Stonehaven Folk Festival - Closing Concert
Featuring the Paul McKenna Band, HECLA and Shooglenifty
Shooglenifty, Paul McKenna and HECLA
Shooglenifty - Shooglenifty was formed in 1990 by musicians from the Scottish Highlands, Orkney and Edinburgh. Its bright spark was the idea of fusing traditional and traditional-sounding melodies with the beats and basslines of a mixed bag of more contemporary influences. As happy playing a small highland village hall as they are on an outdoor festival stage playing to tens of thousands, the Shoogles (as they’re known to their fans) have promoted Scottish music all over the world for three decades.
Hopes that they would finally settle down to the quiet life were dashed when they accepted an invitation to start 2020 in style by performing at midnight for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay. The band played gigs in the north of Scotland in February 2020 before all dates for the rest of the year were cancelled, postponed or put on hold due to the Coronvirus pandemic.
For 2022 they are keeping everything crossed for getting on the road again with dates in the calendar from May.
Paul McKenna Band - Scotland’s Paul McKenna has long been ranked among our finest younger singers and songwriters, armed with a powerful yet intensely emotive voice and passionate social conscience, often expressed through his songs, a combination that’s brought frequent comparisons to the great Dick Gaughan. He and his band – comprising Robbie Greig (fiddle), Conal McDonagh (pipes/whistles), Conor Markey (banjo/bouzouki/guitars) and Ewan Baird (percussion) – draw on both Scottish and Irish roots, in a dynamic, full-bodied array of original and traditional material, along with songs by like-minded authors.
HECLA feature Ailis Sutherland (pipes/whistles), Ilona Kennedy (fiddle) and Kaitlin Ross (guitar/vocals) playing tunes and songs in the Scottish and Irish tradition as well as self penned tunes and Gaelic songs.
