Virus can't stop Ivan from singing

WHEN fiddler Duncan Chisholm and singer/guitarist Ivan Drever first took the gamble of performing in the main auditorium at Eden Court in 2002, they recruited a number of guest artists to help them along. Last year, they took the plunge and played the whole show themselves - and that's likely to be the formula when the local duo return on Saturday, writes Kenny Mathieson. "I think we will probably - probably - just keep it to the two us again, but I never like to say never, because you never know who might turn up, " Ivan commented. "We felt it worked well with just the two of us last year, though, and we really enjoyed it." I asked if the inclusion of the guests the first time around had reflected a hint of initial nervousness over the prospect of sustaining a duo performance in such a big theatre? "Not really, to be honest, " Ivan replied. "We hadn't really thought of it in that way at all. We just decided it might be nice to invite a few extra pals up on stage on that occasion - and so it was, but a lot of the feedback we got from the audience indicated that while people had enjoyed that fine, the duo would have been acceptable in itself, so we decided just to go for it last year."

Even three years ago, of course, the pair were no strangers to making music together. They first met up at the Dingwall Folk Festival in 1989 and Ivan, who was born and raised on Orkney but now lives in Inverness, subsequently opened shows for Wolfstone before he was recruited as the band's singer in 1990. The duo with the Kirkhill-based fiddler began then and continued on an occasional basis after Ivan left the band to pursue his solo interests as a singer-songwriter. Both players have to juggle dates against busy schedules but get together when they can and will shortly have a second recording on offer as well. "We're working on a DVD and CD at the moment, " Ivan revealed. "That will only be the second record we've done as a duo. The first one, 'Lewis Blue', was a few years ago now. "We've been shooting at Duncan's house in Kirkhill. It's a mixture of us playing, interviews, and bits and pieces of outside footage. It's at the editing stage now, so we don't have a clear final idea of how it will look yet - but we hope it will be out fairly soon.

"The CD will probably just be straight music, " he added. "We're recording something like 25 or 26 numbers in all, so there will be more of them on the DVD, I would imagine." While Duncan has been kept busy with his hectic schedule with Wolfstone, Session A9 and various other commitments, Ivan has been hampered by contracting the debilitating post-viral syndrome, ME, in the middle of last year. The energy-sapping nature of the complaint has slowed his work down considerably, although he has managed to complete a new CD of his own as well as working on the duo disc. "ME really knocks the stuffing out of you, so I've been forced to scale things down which is far from ideal, " he commented. "It's very frustrating, because it's not the kind of thing that you can fight. It can get you down. The doctor can't really tell you how long it might take. He said it could be six months and it could be a matter of years. "Just to cap it all, I've had flu over the new year period as well - and so has Duncan. Fortunately my voice never really goes when I get anything like that. I may feel rotten up on stage, but at least I should be able to sing!"

Ivan hopes to have his own CD ready for launching at the concert. It marks a return to self-penned work after his last disc, a collection of traditional songs. "It's mostly my own songs that I've written over the past few years and it's mostly just me and guitar, with a bit of keyboard and percussion, " he said, "It's quite vocally-oriented, and I've worked with the engineer to let me record backing vocals to multi-track with my own singing, so it will be a wee bit different in that respect.

Having the two albums on the go also means that we'll have some new material for the Eden Court concert." One of the consequences of Ivan's reduced schedule is that he will miss performing at Celtic Connections in Glasgow for the first time, although Duncan has several gigs in the course of the event. The singer is philosophical about missing out on an event notorious for encouraging musicians to burn the candle at both ends in the convivial post-gig gatherings at the festival club. "I've escaped it this year, " he laughed. "I don't think a break will do me any harm at all!"

First published on Friday, January 16, 2004