Voe hall vibrates on Valentine’s night

Valentine’s night saw the second of the two Ragged Wood concerts featuring Orkney folk legend Ivan Drever (father of Kris) and hip dude Blue Rose Code which I guess is more mysterious than his real name Ross Wilson.

They say its “aawis a fine day in Voe” and on this occasion it was a fine night at the Voe Hall as well as the candlelit venue held court to fair-sized crowd at caberet style seating.

Drever and the hip dude, the old and the new, certainly entertained but the stars of the evening for this old codger were local “post punk pop” jangly jaunters, the Trookers, not so peerie noo.

They opened the night with a playful rolling sound that uplifted the evening, with the snappy harmonies of Robert Balfour and Chris Thomson’s vocals and guitars ably anchored by the tight but minimalist rhythm section of Chris Cope on bass and Erik Peterson on drums.

Next on was Blue Rose Code who ironically was tense and nervous pre-gig with his voice threatening to disappear. But this didn’t impact on a very competent performance but gave a husky edge to many of this singer/songwriter’s tuneful ditties.

He was joined on stage all too shortly for two numbers by local musos Lois Nicol on fine fiddle and Bryan Peterson on upright double bass.

There was another highlight in the supper of macaroni cheese and chips.

Then Ivan Drever, Orkney’s answer to Ralph McTell, closed the evening with a mixture of self-penned songs and instrumentals which put him very much in the traditional folk camp. It endede a fine evening, refreshingly out in the sticks at a change of venue away from Lerwick.

• See full review in The Shetland Times on Friday.