@michael-marra
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Category: Gig_Guide
A couple of recent reviews of Michael's performance at Strathclyde Suite as part of 2011 Celtic Connections -
Michael Maclennan for STV -
"Hmm, it’s a tough one (as well as a tongue-twister): telling a tale about a masterful tale-teller. But just as Michael Marra has amassed a series of superb songs based around his friends, fellow musicians and fictional characters so rich they may as well have existed in real life, so it’s only right that his rather wonderful show last night at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s Strathclyde Suite is recorded in some sort of detail for posterity."
Full review at STV-tv Celtic Connections
Photograph by Dave Taylor
Susan Mansfield for The Scotsman
"HAVE you noticed I'm not much of a purist?" says Michael Marra, two songs into a cracker of a concert. The Bard of Dundee has been playing fast and loose with musical genres for longer than most of us care to remember, and he was on fighting form for his Celtic Connections outing"
Full review in The Scotsman
Iain Anderson on BBC Radio Scotland
Michael dropped in past Iain Anderson's BBC Radio Scotland Show for a blether after his Strathclyde Suite Gig. "Posted Sober" had been selected as "The Archive Record of the Week". You can listen to the show using the BBC iplayer function for the next few days.
Great gig coming up with Mairi Campbell at the Queens Hall on 18th February at 08.00pm.
Information on the gig and tickets are available at Queens Hall website
Award winning Scottish singer songwriter Mairi Campbell's first solo album is to be released in 2011. She been described by the Scotsman as 'one of the great sounds of Scottish folk music today' . International attention came her way when The Cast's haunting rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne' was used in the movie 'Sex and the City'.
Irene Brown's review of the gig can be found at EdinburghGuide.com
Michael's gig at Crofthead Hall Neilsto n originally cancelled due to weather conditions has been re-scheduled for 20 February 2011.
Details on gig and tickets available at Crofthead Concerts
Michael Marra is taking part in "The Tongue That Cannot Lie" a concert with Chris Wood, Karine Polwart and Chris Mullins. The concert is part of Commonplace which is being held at King's Place in London from 09 February to 13 February 2011.
For more details and ticket information on the series of concerts visit Commonplace website
To begin the final evening of Commonplace Erica Wagner invites Chris Wood , Karine Polwart , Michael Marra , one of Scotland's most respected songwriters, and Chris Mullin , author, journalist and former MP, to separate spin from truth and shed light on the poisoned chalice that is ‘the tongue that cannot lie', a gift given to Thomas Rymer in a 13th-century Scottish Ballad. Tonight's concert sees Chris, Karine and Michael share an evening of some of the clearest voices in Britain today.
www.chriswoodmusic.co.uk
www.englishacousticcollective.org.uk
www.karinepolwart.com
www.chrismullinexmp.com
St John's RC High School presents The King of Lochee.
Based on the social history of Lochee, this musical features pupils from across the school and it's feeder primary schools showcasing their talents alongside singer/songwriter, Michael Marra. The King of Lochee has been developed by Derek Thomson, Colin Stewart, Harry Lennon and Mike Ryan working closely with Michael Marra.
The songs and music from the show which played to three sell out performances at Dundee Repetory Theatre in early November 2010 is avalaible on a CD. Please contact St John's Community Enterprise Project
Extracts from some of the songs are available in the song section
Please note that Michael Marra's gig at Paisley Arts Centre has been rescheduled for the 11 September 2010 at 07:30 pm
Further information available at Paisley Arts Centre Box Office
Michael Marra has a Edinburgh Festival Fringe gig on 24 August 2010 at 09.00pm.
He is appearing in The Big Room at the Acoustic Music Centre@St Brides Centre.
For ticket and other information visit The Queens Hall Box Office who are handling ticket sales for this event
Michael Marra is back on the road with his "band", Mr McFall's Chamber for four gigs in late August 2010 and early September 2010.
