Nuala Kennedy has a beautiful lilting voice that suits her ‘cheerful-sounding murder ballad’ songs perfectly. It is when she picked up her whistles and flutes that I enjoyed her performance most, however. Eyes closed and unstoppable, she trilled through pieces from as long ago as 1500 and as far away as Spain and San Francisco.
Most of the songs came from closer to home however. Even with her Irish roots, Kennedy is a keen advocate of the Scottish folk song and has lived in Edinburgh for many years. Her band is made up of locals Jess Butterworth on guitar and Donald Haye who, when given the chance, could drum like a man possessed.
Commandeered by Kennedy, the band changed key and tempo at the blink of an eye, seldom (but sometimes) missing a beat. Before long, they were joined by the ‘Appalachian Sensation’ A.J. Roach. His Springsteen twang added Americana to the melting pot as the group hummed through songs of Roach’s such as ‘Lonely City’ and ‘Smaller Scale’. The close harmonies and swelling dynamics of ‘Baraka Moon’ were particularly soothing. Before we knew it, Roach had left the stage as apologetically as he had stepped onto it and it was time to make a return trip across the Atlantic.
Kennedy’s rendition of the old favourite Lord Donegal was a treat. It had all the ingredients of a folk ballad – love, loss, a milk white steed. ‘It’s a bit disco,’ Kennedy teased us in the intro, willing some of us in the all too comfortable audience to get out of our seats and dance. There was an interlude in the middle of the piece, once the lovers were dead and buried, that verged on prog rock and tested the band’s mettle.
I very much liked the music of Nuala Kennedy and A.J. Roach. I am, however, unsure to what extent they complemented each other. Roach’s presence was too fleeting to leave any real impact, his style too soft. Kennedy suffered from the interruption too, as it sometimes felt there was no real purpose to the collaboration whereas her band was on more of a mission. Nonetheless, it was a lovely show full of old music worth treasuring and new music absolutely worth hearing.
