Perthshire Amber

Yesterday we had an extraordinary experience. We drove through an autumnal landscape under blue skies to Pitlochry, a Highland tourist town about 40 miles away, where we often go to the Festival Theatre for a play and occasionally, for a musical concert. This time it was the setting for a folk music festival, Dougie MacLean's Perthshire Amber Weekend. Musicians young and old, famous and unknown, professional and amateur, and their enthusiasts came to celebrate autumn in Perthshire at this 4-day event. Since it's a long drive for us, we packed everything into one day.

We began by being in the audience of a recording session for the NPR programme, "Thistle and Shamrock." Those of you in the States who are afficianados of Celtic folk music and National Public Radio probably have heard the programme presented by a Scotswoman named Fiona Ritchie. The programme has been on for 25 or so years now and originated from Charlotte, NC. In recent years, Fiona has returned to Scotland and produces the program from the Perthshire village of Birnam, adjacent to Dunkeld near where Dougie lives in the village of Butterstone.

The guests for the taping session were Dougie MacLean and some of his musician friends, some of them (John Martin, Martin Hadden, and Andy M. Stewart) going back to his--and their--high school days. Also on hand were Roy Gullane, lead singer of the Tannahill Weavers, and clarsach (Scottish harp) player Patsy Seddon (who has performed with Mary MacMaster as the duo Sileas). We concert-goers formed the live audience and had the opportunity to ask questions at certain points. (In fact, Don asked one which may be included in the broadcast.) Fiona interviewed the assembled on-stage guests for a future radio programme which will also feature selections of their recorded music slotted in as appropriate. Some of the stories we heard were hilarious, one of the funniest being how Dougie got into The Tannahill Weavers:

He was in Aberdeen at a folk festival with some friends in the mid-1970s and was literally standing on a corner holding his fiddle case when a beat-up white van pulled up to the kerb. Roy Gullane rolled down the window to ask Dougie if he'd like to join the Weavers in a tour of Germany. Dougie said he would and someone opened the door of the van and said "Get in!" They were on their way to Germany right then! Dougie was able to get them to take him back to where he and his friends were camping so he could gather his belongings and say goodbye.

They talked of the years of touring in this beat-up van throughout Europe, driving long distances from gig to gig, changing off drivers (sometimes without even stopping the van!), and taking turns sleeping. The most hilarious story involved a time when they had made a platform for a bed in the back of the van which could be enclosed in curtains, allowing one or two at a time to get some decent sleep. They stopped on the Autobahn to gas up and take a pit stop. Dougie had been driving and now it was his turn to sleep. They all returned to the van and the next driver called into the back for the keys. A hand came out of the curtains and handed over the keys. They assumed it was Dougie but no, Dougie was still in the loo. He came out in time to see the van pulling back onto the Autobahn.

Figuring they'd miss him and turn back at the next roundabout, Dougie sat down to wait. He said he remembered he only had enough money for two cups of coffee so he ordered a coffee. Hours went by and the van didn't return. It was when the next driving shift changed hours later and miles down the road that they discovered Dougie was missing. They stopped at the next rest area and used a phone box to call the German police, telling them they were almost in Dusseldorf where the gig was that night and had lost one of their musicians. They told them exactly where they had left him. The road police phoned the rest stop to ask if a Scotsman had been hanging around there for quite a while. When it was confirmed that Dougie was still there, the police sent a nearby open-topped cruiser to pick Dougie up. Dougie said they drove at high speeds, weaving in and out of traffic on the Autobahn, until they saw a lorry with a license plate from Dusseldorf. They pulled the lorry over, asked the driver if he was going to Dusseldorf, and when he said he was, they told him he was taking a Scots fiddler with him. A drop-off/pick-up spot was arranged and off Dougie went with the German lorry driver. When he got to the gig, the guys were all refreshed having had a chance to catch a nap. Meanwhile, Dougie had been 8 hours either sitting in the rest stop or being driven up the Autobahn by a German-speaking stranger and was exhausted.

Some of these folks Dougie hadn't seen in 30 years and so there was much reminiscing, laughing, and wonderful story-telling and many jokes told at Dougie's expense. Fiona asked them about their musical backgrounds, the various groups they had been in with one another, what it was like to be a touring musician, and what their experience had been in the early days of touring in the United States. If you get a chance to hear the programme, you will find it both interesting and amusing. You can find out when it will air by periodically checking the "Thistle and Shamrock" Website http://www.npr.org/programs/thistle/ Fiona expected it would be several weeks before the programme is ready to air.

