The extremely talented fiddle player Gavin Marwick has finally launched his long awaited debut album, a double one at that too!
This Celtic Connections 2014 concert titled Gavin Marwick’s Journeyman Spectacular also doubled as Gavin’s long awaited debut album launch. It was very aptly named as “Spectacular”, it most certainly was.
For many years Gavin Marwick has featured in many bands as an outstanding fiddle player but has now come to the fore with a double album, ‘The Long Road and the Far Horizons’ which is all music written by himself.
The concert showcased this fantastic album and was like Ceilidh Minogue meets Bellevue Rendezvous with many extras. Gavin featured in both these bands and his fellow band members have joined him in this venture, as indeed do many other very talented musicians. The line up was like a who’s who in Scottish music. On seeing this line up I knew the concert was going to be a musical extravaganza and I was not disappointed.
Right from the very start the audience were totally gripped by the superb musicianship on show in front of them. From reels, to jigs, to slow airs, to traditional songs the audience were thoroughly entertained. There were even some who could not resist the temptation and were dancing away down the sides of the auditorium.
The Journeyman Spectacular will be going on tour and this is one concert I would definitely make a point of seeing when it comes to a venue near you. Gavin’s fiddling ability has never been in doubt and now that this album is all self penned material and the music is played by up to 10 different musicians at the same time you are guaranteed a phenomenal experience.
The star studded line up included:
Gavin Marwick – fiddle
Ruth Morris – nyckelharpa/fiddle/piano
Cameron Robson – cittern/Jews harp/guitar
Bob Turner – piano
Gregor Lowrey – accordion
Fraser Fifield – sax/low whistle/kaval/cajon
Jonny Hardie – fiddle/guitar
Davy Cattanach – percussion/ guitar
Aaron Jones – bouzouki/bass
Claire Mann – flute/fiddle
Danny Matheson (Presenter at Celtic Music Radio)
And from scotsmusic.com:
18th January 2014, Saturday night down in Glasgow’s old St Andrews Square a magical musical journey delighted a sold out Celtic Connections Festival audience. It was created by a band in full flight, orchestrated and conducted by a musician at the peak of his talent and power; Gavin Marwick, fiddler extraordinaire, composer and author. Together with his musician friends, members of the Old Blind Dogs, Ceilidh Minogue, Bellevue Rendezvous and Up in the Air, they delivered to an enchanted audience a jaw dropping treat of original reels, songs and jigs, sometimes gently played, at other times delivered with the skirl of a Highland storm. A sound that was full, perfect and honest.
Here was music that soared in a torrent of ecstatic beauty in a no nonsense Scottish fashion. Music that took us to Old Europe where in a brief respite we could ponder the echoes of our musical past via the refrains of gypsy violins played under the stars beside the communal fire. Then we were whisked on a romantic flight of wailing sounds to wild rocky outcrops, barren windswept moors and moody glens and mountains of Scotland’s West Highlands before being transported home to a safe familiar cityscape of reflective childhood; the memory of sitting on the back steps of an Edinburgh tenement composing a new tune.
Like a rainbow this performance was an odyssey in a spectrum of beautiful sounds descending on the audience’s ears like a mist. A tour of Scotland of the heart and mind guided by the safe and sensitive hands of Gavin Marwick and his merry band, celebrating the long awaited release of his solo album ‘The Long Road and The Far Horizons’.
This is enlightened Scottish fiddle music, this is music highly recommended to both new comers and aficionados, and this is real music worth hearing and deserving of its place in the nation’s culture.
Check him out
