For over ten years now the Folk and Blues
Festival held at the Guilford Arms has been sponsored by the
Caledonian Brewery, and runs for ten nights with quality music.
Another common denominator of this integral part of the Fringe is
that these evenings are run by local folk band Yard of Ale.
Yard of Ale consist of Alistair McDougald,
Peter Gillan and Colin McKenzie, well versed in the art of
entertaining all ages with their eclectic mix of traditional
Scottish and Irish folk music together with the odd American
number, country songs and ‘Sassenach’ numbers from the likes
of Lindisfarne and Ralph McTell, all linked with their own style
of humour, thrown in for good measure.
Each night there is a special guest and
the night we attended there was the blues virtuoso Michael
Wellands, fresh from a set at the
Glastonbury Festival, who royally entertained the packed
pub with his undoubted skills on guitar, harmonica and vocals.
A final set by Yard of Ale brought the
festival to a conclusion, all too soon for most people that
evening. The Guilford Arms is always a busy pub serving good food
and quality beer, so when there is a free, yes I did say free, gig
of this standard on offer too, then it is no wonder that it can
sometimes get a little claustrophobic, but it is certainly worth
the suffering.
So here’s to next year lads, look
forward to seeing you again then.
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