Battlefield Band - Concert Reviews

A N D L E T T E R S

Alan Reid's electronic keyboards painted images of a misty landscape. Pat Kilbride's delicately plucked guitar added figures in the foreground. Alasdair White's fiddle danced with passion. But it wasn't Scotland at the Barns of Wolf Trap on Wednesday until the Battlefield Band's Mike Katz unleashed the power of his bagpipes. Katz, one of the group's newer members, fit perfectly into its elegantly traditional style. His piping ranged from martial to plaintive, and he coaxed enough colors from his instrument to efface generations of bagpipe jokes. When he played in unison with White, the combination was as smooth and diverting as whiskey and toffee.

Katz switched to low whistle for the vocal numbers -- many fine Scots delicacies are best enjoyed in wee drams, as founding member Reid sang in the charmingly mournful "Nancy's Whisky," about a gent who goes clothes-shopping but is waylaid by a wayside pub. The fluidity of the band's arrangements was matched by its rhythmic sense: All four members carried the rhythm in their playing, whether whirling through reels or moving gently through romantic airs. Reid offered a fine example of classic-ballad writing -- with a happy ending -- in "Riccarton Tollman's Daughter," about another Scottish pastime: the sport of curling. In introducing the song, Reid reviled a better-known export: Golf, he said, is "a stupid game." He might have been speaking of his own band's strengths when he called curling "nothing sophisticated, but immensely satisfying.

In 30 years on the road it's looked like the game was over for the Battlefield Band on more than one occasion. Never more so than in the last couple of years. But nothing if not resilient, Batties founder Alan Reid and piper Mike Katz have recruited singer songwriter Pat Kilbride and uncovered another mighty talent in teenage fiddle star Alasdair White. With safe hands around him they've made an album that meets the stringent standards of the band's celebrated forerunners. The instrumentals flow with genuine flair and style, Reid and Kilbride handle the vocals with cool assurance and collectively they knit the Scottish tradition into a sound that still sounds fresh, alert and relevant and belies their veteran status. No tricks, no gimmicks, just very fine music.

Midway through the Battlefield Band's performance at the Wolf Trap Barns on Thursday night, Scottish fiddler Alasdair White taught the audience how to say "very good" in Gaelic. Shout it out anytime, said the teenage phenom afterward. "It's not only encouraging, it'll make you feel cultured."

Not that the crowd needed any prodding. All it took was the sound of White and Highland bagpiper Mike Katz ripping into a set of dance tunes, including reels bursting with color and energy, to entice nearly everyone in the packed house to underscore the music with clapping hands and stamping feet. Even an old-fashioned Celtic waltz proved rhythmically contagious once the renowned quartet pushed the tune into overdrive, arguably its favorite gear. White and Katz also used tin whistles to lace the music with bright, darting tones and briefly evoked something akin to a Scottish barn dance while indulging in dueling bagpipes.

Like its repertoire, the Battlefield Band's lineup has seen a lot of changes over 30 years. Guitarist and singer Pat Kilbride, who recently returned to the fold after a 25-year break, now shares lead vocals with founder and keyboardist Alan Reid. While Kilbride soulfully interpreted vintage and contemporary songs, Reid unveiled original narrative ballads, including two richly evocative portraits: "The Bonny Jeannie Deans" and "The Riccarton Tollman's Daughter." Many of the tunes were deftly orchestrated by Reid's work on synthesizer -- he conjured both atmospheric and slightly funk-flavored moods. But it was the ensemble's acoustic drive and interplay that ultimately pulled the crowd to its feet, eager to hear an encore.

Veterans of the Scottish folk scene, the Battlefield Band have been fighting to keep the best traditions of Celtic music alive for more than 30 years. Founder and Keyboardist Alan Reid has regrouped his troops once again and the current lineup unites long-time vocalist and guitarist Pat Kilbride with fiddler Alasdair White and expert piper MIke Katz. Reid shows the way with some fine arrangements of traditional tunes such as Nancy's Whisky and Rothesay Bay and also wrote the stirring The Bonny Jeanie Deans, a modern sea shanty about a paddle steamer built in Govan in the 1930s. Other contemporary compositions include White's intriguingly-titled fiddle tune If Cadillac made tractors and the lovely title track. Elsewhere on a splendid collection which ranges from breathless Highland reels to moving tradiotional laments, the Battlefield Band continue the good fight. Traditional music at its very best.

The Batties are back! And with a vengeance ... The new line-up features veterans Alan Reid (vocals/keyboards/accordion) and Mike Katz (highland bagpipes/small pipes/whistle). They are joined by the Battlefield Band's very own prodigal son, Pat Kilbride (vocals/guitar/cittern) and playing as fully-fledged Battlefield Bandsman for the first time, the prodigious Alasdair White (fiddle/whistles/bouzouki). We all have high expectations of the Battlefield Band. It seems sometimes that they've been around - in one line-up or another - forever and their output has been consistently superb. But those high expectations are no preparation for the quality of their latest offering.

