lament brought the music to a satisfying close. Another of Eddie’s suites followed, The Albannach. It traced the progress of a young man from Lewis to the mainland in search of work, and his misfortunes and eventual salvation. Here lyrical sadness moved though anger to work-songs, and culminating in a jig. Two hornpipes led by Rab Wallace’s Lowland pipes ended the concert, a rousing and fitting end to an excellent evening’s music-making.

There is an intimacy and clarity of line in the Whistlebinkies music-making, stemming in part from the instruments used and in part from the way in which they are played. Often one felt one was at a homely gathering where music-making was part of everyday life. There was an especial sensitivity to the spirit and tradition of the art that was very persuasive. It was this, as much as the incisive rhythms, infectious dances, eloquent melodies, and felicitous introductions that made the evening such a joy.

Our annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe performance. Special guest Lindsay Porteous on jew’s harp.

Last of three great gigs in the wonderful city of Nuremberg.

The director of this venue could remember organising Whistlebinkies concerts in Germany in the 1970s!

From Die Abendzeitung, 23rd Aug. 2010 (in translation):

Folk music completely without Scottish kilts : The „Stefan Grasse Trio“ and „The Whistlebinkies“ in a colaboration (twin) concert at the Nuremberg Suedpunkt

In the home country be smiled at, abroad beloved: Bavarian folk music. However the „Stefan Grasse Trio“ confronted the Frankonian audience on Friday evening at the Nuremberg Suedpunkt with that, and attested (evidenced) with the „Three Bavarian Dances“ of the Scottish composer John Maxwell Geddes that the heart of many North Europeans may also beats for the Bavarian „Zwiefacher“. This Scottish-Frankonian folk mélange, mixed by the Grasse trio and the Scottish folk sextet „The Whistlebinkies“ at the colaboration concert (double feature) „stringendo #2“ on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the twin city of Glasgow, refused a homy presentation of traditional costumes with kilts wearing bagpipe players and snuff consuming (Bavarian) brass band musicians. Double metres and triples metres alternated permanentely. Sometimes a familiar home country melody brakes into chromatic jazz sounds. At first the Stefan Grasse Trio with guitar, marimba (correct is vibes) and double bass received only cautious reactions of the audience, but with the mixture of Bavarian folk and music from other twin cities of Nuremberg – as the dreamlike hypnotic Soléa from Córdoba or the song „Las perlas negras“ – they convinced more and more. The Whistlebinkies, who created the second part of the concert, searched and found the interface (joint) between serious music and Scottish home country sounds. Repetitions of one theme which lasted several minutes were performed in adventurous combinations of instruments, from the Celtic harp, concertina, drums, violin, flute and bagpipe, and so the simple melody dazzled (fluoresced) in very different colours. The musicians introduced with Scottish humour their music, narrated from inhabitants of Scottish islands, who imitated musically bleating sheep and cowing sea gulls in lack of other animals, and started to perform immediately these sounds on flute and bagpipe in a duet and raised them (these sounds) on a new level of musical aestetic. And all of this completely without male skirts (kilts).

Photographs by Allan McMillan. See www.flickr.com/photos/allan_mcmillan/

A return visit to play for Dollar Music Society. What a great hall.

Another great visit to this super venue and audience – what a delight to meet the grandson of John MacLean and to learn that he is a fan!

Concert.

Concert.

Folk club concert. Reviewed in the Edinburgh Evening News by Martin Lenon 11 January 2007:

“Binkies keep traditional flame alive

TRADITIONAL music might have become a dying form, if it weren’t for bands like the Whistlebinkies. Wherever possible, they play acoustically, using only authentic Scottish instruments, and last night, the always eclectic Edinburgh Folk Club played host to the bands’ first gig in the Pleasance Cabaret Bar in two years. .

Formed around 1967 under the name The Jacobites, they became the Whistlebinkies two years later. The line-up may have changed over the years, but their raison d’etre always remained constant: To play Celtic music without gimmicks.

Following an excellent set from Nick Keir from The McCalmans, The “Binkies” gathered onstage.

Normally an eight-piece group, fiddler Mark Hayward was, for most of the evening, absent. He arrived towards the end of the night to rejoin his bandmates, fresh from a stint in the orchestra playing for the Scottish Ballet.

The group opened in grand style with two songs, John Roy Stuart and Sandy’s New Chanter. With the range of instruments available, the possibilities for arrangements are almost limitless, and the second piece was led by outstanding Clarsach player Rhona MacKay, contrasted by the soulful bass of newer member Ian Crawford.

Stuart Eydmann, concertina player and occasional announcer recalled a previous gig in the venue in the 80s where, unlike last night, the weather was especially hot. So hot that, since the show was being recorded by STV, the heat was interfering with the cameras, so that joiners had to be brought in to remove the windows.

Later, the band played a tune called Farewell To Scily, a tune which had been borrowed by a songwriter on Barra to extol the virtues of the island and those surrounding it.

The first set finished with a fine pair of rousing jigs, Michael McDonald’s Jig and The Loch Ness Monster, but it wasn’t too long before the band were back with a great set of five tunes, concluding with The High Road To Linton, featuring solos from each of the frontline players.

The band have played all over the world and they invariably pick up tunes along the way. The Mountains Of Canigo was just such a piece, and it was an old Catalonian tune which fitted snuggly and comfortably into the mainly Scottish playlist.

Flautist Eddie McGuire is a composer of no mean stature, and they played a suite he composed for John McGrath’s play of the same name, The Albannach. Rich in texture and melody, it had a mournful beginning, but a rip-roaring pipe-led finish, full of hope and joy.

After the brilliantly named Barlinnie Highlanders and Captain Celtic, a hornpipe with more than a little nod to calypso lurking in the middle, the Binkies encored with The Whistlebinkies Reel, sending a happy audience home dancing.”