Southside of The Tracks: John McCusker Band and Friends, at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight is my first performance review of 2020 and, always, there is a little bit of personal superstition to first show of the year for me as good, or bad, it seem to set the standard for the next few shows.
This almost informal collective of musicians is a tried and tested format at The Queen’s Hall, and as with earlier shows last year as part of the Queen’s Hall’s 40th anniversary as a music venue, John McCusker has done a fine job once again in curating a diverse collection of musical talents that work well individually, and collectively, on stage. The diversity of musical talent on stage was impressive this evening with a core band made up of John himself and James Mackintosh, Ian Carr, Ewen Vernal, Michael McGoldrick, Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow) and Phil Cunningham. Moving on and off stage as required throughout the show were a diverse selection of guests including Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Ye Vagabonds (Ireland), Roddy Woomble, Kitty Macfarlane (Somerset) and Sofia Karlsson (Sweden).
The theme here throughout this show was a simple one, music, and how despite coming from different countries and backgrounds there is often a musical tradition that unites everyone together both as musicians and audience. Here, it is so clear when you listen to Sofia Karlsson singing folk songs in Swedish, or Julie Fowlis singing folk songs in Gaelic that there is a connection between the two that... read the full review here.