The Celtic Fling and Highland Games on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire on the Mount Hope Estate and Winery in the lush Lancaster County countryside was the setting for a performance by Gaelic Storm the evening of June 21. Performing in the main amphitheater before a packed house, the audience was held captive by the wit and artful presence of Gaelic Storm co-founder Patrick Murphy.
I sat amongst the crowd who were eagerly awaiting the performance and watched the band prepare the stage as a Willie Nelson tape played in the background. The dominant sound that rose above the varied noises of the sound check was the soaring mastery of Kiana Weber’s fiddle, giving the illusion that there were two or three fiddlers causing this wonderful sound rather than the solitary demure young woman in an orange dress caressing her fiddle, mindful only of its strings, as the business of setting the stage proceeded around her.
Once the band took its place on stage, the theme of the performance was love making. Murphy, the dominant presence throughout the performance, made love to the audience with his smooth, at times almost glib, repartee. This man is a Master of Ceremony. The audience adore him. There was more love making when the band’s powerful Piper, Steve Purvis, picked up and took aim with his magical instrument. It was then that his Pipes joined to the Fiddle playing of Weber’s petite dazzle, lifting above the stage, soaring into the canopy of trees and consummating the driving rhythm of this well-honed ensemble. It was as if the performance was at the height of a gale. The pipes and the fiddle made love in the air, the accordion strained to keep up. The audience was loved that night and they knew it.
