Accordion and Fiddle Club kicks off a new season

Earlier this month the Fort William Accordion and Fiddle Club kicked off a new season with regular performers and special guests.

 

Our correspondent, Gladys Johnston, was in attendance for the first performance of this season and gave us this report.

 

At our usual venue, Railway Club Inverlochy, the start of a new season on Tuesday October 1.

 

In the absence of our usual chairman, Alasdair MacDonald, his son Andrew took over and got the evening off to a flying start, setting the tone  and welcoming a good crowd.

 

The evening opened with our usual worthies on accordion - Hector Henderson, who paid tribute to late Jimmy Smith, with Simon Andrews on drums. Jimmy was an ardent accordion player for many years at the club.

 

Next up were a few members from the Lochaber, Strathspey and Reel Society, led by conductor Mary Adams on keyboard. Liz Budge was on lead accordion and Catriona Smith played fiddle.

 

They were joined by a few members from the Fort William club, providing drums (Simon Andrews) and second accordion (Hector Henderson). They played a wonderfully eclectic mix of songs.

 

Young Cameron MacIsaac on accordion gave a usual array of great tunes.

 

We were treated to the first appearance of Lucy MacIntyre on fiddle and it was great to see another fiddler back at the club as we were sparse last season, and hope to see some more in the future.

 

Andrew MacDonald provided some top quality tunes on his accordion, accompanied by Hugh MacCallum on drums.

 

Our guest artistes from Inverness, the Susie Simpson trio (Susie on accordion, Gillian Stevenson on fiddle and Jock Fraser played second accordion), gave an excellent and well rounded performance with a varied repertoire of good music. It was a wonderful evening of entertainment for all involved.

 

No box players this month, we are hoping we will have a return of some next month.

 

The guest artiste for November will be the Ally Mackenzie trio on Tuesday November 5. We hope to see you all then.