The international focus of Celtic Connections 2008 continues February 1st with the Transatlantic Sessions, Breton Night, Friday Night Blues, Fiona Mackenzie & Friends, Catherine Feeny with Kaela Rowan, Session A9, Box Club (accordion group) with Fribo, a tribute to the Classic Album: Jock Tamson’s Bairns – The Lasses’ Fashion, The Irish Tradition with Zoë Conway & Cran, and much more.
Complete schedule:
Iain Anderson In Conversation
Keith McGinn & Mark Sheridan
Fri 1 February, 12:30pm
£3.50
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Exhibition Hall
BBC Radio Scotland’s Iain Anderson hosts an eclectic mix of local figures as well as musicians performing at the festival for a lunch time blether.
Danny Kyle’s Open Stage hosted by Gibb Todd
Fri 1 February, 5pm
Free
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Exhibition Hall
Hosted by Danny Kyle’s good friends Gibb Todd and Liz Clark, the Open Stage is a chance to see new musical talent as they try to win a coveted support slot at next year’s festival – and all absolutely free!
In partnership with the Evening Times
Fiona Mackenzie & Friends
Fri 1 February, 6pm
£10
City Halls, Recital Room
Through her work with Seelyhoo, Anam and the Mackenzie trio, Lewis-born Fiona Mackenzie has won rapturous praise for her exquisitely emotive singing, in both Gaelic and English, with tonight’s show launching her first solo album, Elevate.
Transatlantic Sessions
Fri 1 February, 7:30pm
£24, £22
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium
Following the acclaim heaped on BBC Scotland’s third series of Transatlantic Sessions, broadcast in autumn 2007, Celtic Connections presents another glittering line-up of Celtic and American stars, all of whom were featured in the recent programs.
Since their inception, these concerts have consistently ranked among the festival’s fastest-selling tickets, hence the decision this time to stage the show twice, with the same line-up of artists on both nights, although – given the proceedings’ traditional element of spontaneity – the set-list may well vary between the two.
Heading a truly stellar cast of singers, soul/country diva Joan Osborne makes her Celtic Connections debut. Finding inspiration in sources as diverse as blues, gospel and Indian devotional music, Osborne has collaborated with the Dixie Chicks, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal, combining her arrestingly sensuous voice with direct, emotive songwriting. Also from Stateside comes a phalanx of top roots vocalists, including Tim O’Brien, Mindy Smith and Darrell Scott, with the Scottish team featuring Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson.
Also assembled for this year’s ‘ultimate back-porch session’ are a mouthwatering dream team of renowned instrumentalists, with Shetland fiddler Aly Bain and dobro king Jerry Douglas (CMA Musician Of The Year 2007) once again acting as musical directors.
Among the remaining US visitors are guitarists Russ Barenberg and John Doyle, bassist Garry West and banjo ace Alison Brown, while accordionist Phil Cunningham, percussionist James Mackintosh, Donald Shaw on piano and accordion and Michael McGoldrick on flutes and whistles complete the Celtic contingent, for what promises to be two very special concerts.
Sponsored by ScottishPower
Friday Night Blues
William Lee Ellis & Guy Davis
Fri 1 February, 7:30pm
£10
Central Hotel
Born in New York of rural Deep South descent, singer and guitarist Guy Davis is perhaps today’s consummate exponent of acoustic, old-time and country blues, having reinvigorated the field with a string of critically-acclaimed albums since the mid-1990s.
Named for his godfather, bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, roots’n’blues guitarist William Lee Ellis combines his Tennessee roots with a longtime love for pre-war blues artists, creating his own unique Americana blend.
Catherine Feeny with Kaela Rowan
Fri 1 February, 7:30pm
£12.50
Òran Mór
With a voice and songwriting style that’s already earned comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Edie Brickell and Tracy Chapman, as well as support slots with Suzanne Vega and Martha Wainwright, Philadelphia-born Catherine Feeny seems poised for major success, following rave reviews and heavy rotation for her second album Hurricane Glass, a radiantly melodic mix of folk, pop, country and blues.
Former lead singer with such groundbreaking outfits as Mouth Music and Solas, the singularly gifted Scottish vocalist Kaela Rowan returns with a new collection of her own songs, accompanied by Shooglenifty’s James Mackintosh, Quee MacArthur and Luke Plumb, plus fellow singers Gina Rae and Heather Macleod.
Session A9
Fri 1 February, 7:30pm
£15
ABC
We may still be waiting for their long-anticipated second album, but Session A9 have only themselves to blame for our impatience, given that they set the bar so high to begin with.
Having hit the ground at a gallop with their superb debut release What Road? in 2003, the Highland fiddle-led supergroup, helmed by Capercaillie’s Charlie McKerron, fast established themselves as a world-class live act, both in their formidable collective firepower and their elegantly orchestrated arrangements, with the subsequent addition of Peatbog Faeries drummer Iain Copeland raising the rhythmic stakes still further.
