Anna Massie Band
Item Posted: Sunday 5th March , 2006
The following review appeared in 24/7 Scottish Music
ANNA MASSIE BAND REVIEW
Lochgoilhead was particularly fortunate to have booked the Anna Massie Band for a concert featuring the first public performance of this band’s second cd ‘The Missing Gift.’, which was warmly reviewed by the Sunday Herald the day after the concert: ‘A sparkling , beautifully varied selection thaty highlights the players’ assertive individuals prowess, near-telepathic attunement and seemingly inexhaustible inventiveness.’
This trio are already, despite their tender ages, well known on the folk and traditional music scene. Individually they have all picked wins of prestigious awards, and, as a band, have notched up places in the finals of ‘Best Up and Coming Band’ at the Hands Up for Trad Awards and the Radio 2 Folk Awards. So their music writing, and their playing, is clearly being taken seriously by their co-professionals in the music business.
The great joy of the trio in live performance is that that their playing seems effortless, their banter with each other unforced, and their explanations of the sets and the background to the tunes engaging. No cd does full credit to a band whose raison d’etre is live gigs. Most of the enthusiastic audience bought ‘The Missing Gift’ not only because they knew they would enjoy playing it again and again, but as a memory of a good evening out the company of engaging and charming musicians.
The audience will, for a long time, remember the stories of the record company dumbing down the name of the ‘Farting Badger’ to the simpler, and maybe more acceptable ‘The Badger’, or how each of the band got their nicknames - ‘The Navigator’, ‘The Magnet’, and The Pidgeon.’ I will not continue on this vein because, without a long explanation, the stories would only be understood by those who had been there, although you can read an expurgated version on the sleeve notes!
Each of the band are song and tune writers in their own right, although Anna Massie clocked up seventeen of the album’s twenty eight tunes. Most of Anna’s tunes reflect her persona – bubbly, foot-tapping and hip moving. Mairearad Green’s ‘Maggie West’s Waltz’ is gentle, loving and memorable. UK. Jenn Butterworth, still studying music at the University of Strathclyde, has already established herself as a composer, and her first commission, “Nynia”, was performed at the St Ninian Festival in September 2003.
By no means all the pieces at the concert, or on the cd, are new compositions. In ‘Hard Times’, a mid-nineteenth century composition by Stephen Collins Foster, Jenn Butterworth’s vocals come into their own. Although only having two vocal tracks on the cd, she shows a delicacy of touch and pitch, indicating that she is a vocalist of great promise.
Either by instinct or by taking good advice, this trio has learned an important lesson. Most audiences, if drawn from the general public, want variety of instruments and sounds. Venues have the great benefit that they are paying for a trio, but get the added value of extra instruments! As well as vocals, the band play fiddle, guitars, accordion,, mandolin, border pipes, and tenor banjo – so no-one would be in any doubt about their value for money.
Most importantly - everyone in Lochgoilhead’s audience left with a smile on their face.
The Cowal Peninsular is now ‘ on’ the traditional music map of Scotland, and Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop, a registered charity, is increasingly being approached by a variety of bands and promoters to arrange concerts in the area. They are committed to bring both established national and international artists to the area, and to give up and coming bands opportunities of gigs; to give local residents and visitors a chance of seeing and hearing a variety of quality traditional music, and new music written in the traditional style. More details can be accessed on www.fiddleworkshop.co.uk