In his introduction, El Supremo, Tony K, clearly chuffed that he had managed to secure Bruce Molsky for our wee village let us in on the challenges of delivering top flight talent to Crail... 'it's the agents, they think we're in the middle of nowhere'. It reminded me of the old TV advert for Miller Beer where an American, wearing an elaborate fur hat with a tail, walks up to the camera in front of some Scottish scenery and says 'when I told the folks back home, I was going to Ack-ter-mach-tee, they said wear the fox hat'. I checked - and you can too in Peter's photos - Bruce Molsky's hat, a groovy red and black number was completely fox-free. Crail 1 Auchtermuchty nil!
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Bruce, a charming and interesting house guest sings, has two fiddles, a banjo and a guitar. I hadn't heard anyone singing whilst playing the fiddle before so that was a first for me.
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He primarily performs old-time music of the Appalachian region and truly transports you there, we were lifted from a Baltic night in Crail to a campfire in the Appalachian Mountains, sipping from a jug, slapping a thigh in time with expertly executed bluesy, bluegrassy ragtime-y spirit lifters.
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But that's not all, for Bruce offers the listener a lens on a world of music, he's travelled and he's played with some of the greats of world music!
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It's hard to pick out highlights from the evening, everything was good, but here goes.
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'Bye Bye Baby Blues', a 1930 blues tune by Little Hat Jones. And demonstrating the transportive vibe of the evening, Little Hat was born in 1899 on a farm near the Sulphur River in Bowie County, Texas - we're not in Crail any more folks.
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'Fare Thee Well Blues' by Mississippi Joe Callicott had fine syncopated ragtime finger picking.
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But now ... to Sweden and Shetland. 'Hjalta Dance' - a collection of tune elements from the isle of Fetlar in Shetland rescued and assembled by Swedish music maestro Ale Möller. Bruce has played with Ale - he tells us that 'Hjalta Dance' is the 'Dance of the Limping Trolls'... and, amusingly ... 'that's your visual'. And linked is 'Hunter’s Grove', fiddler Garry Harrison’s interpretation of a Breton dance.
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And more, Sweden via Norway and Senegal ... Elikka Frisell Swedish violinist and Norwegian/Senegalese kora player Solo Cissokho - both of whom Bruce has played with - delivers us ‘Bruce 3/4’ - a tune named for Bruce and Kaira Bah, a beautiful piece composed by Cissokho.
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Then to Scotland - Karine Polwart's 'Daisy' - Bruce takes Karine's song and turns it into real Americana.
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Before launching 'Pretty Sarah', he explores the notion of 'covering' a trad song, he says it should really be 'uncovering'. Very clever, I'll have to steal that one!
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As an aside he tells a tale from his youth in The Bronx, racing his bicycle in a supermarket car park, crashing and knocking out his front teeth. The bridge he has fitted resonates when he is tuning his fiddle to D, so he knows when he's in tune!
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And finally, and encore of 'Charming Betsy', a bluegrass singalong to send us home through the chill.
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Some fine half time floor spots were on offer, particular mention must go to Michael who sang a distant cousin of The Twa Corbies - in Yiddish and Ukrainian!
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So, who says Crail is in the middle of nowhere... the whole world passes through Crail!
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Review by Callum MacLeod, photos by Peter Salkeld