Box Club with Fribo
Fri 1 February, 7:30pm
£12.50
The Classic Grand
Currently hard at work on their hotly-anticipated debut album, the young accordion supergroup Box Club return after last year’s Celtic Connections debut with a fistful of new tunes, featuring the formidable squeezebox frontline of Gary Innes, John Somerville, Mairearad Green and Angus Lyon, with guitarist Mike Bryan, bassist Duncan Lyall and percussionist Martin O’Neill.
Bringing together the talents of Norwegian singer Anne Sofie Linge Valdal, Scottish fiddler Sarah-Jane Summers and Englishman Ewan MacPherson on guitar and mandola, Fribo are one of the freshest and most inventive acts on the emerging ‘nu-Nordic’ scene, exploring and creating links between British and Scandinavian traditions, with a deft peppering of wider contemporary influences.
Classic Album: Jock Tamson’s Bairns – The Lasses’ Fashion
Fri 1 February, 8pm
£12.50
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Strathclyde Suite
Jock Tamson’s Bairns’ second album ‘The Lasses’ Fashion’, released in 1982 (and listed among Richard Thompson’s all-time Top 10 for Q magazine), remains a landmark in the contemporary revival of Scottish music, its marvelously fresh yet sensitive arrangements of Scottish traditional material having arrived on a scene still dominated by post-Corries ballads and Chieftains tunes.
It’s performed tonight by the original personnel of Rod Paterson, Norman Chalmers, John Croall, Derek Hoy, Iain Hardie and Jack Evans. The concert’s other half will feature fiddler Anna-Wendy Stevenson among the Bairns’ current line-up, with special guests including the superb young Scots singer Siobhan Miller, and veteran bothy balladeer Jock Duncan.
Sponsored by Eskmills
The Irish Tradition with Zoë Conway & Cran
Fri 1 February, 8pm
£12.50
St Andrew’s in the Square
Uniting the revered talents of flautist Desi Wilkinson, singer/bouzouki player Seán Corcoran and piper/flautist Ronan Browne, Cran are one of Ireland’s top traditional acts.
The brilliant Dundalk-born fiddler Zoe Conway draws skillfully on both folk and classical influences.
Breton Night featuring Stok an Dañs, Empreintes & the Hamon Martin Quintet
Fri 1 February, 9:30pm
£16
Old Fruitmarket
Filling the Old Fruitmarket with the authentic flavors and atmosphere of a typical Breton ‘Fest Noz’ (night festival), tonight’s bill of fare will include traditional food and drink from the region, alongside a mouth-watering musical menu.
Led by percussionists Dominique Molard and Jacques Moreau, Stok an Dañs perform hypnotic rhythm-driven arrangements of dance tunes old and new, interwoven with African grooves.
Guitarist Gilles Le Bigot’s six-piece band Empreintes, named for his jazz-inflected 2002 album of that name, features several fellow luminaries of the contemporary Breton scene, including legendary flautist Jean-Michel Veillon, saxophonist Bernard Le Dréau, and Ronan Pellen on cistre, the Breton cittern.
Pellen is also among the line-up of the Hamon-Martin Quintet, one of Brittany’s hottest young traditional bands, alongside Mathieu Hamon (vocals), Stevan Vincendeau (accordion), Erwan Volant (bass) and Erwan Hamon (bombarde).
Celtic Connections Festival Ceilidhs
Fri 1 February, 10pm
£8
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Exhibition Hall
Get your dancing shoes on! Enjoy the perfect post-concert fling or pre-festival warm up, with the brilliant Scott Harvey Ceilidh Band.
Celtic Connections Festival Club hosted by Gibb Todd
Fri 1 February, 10:30pm
£7.50
Central Hotel
The late night club ensures there is even more music to enjoy after all the gigs are over. Join local and international artists as they make special unbilled appearances or join in one of many sessions happening in the bars.
With food and drink in plentiful supply you can happily keep going into the early hours of the morning whilst witnessing some of the best musical collaborations of the festival.
Master of ceremonies, Gibb Todd returns to present each act on stage and Doris Rougvie hosts The House of Song in a peaceful oasis away from the main stage.
BBC Radio Scotland 92-95FM & 810MW Live Radio Broadcasts
Iain Anderson
Fri 1 February, 10:30pm
Free but ticketed
BBC Scotland, Pacific Quay
Bring your festival to a perfect end in the company of Iain Anderson, as he invites some of the best local and international song-writing talent to join him at BBC Scotland’s new home at Pacific Quay. Live on BBC Radio Scotland.
The 15th Celtic Connections festival takes place over 19 days in January and February in 14 venues across Glasgow, Celtic Connections is the UK’s premier Celtic music festival, with over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops.
Tickets can be booked:
In person Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
2 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow, G2 3NY
City Halls and Old Fruitmarket
Candleriggs
Glasgow, G1 1NQ
By phone 0141 353 8000
Online www.celticconnections.com
For further information check www.celticconnections.com.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
