Dere Street
What a find... what a wonderful find!!!
A last minute stand in at the White Swan's "Gig on the Roof" for Kelso Civic Week proved to be a great little discovery for me, I had heard the name Dere Street before, but never came accross them and had no real idea about what kind of music they played, I got chatting to the bass player before the gig who is a friend of one of my favourite local Radio DJ's, the music scene is a bit like that in the Borders, we all kinda know each other even if we've never met and I thought, aww what a lovely lad, I'm going to stay and listen to these guys for a bit, well, from the moment they started I was hooked, they were playing their own interpretation of songs from Woolfstone, Skerryvore, Runrig, Christy Moore, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, to name but a few, they even played some of their own songs, which fitted very well into the set, at one point during "Loch Lomond" I found myself unconsciously with my arms in the air doing the actions that everyone does at a Runrig gig, they were excellent!!
In my opinion having a piper in a band, makes a band, at least one that's expressing a celtic theme and these guys were certainly doing that, they need to be on a big stage!! I would love to see them properly when they play, up on the roof of the White Swan was great for projecting the sound throughout the whole of Kelso, but you couldn't see them very well and I'm quite sure they could pull off even the largest of stages, they have a great presence about them, a great sound and complete respect for the music they cover, you need to get along to see these guys in action, I know I now will go out of my way to go and see them again, I love the music they were playing and I wish them every success, they deserve it!!
I've attached a wee video to this blog of them playing one of their own songs, Maid of Yarrow...enjoy
