Scotland's Tannahill Weavers bring 50th anniversary tour to Tucson

Scotland’s Tannahill Weavers know how to celebrate a landmark anniversary like their 50th.

You spend half the anniversary year close to home and the second half criss-crossing the globe.

That trek brought the Celtic and traditional Scottish band to the United States in early August and it will keep them here through September.

The tour arrives in Arizona on Friday, Sept. 7, when the band plays a show in Flagstaff before coming to Tucson’s Berger Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Sept. 8. They head back north to Prescott for a show on Sunday, Sept. 9.

The concert comes nearly two years to the day of their last Tucson concert and days after they released their latest CD of traditional Scottish music title “Òrach,” which is Gaelic for “Golden.”

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Tannahill Weavers, which takes its name from the Scottish poet Robert Tannahill known as the “Weaver Poet,” have been performing traditional Scottish and Celtic music right down to the use of bagpipes since getting together in 1968. The band’s members have changed over the years, but its mission has remained largely the same: perform traditional music with traditional instruments, but with some contemporary twists. But lest you think the all-acoustic group adheres to the sometimes sobering tone of the Scotland’s greatest hits, think again.

As the Winnipeg Free Press opined recently, “The Tannahill Weavers — properly harnessed — could probably power an entire city for a year on the strength of last night’s concert alone. The music may be old-time Celtic, but the drive and enthusiasm are akin to straight ahead rock and roll.”

“Òrach” celebrates the band’s history and heritage with a collection of reflective ballads and foot-stomping reels and jigs that mine the genre’s history while paying more than a passing nod to today’s world. The band’s energy and enthusiasm, according to recent concert reviews, is infectious.

Saturday’s show, presented by In Concert, begins at 8 p.m. at the Berger, 1200 W. Speedway, on the campus of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Tickets are $25 in advance at Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave., or online at inconcerttucson.com with discounts available. It’s $3 more at the door.