Spring Flings, Tibetan skeleton dancers and a few songs at Captain's Bar

Me tuning a borrowed guitar
at Captain's Bar, Edinburgh

I last visited Edinburgh in June 2021 which, I think I’m right in saying, was around the time both England and Scotland were emerging from lockdown. I’d been on a six-day trip taking in Oban, the Isle of Skye and the Sound of Mull. As I wrote in my July 2021 blog post Glasgow was meant to be the start and end point of my island adventures but this was switched to Edinburgh, so I found myself with a brief stay in the Scottish capital. One of the highlights of that visit was discovering a pub called Captain’s Bar which combined my love of beer with my love of folk music. I promised myself I would return one day to Edinburgh and to Captain's Bar.

In 2022 I went to Newcastle for a gathering of dulcimer players known as the Spring Fling, organised by my good friend Steve Gray. It’s an annual event but I missed it last year so, this year, I decided I’d definitely go and, noting that Edinburgh is less than two hours from Newcastle by train, I made up my mind to follow my visit to Newcastle this time with an onward journey to Edinburgh.

Dodging downpours
in Newcastle

The Spring Fling was great fun, despite episodes of incredibly heavy rain. The phrase 'April showers' doesn't really do it justice. But I did get to explore the city a little in between downpours. I’d agreed with Steve and another good dulcimer friend William Duddy (from Belfast) to arrive a day early so I could go along to Newcastle’s famous Bridge Folk Club. The folk club at the Bridge Hotel is the second oldest in Britain. We had a great evening there doing a solo song each before combining as a trio – me and William on dulcimers, Steve on mandolin – to attempt a slightly ramshackle version of Lindisfarne’s ‘We Can Swing Together.’ Taking Lindisfarne songs to The Bridge Folk Club is as close as you can get to the idiomatic carrying of coals to Newcastle.

After three days beside the Tyne I left the ‘Spring Flingers’ to continue my journey to Edinburgh. Based on my previous trip, I’d strategically booked into the same hotel on South Bridge in order to be just a short walk from Captain’s Bar. And this time, I had my dulcimer with me!

I could have visited Arthur’s Seat, or Edinburgh Castle, or taken one of those ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tours of the city but I’m afraid, after reacquainting myself with the atmosphere, the music, the beer and the good company at Captain’s Bar, I ended up spending most of my time in Edinburgh in the cosy surroundings of that wonderful pub. On the first night I was lent a guitar and ended up playing a few songs. Artists perform unplugged so you have to project, and the audience is regularly politely reminded to “shush!”

Edinburgh-based
world music duo
Rituala

I was encouraged to return the next day when world music duo Rituala would be hosting the afternoon session. Eddy Hanson (Rituala’s viola player and a member of staff at the pub) had assured me, if I came early, that it would be quiet enough for me to be able to make my dulcimer heard.

The cast-iron drinking fountain
bearing the inscription
'Keep the Pavement Dry' -
would have been
useful in the
Newcastle rain

But first, on Friday morning, I did a more conventionally touristic thing and visited the amazing National Museum of Scotland. I was very taken by the Columbian Printing Press from 1860, the cast-iron drinking fountain from the 1880s, the vintage cars and planes, the Tibetan skeleton dancers, and what looked like a rather psychedelic dulcimer but was actually a qanbus (or folding lute) from Yemen (this one a mid-twentieth century instrument made of wood covered with striking green leather and decorated with mirrorwork and green and silver sequins. The mirror on the head almost looked like an electronic tuner.)

Check out the
built-in tuner
on this Yemeni
folding lute! 

After all that globetrotting and time travel, I was ready to pick up my dulcimer from my hotel room and return to Captain’s Bar to catch the session led by Rituala. Eddy played his beautifully expressive viola alongside the powerful and clear vocals of Brazilian Giulia Drummond (who also played percussion and shruti box.) Rituala performed a wide variety of songs - including a Ukrainian lullaby - and made all the other ‘floor spots’ (including me) very welcome.

A Tibetan skeleton dancer 
- or me travelling home
from Edinburgh?

Saturday night was, well, more Saturday-night-ish, so the dulcimer was left back at my hotel room and, once again, the hosts very kindly lent me a guitar to do a few songs. The evening involved a few pints of the excellent local ale Volcano, which is my excuse for not remembering everyone’s name - but I did have the pleasure of meeting a superb fellow singer-songwriter called Casey Birks (a fine musician and a fan of Scott Walker.)