We met an interesting American couple, Roseann and Dave Stringer, just before we went into the recording session. We sat with them during the session and spent some time with them afterward. They are from Kansas City, Kansas. He is a non-profit fundraiser and she is an academic who is in Europe with a group of college students doing study abroad. She was just in Paris with them and now is about to join them in Florence, Italy. Meanwhile they and she are having a bit of a break. Dave flew over to meet her and they are spending some time in Scotland, in part to attend the Perthshire Amber events. We found them so enjoyable and we had so much in common to talk about that the four of us decided to have dinner together that evening before the big concert.

Dave and Roseann decided to go back to their B&B for a while so we had a half pint and booked in for dinner. In the late afternoon we listened to some of the folks who had come to perform at the Open Mike session in the theatre foyer. We heard some amazing acts, including a 6- or 7-year-old boy who stood at the mike and, with no accompaniment, belted out "Let the Circle Be Unbroken" with such a clear and strong voice and with such feeling that we were all simply bowled over.

Following that, we sat near where Sheena Wellington was leading an a capella vocal workshop. She is an awesome singer with a voice like spun gold whose recordings we've listened to for years. One of her crowning moments was when she sang "A Man's a Man For A' That" at the opening of the Scottish Parliament building. The stirring words of Robbie Burns' egalitarian poem was perfect for the occasion.

We had a lovely evening meal in the old stone Port-na-Craig Inn just down the hill from the theatre where Roseann and Dave joined us. They told us more about themselves and asked us about our experiences here in Scotland. They seem to be experts on travel in Ireland and gave us good advice about various music venues there. (In the summer, Roseann is a tour leader for Rick Steve's organization and so knows a lot about travel in Europe and the British Isles.)

The evening concert was the culminating event for the weekend and featured all the people Dougie has ever sung or played with who could possibly make it to Perthshire. He began with his Blairgowrie High School pals Ewan Sutherland, Martin Hadden, and Andy M. Stewart. Next Dougie brought out Patsy Seddon from the group Sileas. She had played clarsach on a cut from one of his early albums and they recreated that performance beautifully. (Those of you who have come to visit us and have been taken to Killin on the way to Glen Lyon may also have stopped in at a lovely gift shop near the bridge that goes over the Falls of Dochart. Ewan Sutherland and his wife own that shop. Ewan was the MC for the Open Mike session and I kept looking at him trying to figure out where I had seen him before. Someone nearby told me.)

Over the years since Dougie's been performing on his own, he has sometimes been backed up by a band. Most often those of you who have seen him in concert during his U.S. tours, have just seen Dougie accompanying himself with guitar, but we were fortunate enough to see him in the early 1990s with the group he brought out last night and introduced as his "old band." Members included Chris Smith, Davy Duncan, and Allan Napier. Hearing them do a couple of the old numbers was a great way to end the first half.

After the interval, Pete Wishert, former keyboard player with Runrig (one of Scotland's foremost folk rock bands) and now the Minister of Parliament from Perthshire, joined Fiona Ritchie in the drawing of lucky programme numbers. The grand prize of an original painting by Dougie's wife, Jenny MacLean, went to our new American friends! How's that for luck?

In the second half of the concert, Dougie performed with The Tannahill Weavers and then with his "new band," which included Dougie and Jenny's son, Jamie, on drums. Sheena Wellington sang next. Then came a presentation of a symbolic bushel basket of food donations to the organization in Edinburgh who helps to feed the homseless and other needy folks. It was Dougie's idea to ask people coming to the various events over the 4 days to bring food donations. Apparently, the total food donated was an amazing amount.

Finally, Dougie invited all his guests to assemble on stage for a few final numbers. It was a thrilling finish to what appeared to have been a highly successful and well-attended 4-day event, the second of its type but likely not the last. As you can imagine, there were several curtain calls and two encores.

We got a few photos with our wee digital camera from row R. As you can see, they are dark, grainy, and don't enlarge well but they will give you an idea of how it looked. In the background you may be able to see a gnarly tree. This is part of Pitlochry Festival Theatre's set for the Oscar Wilde play, "A Woman of No Importance," which we saw last month. You probably can't tell from the photos but there are autumn leaves clinging to the top part of the tree. When the grand finale was being played last night, they released the net above the stage that allowed autumn "leaves" to filter down slowly onto the performers and the stage. Dougie was in ecstacy at the success of the event but was really overwhelmed at seeing his old friends whom he hadnd't seen for 30 years. The pub session after the concert must have gone on until the wee hours. Wouldn't it have been fun to be a "fly on the wall"?