And also miraculously materialising at various times/venues: DJ Dolphin Boy
Artist info and video below:
Inge Thomson & Fraser Fifield
Friday night will open with Inge Thomson & Fraser Fifield. Inge was raised on The Fair Isle – the gorgeous wild rock between Orkney and Shetland. She looks like a twinkly wee trowie and has a spellbinding voice that makes you float around the room. She works with a range of unusual instruments including the accordion, looping and layering textures of natural, created, and manipulated sounds. Fraser is an unassuming fellow, considering he has a record of almost 30 years to date playing as a professional musician both in Scotland and abroad with groups such as Wolfstone, Old Blind Dogs, Salsa Celtica, Capercaillie, Karen Matheson, Afro Celt Sound System, Zakir Hussain and many more. Together they create a genuinely unique partnership. In Inge’s words, it’s
“an eccentric marraige between melodic instruments and the bleeps and squeeks of electronic tomfoolery.”
Eabhal Following Inge and Fraser will be Eabhal: a fantastic, multi award-winning five-piece powerhouse featuring fiddle, accordion, pipes, guitar and vocals. They originally formed while all living in Uist and are no strangers to the Highlands and Islands, both collectively and individually. It’s generally at this point of the night that people find it difficult to stay in their seats, so if you prefer to sit throughout this concert please try to arrive early and occupy the front rows and side benches of the hall. The rowdy folks will be at the back!
The Poozies plus Pals The Poozies will kick off the late-night shenanigans on Friday night. One way to describe this band of over thirty years is that they are ever-evolving, and the music and personalities have only become more and more exciting and unpredictable as the years have passed. Word on the street is that the Poozies will soon, sadly, be hanging up their sparkles, so this may well be a last chance to see them play. To further enhance the party they will be joined by members of Shooglenifty and Eabhal, and other special surprise guests.
Bombskare Finishing Friday night in the hall will be Bombskare: Scotland’s unstoppable ska juggernaut. Their artistwiki page says this: “Reaching zero to sixty skanking miles an hour in the space of three chords, they combine top-quality dance-along songs with well-crafted album tunes.” Not sure anything else really needs said! They last played Fèis na Mara in 2015 and tore the roof off, and who could forget that epic gig at Knoydart Festival? Yes, definitely that’s all that needs said. We can’t wait to welcome them back!
The Fancy Pants Dance Band As has now become traditional the Saturday night will open with a ceilidh. But not just any old ceilidh. This is a ceilidh that not only pulls you out of the mire you were grappling through in recovery mode from the previous night but also propels you into the ecstasy of another full-on party. If you’re the type of person who likes to google bands you haven’t heard of then you might be wondering why you can’t find any info on this band anywhere. That’s because they don’t exist yet! But you don’t need to worry about that, just get your fancy pants on and get yourself there.
Symbiosis In 2016, Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton – two of Scotland’s foremost musicians – joined forces to form one of the most formidable duos in recent Scottish music history. They had started their musical careers with the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band at a very young age and are prodigies of the late great Gordon Duncan, whose influence is evident in their many musical collaborations and as founding members of The Treacherous Orchestra. They will be joined at Fèis na Mara by Jenn Butterworth on Guitar, Patsy Reid on strings, and Paul Jennings on drums. Here’s a hefty critique from folk mag fRoots that nails down what you can expect: “Skilful acoustic instrumental playing is elaborated and developed into bold, funky, adventurous arrangements that sometimes transform into full-on Folk Rock, like Treacherous Orchestra on Acid.”
The Chair What better way to wrap up Saturday night than this? Combining a benignly hedonistic version of Viking berserker spirit with a formidable breadth of musicianship, Orcadian eight-piece The Chair deliver a turbocharged mash-up of folk, blues, rock, dub, klezmer and more. Collectively the sound bursts with the energy of a heavy rock gig – a rampant ruckus of fiddles, banjos, accordions and drums – yet remains acoustic at heart. Also, if their performance here at Fèis na Mara 2013 is anything to go by, they bring their own shimmering, beautiful, flag-waving fans from the North that add a whole heap of extra excitement to the proceedings.
DJ Dolphin Boy It’s highly likely that as a late edition to the programme the hunky hero Dolphin Boy will be doing that awesome thing he does. It is anticipated that he will just miraculously materialise at various times/venues and fill the room with more love than anyone thought possible.
