Scots Wha’ Hae’

Listening to: Across the Hills of Home — Ed Miller

A day late and a dollar short, but still Scottish. Jim Malcolm’s House Concert on 11/5 and The Celtic Festival on 11/7 rocked my world! If there’s one thing I love about Austin (only one, you say!), it’s that there is a little something for everyone. No matter WHAT you’re into, chances are, you’ll find it here. Case in point: My love affair with Celtic music.

Something about Celtic music speaks to me. Probably that 3/8 Scottish ancestry of mine — though, to be fair, I don’t feel the same way about wooden shoes, wienerschnitzel, or tomahawks. Either way, when K took me to the Austin Celtic Festival two years ago, I was hooked. Since then, I’ve gone back every subsequent year, and made an effort to seek out my favourite Celtic musician, Jim Malcolm, whenever he’s in town.

This year, Jim Malcolm and the Celtic festival were only two days apart — offering me an entire weekend of Scottish folk music, bagpipes, fiddles, the poetry of Robert Burns, and, the best part, men in kilts.

First came Malcolm, at a house concert — an experience everyone should have at least once. It’s intimate, there are no silly rules about SLR cameras, it’s comfortable…. need I go on? For the uninformed, a house concert is exactly as it it sounds. A musician giving a concert to a small group of people in a house. I took my friend Jill, trying to make a celtic music convert out of her, and we got there early enough to snag front row seats — which put me about three feet from Jim Malcolm.

Jim Malcolm as Robert Burns gives a geography lesson, making the concert highly educational.

Now, I have a bit of a thing for accents, especially strong Scottish accents, and what can I say? I melted. For me though, there’s something more to the Scottish accent. I grew up in the hills of North Carolina, where just about everyone has at least a little Scots in their background. I find it truly fascinating how much of the Carolina twang is clearly left over from Scot-English. Looking at it this way, I can consider the concert a study in anthropology and linguistics. And with explanations before every song, there’s a history lesson involved too. Clearly educational! Jim did the second half of his show dressed as Robert Burns, to commemorate Burns’ 250th birthday. The costume was funny, the music was, as always, outstanding (Burns’ best poetry turned to song… Ae Fond Kiss in particular) and the experience has become, for me, a mark of the passing from Summer into Autumn.

As if Jim Malcolm wasn’t enough to satisfy my celtic music desires, the annual celtic festival was only two days later. I went with mom, and we spent all day wandering around. The costumes were amazing this year — there was even a man dressed as a rather convincing life-sized tree. There are four stages, always filled with musicians, and there is always so much to take in at the festival — but by the end of the night, we found ourselves planted firmly on the ground right in front of the stage. We sat there through three groups — Austin’s native Scotsman, Ed Miller; the incredibly talented Pride of New York; and “Scotland’s most meaningful contemporary songwriter,” Brian McNiel. I can’t say that sitting on the ground for three straight hours is comfortable, but it was completely worth it.

The point, other than to say just how AWESOME I think Scottish music is, is to remind you that there IS something for you. With a little research and a willingness to go exploring, you, too, can sit on concrete and grow stiff while listening to fiddle players! (Or, you know. Whatever floats your boat.) Just one more reason to be an Austinite!