Tannahill Weavers @ Perth Theatre

May 29 2009 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

THE rousing and prolonged applause directed at The Tannahill Weavers for their scintillating Perth Festival concert should hopefully convince these traditional music trailblazers that a repeat Perth appearance should be sooner rather than later – and certainly considerably less than the interval between their 1970-something and 2009 visits!

Their May 2009 Perth sojourn showed that the Tannies have matured like fine wine over the decades – smoother, rounder and highly agreeable on the palate.

Frontman Roy Gullane and his four fellow Tannies have honed their stage show to produce an audience-pleasing mix of tunes, songs and banter, top drawer musicianship and spread of traditional songs spanning centuries and countries.

And it was very interesting to hear a song, The Braes of Balquhidder’, penned by the Paisley ‘weaver poet’ Robert Tannahill more than 200 years ago – plus the little story behind the man.

The Tannahill Weavers were the first professional Scottish folk group to successfully add the Highland bagpipes to their music, and this winning formula (the piper in the line-up now is Colin Melville) plus the tremendous harmonies from Roy, Phil Smillie and Les Wilson continues to put the Tannahill Weavers at the head of traditional music’s royal family.

Roy may have been a little frustrated at a gremlin in one of his guitars, but that in no way detracted from the enjoyment of the evening for both audience and musicians.

Alison Anderson