On the final day of Celtic Connections this year, Rura held a special 10th Anniversary hometown gig at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket situated in the city’s stylish Merchant quarter. The contemporary folk four-piece featuring Steve Blake (pipes, keys), Jack Smedley (fiddle), David Foley (flute, bodhran) and guitarist Adam Brown took to the stage in front of a 1200-stong audience. They revisited their back catalogue with numbers from their 2012 debut Break It Up, 2015’s Despite the Dark and their first exclusively original and instrumental album In Praise of Home from 2018 which, according to Folk Radio UK reviewer, Dave McNally, marked “a new, creative and entirely successful chapter” for the band.
This was no ordinary gig as joining them on stage were some familiar faces and past collaborators including the band’s former singer-songwriter Adam Holmes who recently joined forces with Nancy Kerr, Martin Simpson, Tom A Wright and Alex Hunter to form The Magpie Arc. Also on hand was the band’s first guitarist, Chris Waite, as well as Treacherous Orchestra’s Ali Hutton and multi-instrumentalist Finlay MacDonald (both on pipes and whistle) and James Lindsay (Breabach) on bass and synths.
They didn’t stop there, a Scottish string section also joined the lineup featuring fiddlers Megan Henderson (Breabach), Patsy Reid and Seonaid Aitken and cellist Alice Allen.
As Jack Smedley said of the night…we had a blast…now, those of you who missed this spectacular showcase and wished you were there or were there and want to relive it again…you have the chance to now do so.
With the same care given to its execution, the gig was recorded by Keir Long, mixed by Euan Burton and mastered by Grammy award-winning Alan Douches at West Side Music. The resulting album, Live at the Old Fruitmarket, will be released on September 11th.
Pre-Order a Signed Copy here: https://www.rura.co.uk/shop/live-at-the-old-fruitmarket
