Saturday, 15 October — Margaree Forks to Port Hood

I arose shortly after 9h to a fine, lovely, blue sky day, cool but with none of yesterday’s strong winds. I drove to the Dancing Goat for breakfast, passing a number of cars stopped where the Margaree River passes beside the Cabot Trail with folks out taking photos of Philips Mountain and its beautiful leaves, which seemed to have survived the winds fairly well there and elsewhere and are now at or close to peak all over the Margarees. After breakfast, I toured the Margaree Valley, stopping at Crowdis Bridge, the Portree Look-off on the West Big Intervale Road, along the Marsh Brook Road, and along the Cranton Cross Road, enjoying the beautiful colours. Immersed in the gorgeous scenery, I sort of lost track of the time; when I realized how late it was getting, I hurriedly started south for this afternoon’s concert, so I failed to get photos of Philips Mountain, where the colours were the brightest I saw this day in the Margarees, and only made one stop for photos along the glorious “Red Stretch” from Margaree Forks to Southwest Margaree. The colours between Dunvegan and Southwest Margaree were the brightest I ever remember, but I again failed to stop, hurrying past before I realized how bright they were. Cape Mabou was still green on its northern end; there were more colours in Northeast Mabou, but, unlike those in the Margarees, they were still not at peak.

Every Celtic Colours poses difficult choices, but this day’s was simply impossible: the Pipers’ Cèilidh and a Féis Mhàbu tribute to Jimmy MacInnis were both jammed into the same time slot! In July, I bought tickets for both, but then decided I’d go to the Féis Mhàbu concert out of respect for Jimmy and gave my Pipers’ Cèilidh ticket away, but I’d have dearly loved to have been at the Pipers’ Cèilidh as well—I haven’t missed very many over the years I’ve been attending Celtic Colours.

Titled Young Gaels, the Féis Mhàbu concert was held in the Mabou Community Centre and emceed by Brandi McCarthy. It began with the Féis Mhàbu Dancers dancing the third figure of an Inverness set, accompanied by bellows pipes, fiddle, and piano played by members of Fuaran nan Eilean, young Gaels from the Isle of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland. Joined by more of their fellows and under the direction of Anna-Wendy Stevenson, they gave us a set of tunes arranged as Suite Uist, a celebration of fifteen years of traditional music education at Lews Castle College in Benbecula, scored for harp, accordion, flute, four fiddles, bellows pipes, guitar, and penny whistle; sounding symphonic at times, they received a partial standing ovation at its end. Tracey Dares-MacNeil next gave a long and heartfelt tribute to the late Jimmy MacInnis, an untiring supporter of young musicians and dancers and host for many years of the West Mabou dances where they were always welcomed; it concluded with a subset of the cast of Brìgh who sang in Gaelic a hymn from that show with guitar accompaniment. The first half closed with the group Ùr: The Future of Our Past, musicians from the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, taught by Phil Cunningham, who joined them on stage for their first number, a set of traditional tunes. Their second was a set of their own tunes, performed with cello, guitar, three fiddles, uilleann pipes, and whistles; I found the set rather unusual, though clearly Celtic, not always tuneful, sometimes symphonic, but, on the whole, I quite enjoyed it. They continued with a Gaelic song sung by a soloist with a gorgeous voice whose name I didn’t get, later joined by cello, whistle, and accordion, and then the rest of the musicians and then concluded with an English song accompanied by whistles.

After the break, as is customary at each Celtic Colours concert, the draw was held for the Celtic Colours plaque signed by all the musicians performing at that concert, won most appropriately on this day by Margie MacInnis, Jimmy’s wife. Brìgh returned an gave us the Priest’s Shoes skit from their show. The Féis Mhàbu singers sang a Gaelic milling song a cappella and then another, broken in the middle by a dance interlude with accompaniment on piano, fiddle, beat box, and guitar. Ùr: The Future of Our Past returned to the stage and played a beautiful set of traditional tunes and then gave us an English song with backing vocals and accompaniment from the group. Phil returned on accordion and we heard a Gaelic song and some puirt a beul with the group backing up the singer. A standing ovation greeted the end of their performance. The finale first brought a group of Brìgh dancers who step danced to the music of Melody Cameron on fiddle and Tracey on piano; an a cappella step dance joined by accordion; a Gaelic milling song with Féis Mhàbu and Fuaran nan Eilean on the verses; a Gaelic song accompanied by Ùr followed by puirt a beul; and many step dancers on the floor below the stage, including Stephen MacLennan, Mac Morin, and Amanda MacDonald. The end was greeted with a prolonged and very well-deserved standing ovation. It was a fantastic close to the great Celtic Colours series of concerts I attended this year.

After the concert, I walked across the street and had dinner (spinach salad and scallops) at the Red Shoe; in conversation with the manager, I learned that the work on enclosing the patio area was still in the architect’s hands, but that they hoped to have it done by opening in 2017. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with, as the seating in the Red Shoe is often very crowded and having the patio usable on cold and inclement days with the ability to hear the musicians inside will be a godsend at peak times of the year. After dinner, I drove back to Port Hood and read and relaxed, taking time to capture a photo of the beautiful sunset over Port Hood Island.

It being Saturday night, I headed back to West Mabou for the dance, with Ian MacDougall on fiddle and Allan Dewar on real piano. While there before the dance started, I met Loretta MacDonald, president of the West Mabou Hall Committee, who looks after the building while Melody and Derrick Cameron do the booking, publicity, and sound for the dances. With Jimmy gone, it is great to see the community stepping up and sharing the work so that the dances can continue. My sincerest thanks to all who work so hard to keep the music and dance alive and the youth involved in both. By 21h10, the sound checks were complete, but there were too few for a square set, so Ian and Allan gave us a dandy march/strathspeys/reels set. At its end, enough were present to start the first square set, which had four couples growing to six in its first figure, nine in its second, and ten in its third. The hall was rapidly filling up during this square set, so the second square set occupied the whole dance floor, with twenty-six couples dancing the third figure. The third square set was even larger, with thirty couples in the third figure. My notes at this point read, “some very fine dancers, young and old, on the floor!” The fourth square set had twenty-two couples in its third figure and the fifth twenty-one; my notes here read, “singing fiddle!!!” The step dance sequence brought out Stephen MacLennan, Lewis MacLennan, Melody Cameron, Amanda MacDonald, Sarah MacInnis, and, I think, Elizabeth MacDonald. After it was done, most of the young folks all disappeared somewhere, so the sixth and final square set started with six couples and ended with seven. It was a fantastic dance, with the great music previously alluded to from Ian and equally fine accompaniments from Allan (since he usually plays keyboard rather than the real piano, they were an especial treat), as well as superb dancing both on the floor and in the step dance sequence. Tired, but very content, jolted awake by the very brisk temperature of 0 (32) on the way to the car, I drove back to Port Hood under a full moon and, once in my bed, fell instantly asleep.