Calan 17/11/2016

It's a record for me - my fourth non-English language gig in a row. Well some of the songs in three of the gigs were in English but it is still an interesting phenomenon. Calan are a mainly Welsh band whose arrival at our village hall in front of a capacity audience of 60 people was due to arts subsidy. What a great scheme - bringing culture and entertainment to remote communities. And what a great band if you like folky welsh music which I certainly do. The musicians played fiddle, guitar, accordian, Welsh harp and pipes (bag and other). The pipeist sometimes doubled up on fiddle and the accordionist did the vocals. Because of the size of the hall the band went acoustic and obviously enjoyed the ambiance and the novelty of finding themselves playing 'in the middle of the woods' - following a US tour. They were excellent, both individually and as a tight band. There were jigs and other Celtic tunes as well as folky stuff involving death and lost love as usual. The singer was also a clog dancer and a very good one as well. I enjoyed having that happen about eighteen inches from where I sat as she came off the stage to dance.