Holiday revue surely doesn’t evoke Scotland

Sunday’s music show at the Maine Center for the Arts was called a Scottish Family Christmas. Indeed, it featured the Lowland concert band of the Scottish Division of the British army, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on pipes, the Dalriada Dance company, and Scottish baritone Peter Morrison.

But if there hadn’t been a few kilts and those pipes, there was very little in the program that would have truly evoked Scotland. Especially not the electric guitar playing rock ‘n’ roll riffs.

A Scottish Family Christmas was more of a commercial production — a pack-’em-in roadshow delighted to be here and eager for applause.

It was hokey, all right. It was as if Lawrence Welk met Pat Boone and they boarded the Love Boat for a holly, jolly Christmas cruise with some bagpipes, too.

All that said, it’s only fair to mention that a large portion of the sold-out house was having a bonnie old time listening to the shenanigans of emcee Capt. Graham Jones, an all-around nice guy who liked to make jokes out of everything. His best moment was when he asked a boy from the audience what he wanted for Christmas and the child answered, “A chain saw.”

Otherwise, most of the entertainment fell to Jones’ 26-piece concert band and its swinging versions of well-loved Christmas songs such as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Sleigh Ride.”

No one seemed to mind the synthesizer and electric guitars that backed up the pipers for “Pure Scotch,” but it was a perplexing combination nevertheless. At least one person in the audience longed to hear the pipes alone. And to hear more of them.

There’s no denying, however, that Peter Morrison had a manly baritone when he sang “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” and “A Winter Wonderland.” Morrison’s voice and smiling charisma might have reminded some of the once popular singer Robert Goulet (only in a kilt). The real gem of the evening was hearing him sing a medley of Scottish ballads.

The Dalriada Dance troupe presented “Greensleeves,” a Scottish air, co-opted in this country as a Christmas melody and adapted in this production for traditional Scottish dance and jazz dance. Some might have preferred to see more of the sword dancing offered at the beginning of the show. Or some might have simply preferred to see a stronger set of dancers offering the pageantry of Scottish high stepping.

The children in the audience were pleased to see Santa, who put in a surprise visit, tossing candies to the audience and taking a moment to encourage Christmas warmth all year long.

The grand finale was a brassy full-group rendition of “Auld Lang Syne.”

Clearly, New Year’s is the holiday the Scots should stick with.