Hailing from Shetland and Devon respectively, Ross Couper (fiddle) and Tom Oakes (guitar, flute) are a dynamic duo who incorporate many of the elements of traditional Scottish and Irish folk music, but with a modern twist that reinvigorates many of those conventions. For Saturday night’s show they were joined for the first time by James Lindsay on double bass, but he proved a welcome addition as trio blended seamlessly on all their numbers together.
Briefly acknowledging the crowd at the Acoustic Music Centre, the group launched into rousing opener ‘Shetland Swing’ and the tone for the evening seemed to have been set. Next up was the infectious ‘Something for the Weakened’, Oakes’s tribute to hangovers and preceded by an entertaining bit of stage patter between the two main men. This was a welcome feature of the whole set, as Couper delighted us with an anecdote about the origin of ‘Bedding Tunes’, even if the tune itself was a bit dour, and Oakes bemoaned the futility of flyering. The first section of the gig finished with ‘Cathcart’ which showcased Oakes at his head banging and foot stomping best, ably melded with Couper’s ferocious work on the fiddle.
Oakes then invited two members of local band The Banana Sessions to replace the trio on stage, which had the unfortunate effect of making the energy and goodwill built up in the room begin to ebb away. Their first song ‘Green’, with lyrics that consisted almost entirely of the title word and every associated cliché, was plain and forgettable. For the second track ‘Be Bold and Brilliant’, the two groups joined forces in a pleasant but also somewhat unremarkable performance.
Returning to the combination of Couper, Oakes and Lindsay, the mood was instantly lifted with a series of frenetic reels that ended on ‘Bass Rock’, followed by another tempo change albeit this time much more successful, with ‘The 92nd Year’ a touching waltz addressed to Oakes’ grandfather. Oakes then humorously informed us that there would be a fake ending, followed by an encore that he was not asking for, just telling us would happen. The ‘ending’ run consisted of three tunes ‘The Chatham Lasses’, ‘Strictly Sambuca’ and ‘Room 215’, the first two written by Couper and the latter by Peter Morrison, each played with great jollity and passion.
The encore began with a lilting flute solo by Oakes, which lead into a stunning sequence of uplifting folk music with Couper especially impressive as his fingers became a blur on the fiddle, Lindsay showing off his skills with a bass solo and the crowd clapping and stomping in unison. Yet sadly this wasn’t the real end. The Bananas Sessions returned to join the trio for a rendition of ‘The Parting Line’, an apt name perhaps but another flat tune that shackled Couper and Oakes, making for a slightly lifeless and disappointing actual ending. Earlier, it was revealed that the two groups had only rehearsed these songs together for the first time that day, which perhaps showed but it’s difficult to see what their union could add to the original duo anyway. The result here was a frustratingly disjointed set, nevertheless replete with moments of real quality and entertainment from Couper and Oakes, an exhilarating duo whose performances were full of the panache sorely lacking in the collaborative aspects of their show this evening.
