Went to see OUTLANDER in Concert!

Yesterday I went to see OUTLANDER in Concert: Echoes Through the Highlands, in Greensboro, NC. This special concert tour is a celebration of Bear McCreary's music from all eight seasons of the OUTLANDER TV series! I had a wonderful time, and I would definitely encourage the rest of you to see it if you can. (Look here for the full list of tour dates and locations.)



The concert had the feel of a two-hour "favorite OUTLANDER moments" highlights video, with two major differences: they showed clips from the show on a gigantic screen, with a live orchestra performing almost all of the music.



The singers were wonderful! At one point, when they played "Comin' Through the Rye" (a folk song that we heard from time to time in the early seasons -- for example, when we first see Jamie walking to the printshop in Episode 306, "A. Malcolm"), they actually did a little Highland folk dancing, which I thought was a nice touch.

They spent a lot of time on the early seasons, especially Jamie and Claire's early relationship, where you can hear the "Jamie and Claire" theme beginning to develop. That gave the first part of the show a pleasant feeling of nostalgia, at least to me, watching Jamie and Claire fall in love all over again, and remembering how much I loved seeing the gorgeous Scottish landscapes.

In the second half of the concert, they performed a number of themed pieces focusing on various characters over the course of the series: Murtagh (including his show-only relationship with Jocasta), Fergus, Young Ian, Frank, Roger and Brianna, and so on. My favorite of these pieces was one about the villains of OUTLANDER -- not just the obvious ones like Black Jack Randall and Stephen Bonnet, but also the Duke of Sandringham, the Comte St. Germain, Malva Christie, and Charles Cunningham.

I was glad they included some of Griogair Labhruidh's wonderful Gàidhlig music from the show, which is always interesting to listen to even if you don't understand the words. They featured the battle song, “Moch Sa Mhadainn”, accompanying scenes from battles like Prestonpans, Culloden, and Alamance. They also performed the Gàidhlig song called "Tha mi sgìth ‘n fhògar seo (I am weary of this exile)", which we heard at the end of Episode 708.

At the end of the concert, they played the versions of the opening theme music from all eight seasons -- including the French version from Season 2, the Caribbean-inspired version from Season 3, and the Gàidhlig version from Episode 605, "Give Me Liberty". It was a lot of fun, hearing them all in sequence like that.

The whole production was done very well, and I'm glad I was able to see it! Huge thanks to composer Bear McCreary for his wonderful work on OUTLANDER all these years, and to everyone involved in this concert series.

For more information about this concert, see the FAQ page here.