Kris Drever and Laura Wilkie - Review

As 2024 dissolves to its twinkly tinselly conclusion, Crail Folk Club ends its year's guest evenings in stellar fashion. We thought we were just getting Kris Drever but surprise, surprise, he was accompanied by Laura Wilkie, last seen in Crail, fiddle firing on all cylinders with the dynamic Kinnaris Quintet.

Laura led the evening off with a set of strathspeys, 'The Smith's a Gallant Fireman' and 'The Sweetness of Mary' - most agreeable to the shell-likes.

She's been studying, and by her own admission, 'geeking out' on waulking songs, immersing herself in the Scottish archives and working with Rona Lightfoot from South Uist to adapt them for the fiddle. Let's just say that her mission has been a huge success, what we heard this evening was a refreshing and imaginative flexing of what traditional fiddle music can be. 'I Am Sad in the Braes of the Glen', 'A Man Ran Off With Another Woman' - titles that yield the concerns of the women as they worked the cloth.

Her latest album ‘Vent’, is centred around waulking songs and was made in-cahoots with the guitar genius that is Ian Carr... it's certainly on my Santa list. Oh, by the way, on the subject of Ian Carr, if you ever get the chance, track down an album called 'Shhh' by Ian Carr and accordion Jedi Karen Tweed, it's magnificent.

To round off Laura’s set, Kris Drever joins her for Phil Cunningham's 'The Gentle Light That Wakes Me' - a beautiful slow air - so beautiful the clocks must surely have stopped to listen in.

After the customary raffle ‘n’ floor spot interval, Kris takes his place in the light, a haunting loop pedal guitar drone and a bass pedal ‘doof’ to mark time underlies a beautiful, almost mystical guitar melody - a pipe tune by Diarmaid Moynihan - segueing neatly into 'More Than you Know' - 'You know more than you know, wherever you go the truth will follow' - aye, there's wisdom in that.