GLENCRAIG SCOTTISH DANCE BAND Latest Album Reviewed

GLENCRAIG SCOTTISH DANCE BAND Latest Album ReviewedStrictly Ah’m Dancin’! (perhaps a cheeky reference to Bruce…and I don’t mean ‘Robert The’) or so it would appear according to the cover of this recording by the Glencraig Scottish Dance Band. For those of us that still remember with fondness the great Jimmy Shand this album will bring back memories of school days spent in the gym doing simple (and not so simple) Scottish country dances. A few of the tunes like “La Russe”, “The Minstrel Boy” and “Irish Rover” are established favourites whilst those penned by band leader Nicol McLaren including the substantial 13 minute set-piece “Lion Standard Quadrilles” are very much in keeping with the tradition. It’s obvious from the informative sleeve-notes (which include very helpfully the dance ‘calls’) that this is a band that takes both the ‘feel’ of the dance and the music very seriously without any of the stiff ‘how it should be done’ in their performance. Far from it in fact as the rest of the band; Gordon Howe (fiddle), Neil Caul (2nd accordion), Isobelle Hodgson (piano), John Sinton (double bass) and Robert Simpson on drums really put their all into it for what proves to be a very enjoyable ‘Saturday Night At The Ceilidh’ that is beloved of both young and old alike. If you want to party Scots style check this CD out. 

PETE FYFE