The McCalmans at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Sunday 16th August at 7.00pm
New 'Live' album released 1st of March 2009
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'Simply the Best', 'Scotland on Sunday'
'These guys are entertainers, mixing the serious, sentimental and scatological with wit and dry humour. You can hear from the laughter and cheers why they are dubbed the Masters of the Good Night Out.' ('Scotland on Sunday' 2009)
26 albums, countless television series, world tours in every direction. They've headed the bill at London’s Albert Hall and the smallest of folk clubs, sung in deserts, jungles, arctic wastes and remote islands. Scottish contemporary/traditional but always different. 'Best Live act', Traditional Music Awards. 'The Danish Folk Prize' and 'The Sandy Bells Cup' (what! You've never heard of 'The Sandy Bells Cup'?)
It's official, at the end of 2010, Ian McCalman will retire gracefully from 'The McCalmans', though Stephen Quigg and Nick Keir will continue, and build on, their very successful solo careers. It is fairly typical that, after recording 400 songs, The Macs have had rave reviews for their new 'Live' album, Coming Home. Apart from the comments already quoted from 'Scotland on Sunday', 'The Living Tradition' review said:
'Seriously – what is it about the Macs that place them in such a position of affection and respect from serious folkpersons, while pleasing the crowds of non-specialists again and again? Other bands who have gone for the “entertainment” end of the folk spectrum fail to retain that level of credibility and … love … for want of a worse word. This final (don’t believe it for a millisecond) CD shows why.' (Alan Murray, LT)
