Shane Cook & The Woodchippers – The Strathclyde Suite – Celtic Connections – support Tern – January 25, 2025.

SHANE COOK & THE WOODCHIPPERS 

TERN

I was really looking forward to this one as my appetite had been whetted by having seen Shane Cook (fiddle) and Joe Phillips (double bass) as part of Allison Lupton’s band at a truly marvellous gig on their UK tour last year. But they weren’t the only ones putting on a great show at The Strathclyde Suite.

I had last seen the support act, Tern, when they won the Danny Kyle Open Stage back in 2023. Then, they were young, nervous, but showing promise. That promise was more than realised in their excellent opening set.

Tern comprise Rose Logan (Scottish – Fiddle), Kristina Leesik (Swedish – Fiddle), Lea Søndergaard Larsen (Danish – Bodhran), Miguel Girão (Portuguese – Guitar), and Amy Laurenson (Scottish – Piano). Their music drew freely from the band members’ respective musical cultures, creating a fresh, dynamic sound very different from that which we’ve come to expect from wholly home-grown trad ensembles. I’m more than pleased to say every set and tune was a complete surprise to me – and all the better for that.

They started with a recent single, Smackpolskan (a Kristina Leesik composition) – which, somewhat paradoxically for a Scandi-Scots band, translates as “A Taste of Poland”. It swapped 6/8 and 3/4 rhythms starting with fiddle leads, then piano and guitar taking the melody, before the whole band coming together for the finish. The tune was lilting and the arrangement was light and spacious.

One aspect that really stood out for me in that, and which coloured their entire set, was the unusually melodic playing by the rhythm section.

In most trad bands, guitar and bodhran serve an underpinning function and I’ve often thought that being a guitarist in that situation must be somewhat frustrating. Miguel Girão’s contributions were often intereaving rather than underpinning, which made a pleasant change, and, on several occasions, there was delicate interplay between the guitar and Amy Laurenson’s tasteful piano.

Lea Søndergaard Larsen, for me, has to be one of the most interesting bodhran players I’ve heard. Judicious use of fingers and pressure had her instrument running up and down scales and inserting little melodic tweaks that brightened up the overall sound no end.

The fiddlers really extended themselves via some more band originals and sets of Shetland reels and slides before finishing with a brisk Starpolska – “Polish Star” – which made me wonder if perhaps bandmembers had spent their holidays in Poland! The rhythms of the number kept changing around, and I swear I heard a flamenco bulería beat in there (that’s the one Bernstein pinched for West Side Story’s America). The audience, mightily pleased with what they’d heard, gave them an extended round of applause. A great start to the evening.

After the interval, on came Shane Cook and The Woodchippers. Shane himself is a Canadian and U.S. National fiddle champion who is held in high regard by fellow fiddlers – as was seen by the presence of Saltfishforty’s Douglas Montgomery and Fara’s Kristan Harvey in the audience.

Another prizewinner is guitarist Kyle Waymouth, winner of the Canadian Folk Music Award for Instrumental Solo Artist of the Year (2023). On the opening number, Shane’s The Little Contortionist, he and Shane duetted over a dancing rhthm that immediately started feet tapping.

That was followed by a blazing set of Ontario Reels, during which Kyle laid his guitar down and I presumed he’d broken a string. Instead he broke into some wild stepdancing and the crowd roared their pleasure. Turns out Kyle is a five-time Canadian Open Step Dance Champion.

A little later in the show, while Shane and the band let loose on the traditional Irish Hangman’s Reel, pianist and vocalist Emily Flack also came to the front of the stage and showed herself to be no mean stepdancer herself. Cue more uproar from a delighted public.

The finale saw the band doing a set perfectly titled Kilts On Fire and both terpsichorean tappers returned to step out a duet/battle that had us cheering both sides on. I haven’t had so much fun in ages.

Before that, however, there were songs – Emily, in tribute to Robert Burns (whose birthday it was) sang a superb version of Ye Banks and Braes that brought a tear tae ma ee (as we say in these parts), sets (and outstanding playing from Shane), and solos.

One solo in particular from bassist Joe Phillips dethroned Ron Carter as my all-time favourite double-bass player: great melodic leaps up and down the fingerboard, harmony melodies with double-stops galore – and I swear I saw him fingering three-note chords. I’d be wary of shaking Joe’s left hand – you might get crushed!

There was, of course, an encore. Shane invited the fiddlers and bodhran-player from Tern onto the stage, and they all joined in on a set of three reels. Standing ovation, and both the band and the audience went home happy. Virtuoso musicianship, variety, and pure entertainment. You couldn’t ask for more.

BOB LESLIE