First of all, I must thank the McNeills for sending this release as it took not one, but two mailings to get this to Green Man as the first copy got lost somewhere in the post. This means that this review’s a few months later than it should have been, but that doesn’t really matter as every Brian McNeill release is something to be treasured! And a release that’s also sure to crack a wide smile on your face too as these cuts are taken from a series of German and Danish concerts that Brian and Iain did in ’98 and ’99. And anything that includes “Oor Hamlet,” a take-off on ‘Hamlet’ that’s even better than the version done by Richard Thompson (Richard Loesser’s) has got to be heard!
The theatre of the absurd includes Hamlet reduced to half a dozen verses as rewritten by Raymond Chandler with a Scottish accent. There are very few real masterpieces in any kind of music, but Adam McNaughton’s inspired reworking of The Prince of Denmark’s tragedy as Glaswegian comedy is definitely one. It was written when Adam was working as an English teacher in a Glasgow school [and] was faced with the prospect of teaching the dreaded Shakespeare to children who were, to say the least, highly unimpressed with the Bard and his works, so he decided a rewrite was necessary – if the kids could have the story in their own dialect, perhaps they’d take to it. The result, set to the traditional tune ‘The Mason’s Apron’, has taken on a life of its own, with a vitality Shakespeare himself would definitely envy. – From the liner notes to Live and Kicking
If you don’t know who McNeil is, he’s one of Scotland’s finest fiddlers, but he’s also an amazing multi-instrumentalist and singer who plays the viola, mandolin, cittern, bouzouki, guitar, concertina, bass, and hurdy-gurdy! He was a founding member of Battlefield Band, a member of the Scottish supergroup Clan Alba with Dick Gaughan, the late Davy Steele and others, and has performed in concert as a duo with Tony McManus and Iain Macintosh. Lately, he’s been producing CDs for such groups as Drones & Bellows. Oh, did I mention he writes mystery novels? I think he sleeps, but I’m not sure!
And the music’s but part of the joy of a McNeill album. As Debbie Skolnik said in her review of The Busker And The Devil’s Only Daughter: ‘There is more to Brian McNeill’s albums than just the music they contain, although if you put one on without knowing a thing about McNeill, reading the liner notes or even looking at the song/tune titles, you could enjoy them purely on an auditory basis. But the liner notes are quite informative. At the very least, they give some hints about the motivations behind the songs; if they are McNeill’s own compositions, there’s a bit about what inspired them. If they are traditional in origin, then there’s some history as to how they came about.’
His partner in silliness here is Iain MacKintosh, a well known banjo player on this side of the Atlantic who has worked with Brian before on Stage by Stage. And Iain, who speaks German much better than Brian, is the frontman during these concerts. That Iain has a wicked sense of humor has can be seen in the first stanza of his musical biography:
I can’t believe it’s thirty years since three of us teamed up Won a folk group competition – I’ve still got that silver cup In a basement club in Bath Street for me it did begin Songs from Archie, Alex Campbell, Josh MacRae and Matt McGinn I played a bingo hall in Wishaw, a church hall in Polmadie The more I sang the more I thought, Aye, that’s the life for me I don’t remember where it was, but someone paid us once Between you and me – I havnae done an honest day’s work since…
So we’ve got Brian and Iain clearly having the time of the lives playing music and generally just fooling around – listen for the riff lifted from a Rolling Stones song on the first disc, and the ‘Sex, drugs and rock and roll’ comment on the same disc – and what you end up with is concert goers who must still be talking about they heard and saw. Disk One contains ‘The Dallas-Domestic-Fort-Worth -Nothin’-Texas-High-Heel-Terminal-Two-Step/Smoky Mokes,’ a set of sprightly tunes that has to be heard in this live recording to be fully appreciated. Everything here is superb, so I’ll just single out the especially biting version of MacNeill’s ‘Any Mick’ll Do’ and ‘The Bonny Wee Lass Who Never Said No’, a traditional song that gets a MacNeill arrangement. The fun thing about this version of ‘The Bonny Wee Lass Who Never Said No’ is Iain’s long monologue in German (!) about it. I have not a clue what he said as I know but a smattering of German, but the audience loved it! Great tunes, wonderful songs, and some of the best stage patter one could hope to hear – what more do you want?
OK, I could go on for quite awhile yet, but why should I? If you like McNeill, you’ll want these discs, period. I certainly will be playing them rather often. For details on getting these discs, email Brian and he’ll get these discs promptly off to you. And visit his website here.
(FMS Records, 2000)
[Update: It doesn’t look like Mr. McNeill still has a website, but this lovely album is to be found at streaming services.]