For those who like an early night, I feel I should warn you that Captain’s Bar stays open until 1am so it was a slightly tired passenger, lugging a backpack, suitcase and dulcimer, who undertook the seven-hour train journey home. I must have looked not unlike the Tibetan skeleton dancer I saw at the museum the day before. But, for all the vagaries of train travel in the UK, one thought remains: I must plan another trip to Edinburgh soon.

 

 

 

From migratory birds to dream-folk - top music picks from Scandinavia

Some of the most refreshing music of the last year or two has come from Scandinavia. Bands from Sweden like Kolonien, blended Swedish/Norwegian bands like Aevestaden and even the Swedish/Scottish/Finnish/Norwegian melange that is Siskin Quartet. So it’s time to introduce you to some of these Nordic delights...

Siskin Quartet are a melding together of two remarkable duos. English-born fiddler Bridget Marsden and accordionist Leif Ottosson – outstanding proponents of Swedish folk – are joined with Scottish-Finnish-Norwegian duo Sarah-Jane Summers (fiddle) and Juhani Silvola (guitar), whose succession of dazzling albums have impressed music lovers and critics alike.  

Their 2022 album, Flight Paths, takes its inspiration from the theme of migratory birds, reflecting the band members’ own relocations from country to country. All four musicians contribute original pieces, and the variety of styles – and birdlife – is wide-ranging, from Summer’s jaunty opening, ‘The Peewit,’ to Silvola’s gently atmospheric conclusion, ‘Albatrossi.’

The nine tracks cleverly evoke distinct characteristics of the wildlife involved. ‘The Siskin Reel’ is a lively little tune, reflecting the eponymous yellow-green finch, while ‘Firefinch’ (a small, fiery-red African bird) is appropriately a desert blues polska, showcasing Silvola’s shimmering electric guitar, with fiddles and accordion darting hither and thither.

The backdrop is a familiar terrain of polskas, waltzes and reels but Siskin Quartet show a delightful willingness to experiment making Flight Paths, like the migratory journeys of the birds, an adventure in itself.

The first few years of this decade have been dominated by climate change, pandemics, wars... so there’s an urgent need to raise people’s spirits. Swedish band Kolonien, with their 2022 Till Skogen, bring some much-needed joy and optimism. It’s a wonderfully uplifting album, from the opening track ‘Time Will Tell,’ (a determinedly upbeat anthem, despite the climate emergency theme) to the closing ‘Unlearning.’ As invigorating as a cold, sunny, Swedish morning, Kolonien have the freshness of The Cardigans’ early albums while, at the same time, sounding like a Nordic version of Fleet Foxes.

Taking their name from a Swedish term for community gardening Kolonien is rooted in Scandinavian traditional folk music and the Swedish Green movement. It’s a family affair - guitarist brothers Erik and Arvid Rask and their cousin Anna Möller (violin, viola d'amore and Hardanger fiddle) plus percussionist Mischa Grind. (Anna has sadly recently left the band.)

For the most part, the successive tracks on Till Skogen hurtle along, driven by Grind’s ever-sympathetic and imaginative percussion accompaniment, with an atmospheric interlude – ‘Nattsudd’ – featuring Möller’s Hardanger fiddle. It’s a strikingly well-constructed album, the opening and closing tracks are sung in English, the rest mainly in Swedish, with the vocals and instrumentation blending beautifully.

When I first heard Ævestaden’s 2021 debut album Ingen Mere Gråter, I was captivated by the Swedish/Norwegian trio’s fusion of traditional instruments with electronica and vocals. Since then, the band have toured several European countries and were nominated for a Songlines Music Award, so I was excited to hear of the release of their second album, 2023’s Solen var bättre där, (the enigmatic title of which could be translated as The Sun Was Better There.)

There are three elements to Ævestaden’s sound. First, the raindrop-like, ostinato motifs plucked on traditional Scandinavian instruments such as the kravik-lyre and kantele. (Even Levina Storåkern’s violin is often plucked rather than bowed.)

The acoustic instruments are underpinned by the subtle, minimalist electronics, sounding pleasingly gritty and dirty at times, as if produced by an old analogue synth you might find in Jean-Michel Jarre’s attic.

Finally, there are the pure, clear vocals, somewhat reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan, that seem to evoke an atmosphere of lullabies and nursery rhymes. All these elements combine to make Ævestaden’s dream-folk highly original, deeply atmospheric and completely enchanting.