Innes Watson – Guitar Colloquium
Isle Music Scotland – 30 January 2019
Many years ago, I bought an album called “Irish Reels, Jigs, Hornpipes and Airs” which showcased four of the guitarists of the time who were playing traditional music in new and innovative ways. My favourite was a genius called Dave Evans who seems to have disappeared, but the playing on Innes Watson’s record immediately brought back memories of his gentle fingerpicked style. It also reminded me of the first time I heard Dick Gaughan Flatpicking Scottish music. Innes does both equally well. Guitar Colloquium offers a wonderful mixture of styles, sounds and emotions. Although most of the music is original there are glimpses of influences and stylistic themes dating back to long before Mr Watson was born, synthesising music from a wide variety of genres.
Interestingly the album kicks off with a tune quite heavy on fiddle. Innes is a multi-instrumentalist and his arrangements showcase this. “Prelude for Sandy” is jazzy, jaunty and fun.
Innes Watson has been around the Scottish music scene for some time, often as the unsung hero in a variety of ensembles; as a fiddler in “Treacherous Orchestra,” as well as featuring on many outstanding solo releases by the likes of Mike Vass and Jarlath Henderson. Despite appearing on at least 24 albums so far, this is his first solo album.
The project was conceived as part of Celtic Connections new faces innovation in 2011 and has finally found it’s way on to a recording after a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo. In the intervening years Innes has been playing and touring constantly as well as teaching at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of the Highlands and Islands.
To bring the music on “Guitar Colloquium” to life he has surrounded himself with a host of virtuoso musicians including Mike Vass, Ali Hutton, Patsy Reid and others that we’ll come to in a moment. A special mention should go to Alan Cosker on drums and Duncan Lyall on bass who provide a terrific back line on what at times is a quite funky album. In fact, it’s the clever use of percussion and bass that gives the album it’s very distinctive sound.
This album is full of surprises, clever harmonies and duelling guitars as well as lovely string cameos with Patsy and Seonaid Aitken’s fiddles and lots of cello from Alice Allen.
Anyone listening to this will have a favourite tune and mine is “Roger”. Played on three Fylde guitars (Innes, Will McNicol and Elliot Morris); with hints of Leo Kottke, one of my all-time favourite guitar greats, it is a tribute to Roger Bucknall of Fylde guitars. It starts as a gentle fingerpicked melody with Alice Allen on Cello and Patsy Reid on fiddle and lets the guitars do the talking. There follows a seamless transition into “Cowboy and the Pussycat” which starts again with a gentle fingerstyle theme but develops into a complex, enjoyable piece showcasing Innes Watson’s arranging and compositional skills.
The arrangements are exceptional. There are all manner of harmonies and counterpoint going on. All crystal clear, beautifully recorded and played with hints of jazz, funk and folk but never too much of anything.
I discovered on reading the credits that as a mere mortal I didn’t have much idea as to how a project like this would be recorded. An extensive investigation revealed:
“I recorded everything myself with Ali Hutton on rhythm guitar, Alan Cosker on drums and Duncan Lyall on bass…then added other guitar parts and strings”. The original recording was done by Barry Reid and the final mixing by Innes and Andrea Gobbi. So there we have it, even more astounding is that at all times the album has a “live” feeling; incredibly accurate playing and is beautifully mixed.
“Mando Endo” is another lovely, gentle piece. Just Innes’s guitar apart from some lovely electronic harmonies as the piece develops. Straight into “Udon Noodle” complete with funky bass and drums. The guitar and bass bounce off each other on this one to hypnotic effect; definitely, one to turn up and play loud.
More bass lead opens on “Stubbs” before we’re treated to some high-speed flat-picking; a track that both surprises and entertains. And if flat-picking’s your thing then the other track to check is “Waste”, another personal favourite with its driving bass and drums, strings to the fore and the guitar driving the tune along; great the key changes, tempo changes. Brilliant.
There are 12 tracks on the album. Some stand alone, others blend seamlessly into the next. There are myriad guitar styles, there is electric guitar, fingerstyle, flat picking and lots of clever musical juxtaposition, and it all works. “Misty the Cat” ends with some slightly distorted electric guitar; “For Queen Nell” pushes the bass to the front and continues the theme before we move onto “Wee Dafty” who tantalises with strummed guitars and symbols. Two minutes forty of an introduction before a hornpipe reveals itself.
The final track is “Glasgow Guitar Colloquium” which was written for but never performed at the new faces concert in 2011. It’s great fun with plenty of room for improvisation; again the bass sets the scene.
A colloquium, according to google is a conference or seminar and what Innes has done is brought, in this case, lots of top-class guitar players and musicians together on the album but this colloquium set out to do more than just create an album. When Innes launched his crowdfunding appeal for the project he explained the Guitar Colloquium also aims to tackle the lack of guitar-guitar collaboration. “That’s what my Guitar Colloquium does: creates and shares new repertoire to challenge and support all ability levels and facilitates guitarists to collaborate and perform together. It’s also brilliant music played by brilliant musicians and a good show to boot.”
Talking about the live aspect of the project, Graham MacDonald who attended a Guitar Colloquium event at Abriachan village hall alongside a mixture of fiddlers and guitarists of a wide range of ages and abilities, described how Innes quickly put everyone at ease “as he explained just what we were going to spend the next two hours accomplishing”. Watch them in action here.
Look up Inverness in June and Ullapool in October if you want to attend one of the seminars …and festivals…book Innes Watson.
Instrumental albums can be difficult to review because of the obvious lack of lyrics to discuss! This album speaks volumes and is full of emotion. The compositions are varied and engaging, the arrangements are subtle and at times unexpected, the playing is superb and the recording is crystal clear.
The use of strings, along with the bass and drums makes this more than a guitar album (despite the name) it is entertaining and the complete antithesis of self-indulgent.
This is an album for fans of good music.
Order it here: https://inneswatson.bandcamp.com/album/innes-watsons-guitar-colloquium