Blazin’ Fiddles with Hannah Rarity at the Music Hall, Aberdeen

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A review from 5D Music & Theatre writer Maria Robertson

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Realising that this was slightly out of my usual comfort zone of music I was a bit sceptical about how much I would enjoy the evening.  I should not have worried though, it was wonderful!  Blazin’ Fiddles are such talented musicians, and work so fluidly together.  Paired with award winning Hannah Rarity, who nicely broke up the “fiddly dee” tunes with her amazing vocals, the evening was a sublime experience.  I took along my bagpipe and accordion playing chum and our only criticism was that the accordion on stage only got used once!

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The band played so well together, sometimes harmonising, sometimes performing solo, always changing seamlessly between musicians.  Each of the fiddlers had their “moment in the limelight” when they spoke to the audience.  There was no sense of them trying to outdo each other or shine brighter, there was a common respect that they were all amazing musicians and they played together so well.  When they were not playing they took a respectful step back.. or when they had a fit of giggles they hid in the curtains in the wings!  Would love to know what was said as I am sure the explanation of “she just told me her gas bill” was not actually what had been said!

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There were stories of the fiddle school they run: Blazin’ in Beauly, and composers of some of the pieces.  With one of the songs she was singing Hannah told us about her ex boyfriend’s Mum turning up at one of her gigs with a pair of her shoes, 4 years after they split up!

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The band also told us about their fundraising for the My Name’5 Doddy Foundation; last year band member Bruce MacGregor composed a song called Doddie’s Dream.  On this tour they are recording the crowd singing along to be used at a fundraising event that they cannot make as it falls during their tour of England.  We were encouraged to outdo Stirling and Inverness crowds from previous evenings and hopefully we did them proud!  They also tantalised us with details of a special St Andrew’s night event they are doing with Dougie MacLean in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh which sounded like it will be an amazing experience.

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At the end of the evening they invited us all over the road to the infamous Aberdeen bar The Grill.  Apparently last time they did it was a riot, and they claimed not to have told the bar they were coming.  We did go over but an apple juice later they had not arrived so we gave up and headed home…only to see pictures on Twitter the next morning of them in the bar with some of the more patient fans!

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Further information: Blazin’ Fiddles (blazinfiddles.com) and Hannah Rarity

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Maria Robertson is the Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.

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