Rab Noakes Playlist in The Ardshiel Hotel

We currently have a Rab Noakes playlist on rotation in the bar/restaurant of the Ardshiel. If you are curious to hear the man's music, we suggest you head down there, grab a comfy seat and a drink then give your ears a treat. If Rab isn't on the speakers, just ask our friendly bar staff and they will sort that out for you. In the meantime, here's the playlist for your private perusal:

Catching Up!

My apologies. It's been a while since the last post, however we've not been idle. Honestly!

Since the last bulletin,  had a great concert from Steve Daggett of Lindisfarne back in August and we're now preparing for this weekend's gig by ace guitarist John Goldie. Coming up in the lift, we have outrageously talented guitarist/singer/songwriter Elliott Morris who appears on THURSDAY 3rd October whilst the legendary  Rab Noakes  graces the stage at Ceol on Saturday 26th October. 

More information on these gigs and some early warnings on next year's concerts coming shortly.

Guitarist John Goldie plays at Ceol on Saturday 14th September

Looking back to the Steve Daggett gig for a second, it was a master-class on how to engage an audience with a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar material. Steve augmented his voice and guitar with occasional harmonica and stomp-box which brought real moments of light and shade to the music. By the end of the night, not only was everyone singing along with the obvious favourites from Lindisfarne/Alan Hull's back catalogue (Lady Eleanor, Fog on the Tyne, City Song, Meet Me on the Corner, Run from Home and One More Bottle of Wine to mention but a few) and also a couple from a certain Mr Zimmerman (Maggie's Farm and Don't Think Twice It's Alright), they were also making a dive for Steve's stack of his own CDs. Next time round, the Ceol crowd will be singing along to Daggett-penned classics such as Mandolin Moon, Devil's Causeway and the peerless Ballad of Jimmy Forsyth. Here's a couple of clips from the gig on our YouTube Channel.  As you will see, Willie Durnan's lights also played a major part in the success of the show - classy and sympathetic as ever. Many thanks, Willie!

Steve Dagget at Ceol

Moving back to John Goldie, it's pretty hard to categorise this guy and I'm not sure he would want to be pigeon-holed. Although acknowledged as one of the finest jazz guitarists in the world, whether solo or playing in a combo, John also brings his own finely-honed rock, soul and folk influences to his performances, reinventing classics such as this or even more surprising, this!  He is also a fine composer in his own right as evidenced here performing with his excellent Acoustic Unit.

It's shaping up to be another great night at Ceol so we hope to see you there! There are a few tickets still available at the reception at The Ardshiel Hotel, priced £8.  However, best not leave it too late in case you get  caught out by the infamous Campbeltown rush and miss out as you'll probably end up regretting it for the rest of your life! 

Our First Two Gigs and Beyond!

Ceol's doors finally opened on Friday 12th July 2013 with a wonderful performance from Glasgow bluesman Alan Murphy and his new musical foil, bassist Martin Byrne from The Wirral.  This was Alan and Martin's first "proper" gig after meeting at a recent John Martyn tribute event and it augers well for the future. Playing a mixture of Alan's own material and some favourites from the repertoire of the afore-mentioned John Martyn, the pair looked and sounded as if they had been playing together for years, which given the complexity of the music, was no mean feat!

Aside from the quality of the music, we were pleased at how well the venue worked - the sound was excellent, the audience, by and large, bought into the idea that they were there to listen and closing the bar during the performance was perhaps brutal but effective!We also introduced the concept of the Telt-a-Gram which ironically was dealt to Alan's buddy Michael!

See Michael's Telt-a-Gram for more information....

We will take confidence from the  things we got right and will give some thought to the areas where we can do better. Here is Alan on his trusty Gibson SG and Martin on his amazing electric double bass.

Here's Alan's take on  Ceol: 

A great venue in a beautiful part of Scotland. The gig is very individual with it's telt-a-grams and a new, musical, don't -miss destination for west coast music. - Alan Murphy

........... and here's the view from a member of the audience:

Excellent music last night at Ceol- Alan Murphy- so much so I'm off to get tickets for tonight's guests! Well done the organisers!  - Jacqui Millar

On to Saturday 13th July and we welcomed Chris Adams and George Tucker from String Driven Thing, who played a selection of songs that literally spanned Chris's career from Mark 1 String Driven Thing through to the present day via all the essential incarnations of the band as well as Chris's solo stuff. In addition to playing some beautifully fluid lead guitar lines in a variety of styles and throwing in the occasional backing vocal, George also gave us one of his own songs, Strange, which really deserves to get out to a wider audience.  Naturally, the set contained a number of SDT anthems which worked very well in a stripped-down acoustic format and there was something right Campbeltown about the way Jack Diamond, a song about a man facing the gallows and maybe not in the best of spirits, was transformed by a section of the crowd into an anthem to the restorative properties of Jack Daniels!

On both nights, we played The Lucky Chair, which gave every person in the audience the opportunity to win a signed CD by the evening's artiste(s). Here's Chris and George with Maureen who won a copy of String Driven's "Songs from Another Country" signed by the pair of them.

Chris's verdict on Ceol?

 A gem in the making in deepest Kintyre. Great room, intimate setting, and an excellent audience - Chris Adams (String Driven Thing)

.... and here's what Jacqui thought:

 Just back from another evenings entertainment at Ceol. You can't beat a man with a guitar, or, better still, 2 men and guitars!  - Jacqui Millar

Now we look forward to our next gig on Friday 16th August featuring Steve Daggett of Lindisfarne and no doubt there will another blog about that in the not too distant.........