A SMALLER than usual crowd gathered at the Inveraray Inn on December 10, for the Inveraray and District Accordion and Fiddle Club’s last night of 2025, owing to various seasonal challenges.
Compere Jane MacKay welcomed everyone and the evening opened with a wee ‘stramash’ with Jake MacKay and Sally Hall on fiddles, Margaret Campbell on keyboard, John Kelly on guitar and to bolster numbers, the guest artist, Murray Cowie, very kindly joined them on accordion.
They delighted the audience with a set of pipe marches, a set of jigs and some nice sing-a-long Scottish/Gaelic waltzes.
Other supporting players were – John Kelly on guitar and vocals; John on guitar/octave mandolin and Janine Ashall on whistle; a quartet with John on guitar, Janine on whistle and Sally and Jake on fiddles; Jake on ‘moothie’, Sally on fiddle, Margaret Campbell on keyboard and John on guitar. All their selections were much enjoyed.
The guest artist was Murray Cowie, all the way from Orkney. With his midi system, Murray produced a nice gentle sound and played a great variety of sets from lovely waltzes, well known pipe marches to a fine set of Iain MacPhail reels with some amusing stories in between.
Before the final set, Jane thanked all the supporting players for their contributions and to Murray for an excellent and most enjoyable evening and wished everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year. The evening was brought to a close with Murray playing a very well deserved and much demanded encore.
Next week the Club welcomes back the ever popular MacAllisters Trio from Campbeltown as guest artists and they are sure to get the New Year off with a bang.
