Raise your Pipes with Pride

Actor Gerard Butler shows Scottish Pride

January is kind of an exciting time in Scotland. Sure, the temperatures barely hover above zero; and yes, the wind it so strong it continually sends your hat on long adventures through the crowded city streets and into random people’s faces. But besides all of that, the first weeks of January are an exciting build up to one of Scotland’s biggest holidays, Burns Night. To prepare, every January Scotland hosts a series of concerts, Robert Burns poetry recitations, and haggis promoting. Really it’s just yet another excuse to get drunk (just like Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays…). But it’s also a nice time that the country reflects on its roots and celebrates its cultural highlights, something more countries should do, in my opinion.

The main festival to promote this party/introspective time is called Celtic Connections. The festival has many positive points. On the one hand, the blustery January weather is made slightly less bleak when you can dance a little jig in it. And there are some great artists and up-and-coming talents promoted, including one of my favorite pianists, Craig Armstrong. On the other hand, the lines that define “Celtic” music are bit blurred in these festivals sometimes. My friends and I went to one of the Celtic Connections concerts on Saturday and found this first-hand. Although the first act was the expected fiddle-stomp-and-clap-your-hands music that I love, the following acts were just stretching the definition. One of these interlopers had the saucy stage name of the “Wild Women of Edinburgh.” However, the band ended up being five middle-aged and slightly out of tune women who tried to be “American jazzy”, which was confusing at a Scottish Celtic music concert.

Electric ceilidh music, album by The Borders, 2009

Despite all this, I am not trying to bemoan the traditional festival. But, really, I miss the fiddles. And the jigs. What happened to my university days when you could walk into a local Gaelic pub and be guaranteed to hear at a least a little Gaelic spoken and definitely live music playing. Locals would bring their bagpipes and violins and play together, just for fun, in the pubs. (I like to think every true Scotsman/woman carries these around on their daily commute, just in case they should happen to pass a Gaelic pub and be moved to dance). There’s nothing wrong with a little experimentation – go ahead and add that electric bass guitar! – but it would be terribly sad to see this wonderful genre of music diluted and dulled by adding too many “global influences." I would be interested to hear other people's opinions on this...

Come on Scotland, let’s go back to your stereotypical roots and stop trying so hard to be American or French or anything else (and certainly not “jazzy”.). What’s cooler than kilts and ceilidhs, anyways? That’s right – nothing!