McCusker, McGoldrick, Doyle - 20 February 2025

Another appearance at the Beacon for this trio and another treat for the audience. I will say though that they saved the best for the beginning! The opening track led by Mike McGoldrick on bagpipes was a gorgeous air, mournful and yearning that was just beautiful. Actually the rest of the gig was excellent too. Perhaps more of John Doyle leading songs this time and a bit less of Mike McGoldrick but he delivers those folky songs with gusto. It was a nice ambience too exemplified when John McCusker decided to play a song they hadn't played for years and then let John Doyle hang in the wind as he tried to cover his confusion by changing guitars and tuning. They played the usual mix of mainly Scottish traditional tunes with Irish folk songs led by John Doyle. He led the encore in a rousing version of 'Billy O'Shea'. It was a shame that Transatlantic Sessions didn't come to Bristol this year but this gig helped make up for that.

Andy Fairweather Low - 15 February 2025

Another ALF gig at The Savoy, which are always worth seeing. Now 76 he seems to enjoy playing with his band the Low Riders and this is of course a local gig for him. It turns out it was more than five years since he was last at the Savoy and the band was the same (I think) with the excellent Nick Pentelow on tenor sax and Pete Cook on bass sax plus bassist, keyboards and drummer (Ian Jennings, Richard Milner and Paul Beavis respectively). During this gig AFL enjoyed messing with the band (and the guitar tech) by surprising them with what was next to be played. There was the usual mixture of classics like Shazam and Peter Gunn from the Duanne Eddy songbook, Route 66 and some other early instrumentals and pop songs. He also played some new stuff that he had recently recorded - fair play given his age. My highlights apart, from the Duanne Eddy obviously, were a Jimmy Reed cover 'TV Mama' which featured some superb guitar from ALF, 'My Baby Left Me', 'Nobody Knows you when you're down and Out' and a blues he played near the end with a white guitar that I don't know the name of. Of course he included the three big Amen Corner hits which the audience loved. I hope he doesn't leave it so long next time.