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Review: Dougie MacLean at Bruce Festival

Dougie McLean in Dunfermline Abbey
Dougie McLean in Dunfermline Abbey

Perthshire singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean opened this year’s Bruce Festival, playing a solo acoustic set to a sell-out audience in the atmospheric surroundings of Dunfermline Abbey’s nave.

Organised by Dunfermline Delivers and supported by Celebrating Fife 2010 and EventScotland, the festival brings visitors to Scotland’s ancient capital to celebrate the life of Robert the Bruce, who is buried at the abbey.

Who better then to open a festival steeped in Scottish history than MacLean, so long now one of the country’s greatest musical figures.

His unofficial national anthem Caledonia came early in the set, with MacLean commenting on what a privilege it was to play his “wee homesick tune” in such surroundings.

Now in his 35th year as a professional musican, there were songs from throughout his career.

From 1983 album Craigie Dhu’s Ready For The Storm the opening bars repeated as Dougie savoured the nave’s special acoustics right up to the brand new You Will Fly Away, his rich melodies sounded at their very best as they reverberated around the cavernous old hall.

And this new song provided the most poignant moment of the evening, inspired as it is by MacLean’s experiences witnessing and performing during Nordoff-Robbins music therapy sessions at Rachel House children’s hospice near Kinross.

MacLean described how the children’s reactions seemed to confirm his belief that music can perform magic, and few in last night’s audience would have disagreed.

Dougie’s next scheduled shows in Scotland come at his own Perthshire Amber Festival starting on October 29.

But for the audience, it was on to the second part of the evening a son et lumiere show telling Bruce’s life story.

All in all, it provides an enjoyable and unusual accompaniment to a concert experience, and the abbey is beautifully lit throughout. Make sure to wrap up warm, though, as the majority of the tour is spent outside.

The son et lumiere is included with the ticket price of all the concerts in the series Karen Matheson and Friends play tonight , followed by Dick Gaughan tomorrow but the tour can also be booked independently.

For more information on the festival, which runs until August 29, visit www.visitdunfermline.com/brucefestival