Old Blind Dogs, who are really four young Scotsmen from Aberdeen and a lone Irishman, stopped by Montgomery for a late April concert at a local school auditorium.  Led by singer & guitarist Jim Malcolm (who played a crowd-pleasing solo gig here recently), the group plays traditional Celtic music with a twist – OBD utilizes a powerful, almost tribal, percussion to back the pipes, guitar and fiddle.  The resulting sound is rich and enticing.  The purists may disagree, but I thought it strongly enhanced the mostly traditional play list.  Never trust a guy in a kilt anyway!

The rest of the Old Blind Dogs are piper Rory Campbell (formerly of Deaf Shepherd…gotta love that name), who offered a couple of good original songs and played several instruments expertly, bassist Aaron Jones who sang backup and also played bouzouki, killer percussionist Fraser Stone who never missed a beat and plays cymbals with his hands (Take that, Bonham!), and the absolute coolest fiddler around, maestro Jonny Hardie.  The unquestionable highlight of the show was when Jonny and Rory traded licks on the phenomenal Breton and Galician Set, from their latest CD The Gab o Mey.  If there’s a tune more pleasing, I haven’t heard it.  The CD title, by the way, refers to the spring of the year just before the month of May.  Other memorable songs from the show include The Wisest Fool, Rolling Home, Tramps and Hawkers and The Battle of Waterloo. The guys of ODB were funny, personable, and very talented.  It was a good night.     GD