Ever heard of a spider steak? Me neither until today. I saw one as I was glancing through the meats on Brewsters stall at the Farmers Market; not too big, reasonably priced, lots of marbling through it, worth a shot I reckoned. I’ll let you know how I get on with it. Oh, and yay, Thistle and Churn are now back at the market every week, best ice cream around! Today I got a cranachan cone (always a cone, again, best cones around if not ever).
So anyway, I may not have made it over to Glasgow to see the Close, but I did go over on Tuesday to see Louis Crosland play acoustic blues guitar alongside Giles Robson, a blues harmonica virtuoso (and a great singer too). For one, I’ve only seen Louis in pub musician settings so I was very intrigued to hear him really play (you get what I mean, yeah?), and Glasgow, because I faffed too long and the Edinburgh gig got sold out. I’d heard of McChuills where it was happening but never been, so another Glasgow music venue ticked off. It’s easy walking distance from the bus station, a tasty Joker IPA on tap, quite a nice place in all (and there’s a pool table); the venue room is just off the bar, it’s long but not particularly wide, a nice cosy space for an intimate performance.
The show started at eight, no support, just two long sets finishing around half ten, we definitely got our moneys worth! It was Louis’s first night playing with Giles Robson, first of eight gigs around Scotland (by now it’s five down, three to go next week). Well, wow, that first one was bloody excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides playing harmonica and singing, Robson is a wonderful, engaging raconteur, so much fascinating blues detail and history (I wish I had the sort of brain that could remember it all!); great patter leading into each piece and cajoling the audience to sing.
Oh, the music? Oh, hell yes, wonderful. A few songs I knew (like My Babe and Key To The Highway) some rang vague bells, whatever, it was brilliant from beginning to end, and Louis? Wow, as I said before I’ve seen him playing in bars, solo and with bands, but this was almost like I was seeing him for the first time, just wow. I now so wish I’d got around to buying a ticket for Edinburgh too, I mean, if that was the first time they’d played together, jeez louise, how good must the later shows be?!? And when Robson would indicate to Louis to bring the guitar right down, oh, the clarity and delicacy of the notes, ooch.
The, ahem, final tune was Shake, Rattle and Roll, no cajoling needed there for a little audience participation. Call me biased, but I’d like to think the Edinburgh crowd outsang the Glasgow audience! The encore was How’d You Learn To Shake It Like That, sir, I was born shaking like that, especially when the music is that good 💛
It’s now very, very late, I must away to sleep. In the morning I’ll add more bits on Instagram, and if you’re very lucky, maybe more from the Cinelli Brothers gig.
Bruce on the Fringe 