The opening set of tunes (Chuir I Gluin Air a Bhodach/DJ MacLeod's/The Ness Pipers/The Earl Of Space) features all the trademarks of the Battlefield Band's sound. Inventive accompaniment, furious fiddling, feisty piping and - for the first time on record - Mike Katz's nimble stepdancing. The set also illustrates another trademark of the band, namely the intertwining of newly-composed tunes with traditional ones. This hallmark can be found in a number of other cracking sets (If Cadillac MadeTractors/Happy Birthday Fiona/Macfarlane's Rant; James Cameron/Fosgail an Doras/The Skylark's Ascension; The Malking Nightmare/Drive Home The Mainlanders/The Mill House; Banais Choinnigh/Eileen MacDonald/Welcome The Piper). White's epic "Time and Tide" after which the album derives its name is a tour de force as is the prolific G.S. MacLennan's "Sunset".

As ever with the band, there's a fairly even ratio of songs to tunes, and they're no less potent a component of the overall mix. Reid's delivery of a little-known variation of the Carlton Weaver/Nancy Whisky song, "Nancy's Whisky" is priceless. As is his rendition of the self-penned "The Bonny Jeannie Deans" and the reworked song "Rothesay Bay". Kilbride gives us a fairly recent song by Karl Mullen, celebrating poteen, "Whiskey From The Field" - interspersed with a tune by Katz ("Volcanic Organic"). However, the highlight of the album - for entirely personal reasons - is Kilbride's "Camden Town". Several years ago Pay The Reckoning had its headquarters in Camden Town and the song brings back memories (and regrets that we didn't make the most of our location at the time!). Cheekily "sampling" some of the structure of "Yarmouth Town's" chorus, the song evokes the musical legacy which the modern Camden Town has inherited from its past generations of Irish musicians.

Time And Tide sees the Battlefield Band set out on yet another musical adventure. No doubt there'll be line-up changes again in the future - that has always been the way of the outfit which has played host to a galaxy of talent since its inception. However after listening to this CD, we're sure you'll agree that it would be no bad thing to hear the current line-up put together another two or three albums of this quality!

BATTLEFIELD BAND - Queen Elizabeth Hall,
London (5/11/98)

Now, let's get one thing straight, the QEH wouldn't be my first choice to hold a concert due to the acoustics being downright awkward for most folk artists but on this particular night, and the excellent ears of sound engineer Rob van Sante the auditorium roared its approval throughout the whole concert.
Starting with a slow whistle air, John McCusker joined by Alan Reid's sweeping keyboard sounds paved the way nicely for Davy Steele's vocals on "Norland Wind". Segueing into Mike Katz mighty set of jigs on highland pipes, the audience seemed more than ready for a great night out. And that is exactly what they got! With the skirl of the pipes (so much the heavy metal guitar of acoustic instruments) at full throttle it only took a short while for the audience to get to their feet. Running through a majority of material from their latest cd release including the quietly awesome "Beaches of St. Valery" they have once again regained their mantle as one of the Celtic music scene's finest exponents. The subtle bouzouki funk phrasing for "Jenny O' The Braes" and the anthemic choice of "Rolling On The River" saw the audience joining in with a conviction rarely seen outside a real festival atmosphere.

If nothing else, this band could teach many of the folk world's so called luminaries a thing or two when it comes to giving the audience what they really want - entertainment, instrumental virtuosity and above all, camaraderie.

I've been to see quite a few folk concerts recently and I can honestly say that I haven't enjoyed myself so much in ages. Long may they continue.
Pete Fyfe (Reviewed November 1998 for: Steppin' Out & Rock 'n' Reel)

DISPELLING frosty winds is not among Battlefield Band's CV of known spectacular effects. Yet their spate of musical talent and regenerative gifts brough winter awakening to an Inverness November, thawing the audience whok by the end of two hours' sheer inventive drive and melodic seduction, were out of their seats and out of their skins in appreciation. The band first appeared at Eden Court in 1976. Only Alan Reid, (vocals and keyboards), remains from that early redoubtable line-up which, among others, featured the stalwart, infectious flair of Brian McNeill. John McCusker's brilliance on the fiddle is a more than ample replacement, and his musicianship, ‚lan and versatility were tellingly in evidence from the outset, his haunting whistle breathing its heartbeat into the plaintive Magheracloone, the melody melting into the soft lamenting vocals of Davy Steele singing Norland Wind, which in turn gave way to a flurry of bagpipe tunes dispersed with flyaway brio by bearded Mike Katz who looks like a cross between ZZ Top and Desperate Dan. Katz and Steele, new to the line-up, give the band a fresh dynamic. Steele's abilities as a songwriter, though patchy, (Heave Ya Ho, an affecting sea song, mixes fine words with an overly sentimental melody), at their finest provide a frisson of exceptional truth and poignancy. The Beaches of St. Valery, his portrait of Scots at war, was one of the high points of the evening. The musical versatility of the group, (Katz on guitar; Steele on bodhran, McCusker on cittern and accordion) make them a foursome to be reckoned with. Of their several incarnations, none has shone with greater good nature, musical brio or aplomb. They're more gifted than Christmas.
Tom Adair