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Heidi Talbot presents Duke Special, James Yorkston & Brighde Chaimbeul at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was the second of three events that Heidi has been invited to organise to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the venue as a centre for music and arts as part of their QH@40 programme.

The Queen’s Hall holds a special place in the hearts of many audience and performers alike and, over any year, a wide variety of music from all genres is performed there by many musicians, so it is appropriate that this evening’s show also gives a good selection of that musical diversity with the line-up of performers.

Heidi Talbot has her work cut out with these “Showcases” as not only does she have the task of organising them, but also compering the shows and performing in them too, and when, as tonight, the gremlins have got into the sound system from the opening moments of the show, it does take someone with “stage experience” to so smoothly deal with the issue while the problems are sorted out.

There is always a clear tonal quality to Heidi Talbot’s vocals that interests me no matter what the song is, and from her opening set, “If You Stay” and the very dark subject matter of “Bedlam Boys” were, as always, perfectly suited to Heidi’s emotive vocals.  Also nice here to get the chance to see one of this show’s guest, and one of Scotland’s  finest songwriters, Boo Hewerdine, on stage with Heidi in the first of his on-stage visits for this show.

Making a sharp contrast to Heidi’s opening set, Brìghde Chaimbeul introduced us to... read the rest of the article here.