Craig Downie has a few tricks up his kilt.

Downie, leader of a band of Ontario lunatics called Enter the Haggis, sings with devilish delight, plays a mean bagpipe and writes excellent songs that are the band's signature. His photo on the cover of the band's first CD, Let the Wind Blow High -- a busking bagpiper whose kilt has caught a gust of wind -- demonstrates his quirky sense of fun.

But the proof is in the playing, not the cover art. Let the Wind Blow High satisfies on nearly every count.

Besides Downie (Highland bagpipes, vocals, tin whistle and acoustic guitar), the band is Duncan Cameron (fiddle, vocals, acoustic guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, uilleann bagpipes, bodhran and banjo), Teemie Patterson (electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals), Ken Horne (drum kit, darbuka and percussion) and Rodent (bass guitar, acoustic guitar and vocals).

The first track, "Enter..." ("She Moved Through the Fair/Blarney Pilgrim"), lets fly with a blast of bagpipes, fiddle and rock-band folderol; you know right away that Enter the Haggis has top-notch chops. The second track, the original song "Where Will You Go," is one of the only stumbles on this album; Downie's lyrics are sincere, but the vaguely punkish vocals strain the eardrum just a bit. Redemption is just a track away, however, with the band's hilarious rendition of "Donald Where's Your Troosers"! (The police presence in the song is priceless!)

After a nice instrumental track, Downie's "The Train," the band gets wistful with "Skyswimmer," a Cameron original. They cut loose with Downie's novelty "Bagpipes on Mars," then sing longingly of a home by the ocean in "Home," by former bandmate Rob McCrady. After "The Three Little Jigs" ("The Hag at the Churn/Alastair an Duin/Willie Rutherford's Rant"), McCrady serves up the last bit of sobriety on the album, the moody, tragic "Widow's Walk."

The album closes on a couple of high notes. The best is Downie's happy, bawdy "Ride My Monster," followed closely by the cross-cultural "Mexican Scotsman." (The last "hidden" track, "Honeydew Melons," is cute, but the lengthy span of dead air is annoying!)

Let the Wind Blow High is a great, fun album from Celtic Canada, and Enter the Haggis is a blast of grins. Put this disc on heavy rotation!

- Rambles
written by Tom Knapp
published 22 February 2003

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