I had a few laughs trying to figure out the chemistry of the three musicians I was watching on the Hooker-Dunham stage Saturday night. Two of them, the fiddler Calum Pasqua and the piper Dan Houghton were young guys whose demeanor on stage was pretty self-contained. They didn't show a lot of emotion, they didn't move about, they just played, brilliantly. In between songs, Houghton told a good yarn, but when the song was on, he was pretty serious.
Then there was their partner, veteran keyboardist and accordionist Susie Petrov, who beamed at her young bandmates like a proud mother, was quite animated while playing, and was just generally effusive and unrestrained.
I wondered what their life was like on the road ... the two guys trying to sneak out sheepishly for a smoke or a pint, and Petrov, the maternal one, scolding them, teasing them, reminding them to take their mittens or scraves or whatever.
That probably couldn't be farther from the truth. Their chemistry was unusual, to say the least, but it hardly mattered. The playing was beautiful, and as Hooker-Dunham manager and Twilight Music man Barry Stockwell said, it was "the real deal." The three, who don't have a band name, played traditional Scottish songs, jigs and reels, many sung in Gaelic, and it was authentic and wonderful to hear.
Since I was a little boy, the sound of bagpipes has cut through me to some deep part of my soul, scorched me right to my primal core. I do have some Scottish blood. Houghton was a wonder on the pipes - a virtuosic soloist - and the sound was thrilling. Pasqua is one of the best young fiddle players I've heard, with a marvelously full sound and an expressive touch. Petrov's playing, like her demeanor on stage, was supportive and sensitive and reflected a deep love of the music and her fellow players.
All that, and a full house at the Hooker-Dunham added up to one pleasant evening, with a few laughs afterward with a good scotch in hand.