Describing himself as a 'troubadour' musician, Dougie MacLean returns to the Fringe Festival for the twentieth consecutive year with his classic folk sounds. With subject matters ranging from introspective familial reflections to scythes, MacLean takes the audience from rural Scotland to Anchorage and back again in his ninety minute set.
MacLean's voice is his real gift; beautiful and powerful and the force from which the rest of his music takes its cues. His experience as a performer is clear when he gets the crowd singing along with a chorus dominant song. However, one criticism I could level is that, aside from the classic ‘Caledonia’, this was a show for the Dougie MacLean purist. Although that doesn't detract from the quality of music on show, it does lessen the impact when the artist is trying to get the audience involved.
A strong theme throughout the show was that of the environment and nature, specifically the abuse of it by mankind. Songs about volcanoes and one described as ‘mankind being like the prodigal son’, returning to repair the damage they had inflicted, contribute to give the whole set a deeper meaning without becoming preachy. Almost inevitably, the song that brought the house down was ‘Caledonia’, which made MacLean's name. A song for the homesick Celt, it gave me goosebumps from first note to last. Additionally, a nice feature of the show was that in his fortieth year of performing, MacLean was still playing new material. Even his most ardent fans wouldn’t have heard it all before.
MacLean is an extremely likeable performer who, whilst perfectly capable, never really takes off either in his show or musical direction. That said, you could do much worse that sit back and let his beautiful vocals wash over you.
