Highland Heartbeat

[NewPiperinNY]

The show is at times enjoyable and other times kinda but Rantin' Rovin' Robin was definitely a highlight.

I wouldn't miss House or Smallville for it, but it's definitely better than American Idol!

[Mael Coluim]

Aye, I saw Jim this past September at the SW Missouri Celtic Festival. Jim was passing through on his way to St. Louis, and played a special concert on Friday evening. I was very impressed with his stage presence, style and passion, especially for the works of Burns. His CD of the latter is excellent! To top that off, he's a very nice fellow and a fisherman tae boot!

Hopefully he will be back in our "neck o' the woods" soon.

Regards,

Todd

Quite a Jim Malcolm fan club here! I met Jim, wife Suzie and kids at Grandfather's Mountain this year. If you don't have his latest CD the songs of Robert Burns, I highly recommend it.

[Tim Little]

I have to say I watched this with pretty low expectations, but it wasn't too bad. Some pretty scenery to start with, anyway.

The Burns songs were definitely the highlight of the performance -- though I'll be forever spoiled by Eddi Reader's wonderful renditions -- and I always get a bit misty whenever I hear "Loch Lomond".

I'll jump right on board the Jim Malcolm bandwagon -- saw him live a couple of times previously with Old Blind Dogs -- though the hand gestures in "Rantin' Rovin' Robin" got to be a bit much for me, he has a fantastic voice. He and Darren MacLean did a great version of The Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", and MacLean's mouth music medley was masterful.

The ladies were all in very good voice, in particular Maureen MacMullan -- who is presently studying here in Boston at Berklee College of Music and was WGBH's special fundraising guest tonight.

Music aside, the production seemed a bit campy -- Brigadoon-esque? -- and I wasn't crazy about certain song selections. As some have mentioned previously, the Scottish connections for some were tenuous at best. There was a pleasant version of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" for instance, but having just seen Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel perform the same song literally minutes before on 'GBH's broadcast of "Paul Simon and Friends" -- well, there's nothing like the original.

To keep this review somewhat on topic, I have to say that I wasn't particularly offended by the kilts. The lads switched between a Howie Nicholsby/TFCK concoction that pushed the fashion envelope a bit beyond my taste, and more traditional garb that seemed perfectly fine -- aside from the dreaded cream hose. I believe I spied Jim Malcolm in a pair of those fine Glenfinnan buckle shoes at one point -- though he was wearing breeks at the time. On the whole, however, it seemed to me that the ladies generally had it far worse from a wardrobe standpoint!

"Highland Heartbeat" will be coming live to Boston in September. I'm not likely to go -- I'm not even likely to buy the DVD or CD for that matter -- but I wouldn't consider this evening wasted watching the performance on TV, as long as I had an idea what I was in for.