Check out the show dates on the calendar -
Visit Mr Mcfall's Chamber website
Read The Herald's Rob Adams review of a May 2010 gig
Mr McFall's Chamber with Michael Marra
The Queen's Hall, 28th May 2010
Michael Marra’s music has broad horizons. His songs’ subjects roam across Mull and Shetland, over the Canadian prairies, to the Schenectady, New York home of swing-era jazz broadcasting and down into Mexico. But his muse is governed by sound Dundonian principles, including the futility of going in the huff and the folly of vanity.
He was in splendid company here with a McFalls sextet offering strings, musical saw, accordion, harmonium and bandoneon that, between accom¬panying Marra superbly, visited Finland, Argentina and Cuba and captured a Dvorak bagatelle with an uncommon gracefulness that emphasised the setting of Marra’s compelling foggy growl in a chamber music cocoon as a sweet and sour recipe akin to Tom Waits’ Somewhere or One from the Heart.
Some of these songs have a long history of string arrangements but what impressed was the fit of the McFalls’ playing. They were alive to every Marra-esque detail, with eerie saw howls depicting the Yukon in the Lonesome Death of Francis Clarke, a churchy harmonium recalling Monkey Hair’s subject had married a minister and the keyboard picking out a solemn Flooers o’ the Forest for Happed in Mist’s coda.
Occasionally, as on the two Burns songs, The Slave’s Lament and Green Grow the Rashes-o, things became prosaic. But between Marra’s perfectly honed, withering song introductions and Robert McFall’s endearingly bumbling “church notices” there was much entertainment alongside the brilliant song content.
Rob Adams
31st May 2010
From press blurb for the tour with Mr McFall's Chamber -
"Michael Marra and Mr McFall's Chamber bring a mixed programme which includes
not only a dozen or so of Michael Marra's songs, but also some instrumental numbers -
accordion music from Finland, 19th century salon music from Cuba,
folk-influenced classical music from the Czech Republic, tango music from
Argentina. Instrumentation switches between musical saw, accordion, harmonium,
keyboard, guitar, mandolin, bass guitar, double bass and string quartet.
Mr McFall's Chamber and Michael Marra first performed together at the last of
the famous None of the Above events at the old Bongo Club in Edinburgh. Since
that time they have been getting together when schedules permit and have built
up a repertoire which encompasses not only Michael Marra's witty, poignant and
finely observed songs, but also Mr McFall's Chamber's typically diverse
repertoire. Composers included in the programme are Argentine tango virtuoso
Astor Piazzolla, Finnish folk musician Timo Alakotila, Antonin Dvorak and 19th
century Cuban violinist José White.
Vocals/ keyboard/ guitar – Michael Marra, accordion/ harmonium – Phil Alexander,
violin – Claire Sterling, violin/mandolin – Robert McFall, viola – Brian
Schiele, cello/ musical saw – Su-a Lee and double bass/ bass guitar – Rick
Standley."
Photo Gallery of previous Michael Marra and Mr McFalls Chamber gig at Falkland
Review of Perth Theatre gig from Perthshire Advertiser
The tour is now finished but look out for more dates in Augiust and September -
From the Dundee Evening Telegraph
The cream of Dundee’s music talent will be joined by acts from across the UK at a benefit concert for the victims of the Haiti earthquake disaster being held in the city next month
The Tele, sister paper The Courier and venue Fat Sam’s are organising the gig for February 20.
Acts scheduled to appear include Michael Marra, members of The View and The Law, Luva Anna, The Hazey Janes, Boogalusa, The Lost Todorovs, Gavin McGinty and Sheffield band Dead Like Harry.
Tickets will be on sale at Groucho’s from 10 am Friday 05 February 2010 and more acts will be announced in the coming days.
Angus Robb, of Fat Sam’s, said, “Obviously, this is a massive tragedy and the appeal for donations is one that everybody feels they want to contribute something to.
“We at Fat Sam’s feel we are in a position to help by offering the club to host a large-scale event and with our and the Evening Telegraph and The Courier’s contacts in the music business, we are confident it will be a great event and one where we can raise a significant amount of money to help the Oxfam appeal.”
In 2005, a similar gig organised by the Tele and The Courier raised more than £10,000 for the victims of the tsunami disaster and it is planned that this year’s event will be bigger and better.
The European Union estimates around 200,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake last month, with a million more made homeless by the disaster.