Singers and musicians from throughout the Highlands and Islands and across the generations sang, played and picked up prizes, which included a Gaelic Singer of Year trophy for Christine Primrose, a Best Scottish Folk Band title for Bodega, the young former pupils of the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music at Plockton, and an Event of the Year scoop for the Hebridean Celtic Festival. There was also recognition for the hard work that goes into the Inverness Ceilidh Trail in winning the Community Project of the Year prize and a reward for Achiltibuie’s Mairearad Green, who took the Composer of the Year title.

While the awards ceremony itself, which this year was recorded for broadcast on St Andrew’s Day by BBC ALBA, constitutes the serious business of the evening, the occasion is as much about mirth and entertainment, with the odd piece of political comment and good natured, if pointed, examples of the rivalry between proponents of Scotland’s national languages added. In between energetic displays of his band’s twin-fiddle-led musicianship John Moran, of Deaf Shepherd, contributed a scurrilous verse that’s probably best not repeated but made an eloquent point about the Scots language’s potency.

Just as potent, and no less entertaining, was Ruari Sutherland’s demonstration of how the human beatbox phenomenon, a sort of mouth music but from the percussion school, can blend with Gaelic song. Sutherland’s repertoire of bass drum “doofs”, cymbal splashes and deejay scratch impressions gave Norrie McIver’s singing of a more traditional kind of mouth music a real, hip touch of street wisdom.

If the splendidly organised Treacherous Orchestra provided another fine example of traditional music’s ability to surf the contemporary wave, the Tiree-Lochaber axis of Skipinnish underlined the timeless qualities of West Highland dance band flair and expertise and South Uist piper Fred Morrison’s trio explored the contribution that Scottish music made to the bluegrass tradition with a blistering set that touched on Django Reinhardt-style swing as well as footstomping Appalachian hoedowns. Donnie Munro’s band made a similar transatlantic crossing, evoking powerful homeland emotions and examining, with a little help from Kris Kristofferson, the contrasts and contradictions that lie at the heart of America.

Munro also paid homage to Margaret & Donnie MacLeod and Noel Eadie who as Na h-Oganaich paved the way for Runrig and Capercaillie by showing young Gaels in the 1970s that songs in their own language could have as much, if not more, relevance as pop and rock music. Na h-Òganaich were being presented with the Services to Gaelic Music award which automatically places them in the Scots Trad Music Hall of Fame, where they were joined as inductees by the walking ceilidh herself, the veteran singer and piper Rona Lightfoot.

It was another veteran, however, who perhaps best encapsulated this occasion’s ability to unite the Scottish folk scene across all its styles and age groups when the entire audience rose spontaneously to acclaim Robbie Shepherd and his team’s success in the Trad Music in the Media award for The Reel Blend – a show that BBC Scotland recently deemed dispensable but one that has clearly made its mark during its 29 year lifespan.

Written by Rob Adams