We had set aside Sunday as the day to check out the musical acts. The first band we saw was the Red Hot Chilli Pipers . I was expecting a somewhat comical, more or less traditional celtic band. Wrong. The show was introduced with the music by Strauss from 2001: The Space Odyssey, which quickly drew everyone to the stage. The show immediately went into their first song; the guitarist had a flourescent pink mohawk, the group (about 5 main musicians, plus brass) leader played pipes; the music was fast & full of energy. They have defined their invention of this type of music as "Bag Rock" . Check out this video on youtube for a sampling.
Later, we saw another great act, Capercaille, a unique blend of traditional celtic music (mostly in Gaelic) with a contemporary beat, with vocals sung by Karen Matheson . Really lovely - picked up their new CD entitled Roses & Tears. Check out this video on youtube for a sampling.
The rest of our day was spent catching the events at the Highland Games, wandering, eating............a great day all around.
That evening we had our formal clan dinner at the University of Edinburgh. Lord Strathnaver gave a small speech, which included a story that my father told him about our family's history. My great grandfather settled in Canada, ahead of his wife. Once settled, he sent her a ticket to come over.........on the Titanic. She had to make quite the journey to get to the port, apparently, & was furious when she found out she had been bumped by someone from higher class. Anger would have quickly turned to relief, obviously, with the demise of the unsinkable ship. Our immediate family history almost immediately snuffed out.
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