In the bright glow of evening sun coming through the three stained glass windows of the Lot, a former Kirk that is now the Grassmarket venue, there was already a warm and friendly atmosphere as the audience mingled and waited for the performance by Kim Edgar, Yvonne Lyon and David Ferrard. Although well established in their own right as new, rising talents in the Scottish singer-songwriting scene, this was their first performance together. A trigger to
this event was that each of their albums have were featured in ‘Album of the
Week' by BBC Radio Scotland's Iain Anderson. Fine praise indeed!
Yvonne Lyon
Yvonne Lyon, seated in centre of the trio, likened the cosy atmosphere to a living room and the relaxed feeling was set when the smooth, clear sound of her voice started to sing. Yvonne's songs were personal, emotional and nostalgic and she allowed the audience to share in this nostalgia with the flying of polystyrene planes to chime with her song about childhood. Particularly moving was the song with the Christ-like images and lyrics that she had dedicated to her Glasgow Granny and which she sang with heartfelt sincerity. Sadly, there is little trace of her Renfrewshire accent when she sings. There were shades of Joan Osbourne in Everything's
Fine a song inspired by a disabled girl's warm smile. Yvonne completely engages
with her audience in a very genuine way and spoke warmly of the pleasure of
collaboration.
Kim Edgar
Kim Edgar had sadly lost her voice, so she probably sang less than she normally would have. When she did, the words and tone of her songs were enough to engage and intrigue. She
also dedicated a song to her gran. It was Simple Song and she sang it like
a hymn, her Scots accent clear and welcome. Her version of the simple, but effective
1, 2,3,4,5 with David Ferrard and Yvonne, had the audience joining in with the chorus and hand movements. The nearby tenements, where it was assumed ‘silent
concerts' were enjoyed must have been intrigued!
Kim plays accordion and keyboard and is part of a new band called The Burns Unit, though whether or not they specialise in songs by Burns, I don't know. Kim also sang her fairy tale song, Blood, Ice and Ashes with keyboard and bongo whose beat and crescendo was very atmospheric. Her last song, the haunting and hypnotic Heavy Skies (preceded by a wonderful innocent joke about The Balloon Family!) was accompanied by a gentle guitar and
showed the depth of Kim's writing.
David Ferrard
Although David Ferrard is known as a singer who continues the folk tradition of writing and performing songs with a campaigning and political theme, he opened with the very lovely Take Me Out Waltzing Tonight. Who can resist the waltz time?
David, a Scots American, has a pure, gentle voice but he
doesn't shy from harsh words. His Hour of Plenty is a song about
capitalism, globalisation and social justice and Father Says tells of the "unseen gifts" of AIDS. The latter was accompanied by the glockenspiel which rendered the song with another layer of irony with its childish sound. His strong simple lyric of Broken Bones, a song about relationships, was sung as a duet with Yvonne.
He also sang Hard Times, by Stephen Collins Foster,
famous for writing songs like Beautiful Dreamer and Old Folks at
Home. David referred to him as an American Burns and although both men only lived to the age of 37, and he is known as "the father of American music", without
wishing to take away from that, the comparison may end there. Continuing in the American folk tradition, David sang unaccompanied Pretty Saro, his
pure voice giving particular poignancy to the sad lyrics.
This was the last gig in this year's Ceilidh Culture event. As
the light had changed to the blue of late evening it was rounded of with a
grand rendition of Down at the River to
Pray and an encore of Auld Land Syne. I can't speak for the rest of the audience,
but there was spontaneous hand linking in my row which was testament to the warmth
and goodwill that was evident throughout the evening. I can say no better than Iain
Anderson when he called the experience of hearing these three singers "life affirming".