Andrea Beaton’s CD Release party and square dance was held Saturday evening at the Canadian-American Club in East Watertown, Massachusetts. With Troy MacGillivray on piano, it was a fabulous evening of music. Andrea, resplendent and wearing bright red shoes, began by playing some selections from her latest CD, “The Tap Session”. It wasn’t long before the floor was crowded with dancers, impelled by the great music flowing from these two masters of their instruments. As is customary at the Canadian-American Club, the dancers used both the Inverness set and the Boston set, the former unprompted as usually in Cape Breton today and the latter prompted as in days gone by in Cape Breton. A lady with “clappers” (similar to spoons in sound, but made of hinged wood) accompanied a few of their numbers. Troy and Andrea switched instruments and demonstrated their mastery of the other instrument. Janine Randall and Doug Lamey spelled Troy and Andrea towards midnight and sounded very fine together. Janine remained on keyboards while Troy and Andrea both took up their fiddles. Step dancers were in abundance in the large crowd and a spate of strathspeys and reels sprang from their instruments in an attempt to satisfy the insatiable step dancers. Andrea, who had kicked off her red shoes late in the evening, finished it by laying down her instrument and giving us some very fine steps barefoot. I spoke with them both afterwards and they said they had had a great time, given the large, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable audience. I certainly hope they’ll come back again soon!
[1] This review is extracted from the Celtic Colours review posted to the Cape Breton music list on 2006 October 26 titled Celtic Colours 2006. It has been slightly modified here to stand alone outside that context.↩