When Alec Daiglish, Fraser West and brothers Daniel and Martin Gillespie first got together in 2004, it was to play the traditional music of their native Scotland.
Almost from the moment, they took the name of a nearby lighthouse as their own, though, Skerryvore wanted more.
“Our main goal always was to build the sound,” said Skerryvore frontman, guitarist and chief songwriter Daiglish during a recent Zoom conversation from his Glasgow home. “We wanted to become that kind of headline band, with a bigger sound.”
Expanding to an eight-piece with the incorporation of rock instrumentation certainly did the trick, turning Skerryvore into CeltRock heavyweights and making them one of Scotland’s leading musical ambassadors. Skerryvore are three-time winners of Scotland’s “Live Act of the Year” award, with an oeuvre of six well-received studio albums (to go with a 2020 live album and a 10-year retrospective, 2015’s “Decade”) and a legion of fans built from relentless touring in the U.K., U.S. and beyond.
It’s a tour to announce the release of their seventh album, “tempus,” that brings Skerryvore to Bremerton for an April 15 concert at the Admiral Theatre. Though Daiglish was quick to agree that “tempus” is very much the band’s “pandemic album,” he pointed out that its coming-out tour is hardly the band’s first time out of the gate since COVID restrictions allowed a return to the road.
“We’ve actually been back for a good while,” Daiglish said of the current lineup, which includes himself, the brothers Gillespie (on accordions, whistles and other traditional Scottish instruments), drummer West, fiddler Craig Espie, keyboardist Alan Scobie, bassist Jodie Bremaneson and piper Scott Wood. “We were one of the first bands back out there, I think; we’re just that sort of group. We made sure we had our visas and were back right at the start of when things started to loosen up.”
Though “tempus” won’t drop until April 28, it’s already gotten considerable buzz through the early release of a couple of singles – “You & I” and “Together Again” (a third single, “Everything You Need,” was released more recently).
Tickets are from $19 to $46 for the 7:30 p.m. show at 515 Pacific Ave. Information: 360-373-6743, admiraltheatre.org
Michael C. Moore is Arts and Entertainment reporter for The Admiral Theatre Foundation
