Celtic Connections

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu 26 Jan 2012

Expanded line-up works well in large venue - once everyone relaxes

16 Feb 2012

The few gentle piano chords and overheard Fife chit-chat that form the start of ‘First Watch,’ the opener on King Creosote and Jon Hopkins’ Diamond Mine, are all it takes to bring a sold out crowd to what is, for this venue in particular, an uncannily…

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Electro-folk and French lullabies bring weepie and comedy moments

3 Feb 2012

Celtic Connections’ Hazy Recollections sessions are great for two main reasons. Firstly, they provide a gathering place for the legion of those with beards and plaid shirts. Secondly, you get to see just how far the festival’s remit of ‘folk, roots and…

Vieux Farka Touré set for Celtic Connections 2012

Blues and country influence from son of legendary Malian guitar player

27 Jan 2012

Farka Touré. Where have you heard that name before? Vieux is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, one of the true stars of the world music scene. Farka Touré senior passed away in 2006, but junior has picked up where he left off…

Five picks from Celtic Connections 2012

Featuring Zoe Muth, Jack Bruce, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins and Vieux Farka Touré

6 Jan 2012

Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers The year in Americana 2011 belongs to Gillian Welch and the release of her album The Harrow & the Harvest, but amongst a promising field of young female country singers, Zoe Muth stands out. With her ear for an instant…

Eat, sleep and breathe with Fránçois from Fránçois & the Atlas Mountains

A questionnaire about food and the touring musician

6 Jan 2012

Fránçois Marry is fuelled by a combination of herbal tea, techno, chocolate and Cognac – in varying quantities, depending on where the tour van is stopping that day... What time is breakfast? 7am at the hotel before a long drive. Tea or…

Celtic Connections 2012 line-up announced

Glasgow traditional music festival features 2100 artists and 300 events over 18 days in 20 venues

26 Oct 2011

This year's festival will include 2100 artists, 300 events, 20 venues all over 18 days. Being that winter is in the offing, you now wake up in the morning for work and its dark, you then head home from work and its dark. One thing that will surely…

Taraf De Haidouks & Mama Rosin - Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Sat 22 Jan 2010

Romanian gypsy troupe's Celtic Connections date

28 Jan 2011

Beloved of Johnny Depp and Mike Patton, Romanian gypsy troupe Taraf De Haidouks remain a thrilling live act in their third decade. A spirited set of amped up Cajun and Zydeco from Swiss trio Mama Rosin makes for a fine appetiser, all accordian, banjo…

Trembling Bells' haunting folk-rock lined up for Celtic Connections date - interview

Glasgow date for band ahead of third album The Constant Pageant

14 Jan 2011

Last year was a golden year for visionary folk-rockers Trembling Bells, beginning with the release of their second album Abandoned Love in the spring and culminating in songwriter Alex Neilson’s nomination for the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Folk…

Giant Sand songwriter Howe Gelb lines up for Celtic Connections date

3 Jan 2011

Mapping alternative routes between seemingly disparate worlds of music is a longstanding aim of Celtic Connections. It’s a vision shared by Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, who for some 25 years has been a pathfinder and visionary, resulting in one of the most…

Trembling Bells, Rachel Sermanni and John Grant among Celtic Connections highlights

Mavis Staples and Tribute to Bob Dylan also on diverse programme

23 Dec 2010

Chicago’s music scene is the first stop in this very international round up, specifically the music of distinguished gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples. In the 60s Staples released a string of hits on the Stax-affiliated Valt label. Last year, aged…

The Burns Unit and Broken Records set for Celtic Connections date

‘Scottish-Canadian Supergroup’ peform at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket

23 Dec 2010

Kenny Anderson is setting the record straight. ‘Karine Polwart is not a folkie – she wants to try other stuff. And Emma Pollock is not just the indie queen that everyone thinks she is. And I’m not the … whatever.’ (Whatever he is, he is King…

The Walkmen set for Celtic Connections 2011

New York quintet's impassioned tales of dejection and desperation

23 Dec 2010

New York quintet The Walkmen conjure a sound that spans the pastoral to the outright raucous. Though they are not perhaps one of the most obvious additions to any Celtic Connections bill, their material has been known to incorporate more ‘traditional…

The Bevvy Sisters launch debut St James Sessions

15 Jan 2010

It’s an album launch party for The Bevvy Sisters as the trio (Heather Macleod, Kaela Rowan and Lindsay Black) deliver a woozy take on swing, jazz, folk and Americana on their debut St James Sessions. This Celtic Connections gig is also a double bill…

The Chieftains with Ry Cooder guest at Celtic Connections 2010

15 Jan 2010

One of the stand out gigs in this year’s packed Celtic Connection programme as Irish folk legends The Chieftains are joined by blues slide-guitarist and a legend in his own right Ry Cooder (pictured) for the kind of unique collaboration only Celtic…

Celtic Connections - Bearfoot

13 Jan 2010

As we know, Glasgow can be a cold place in January, but one band that won’t be fazed by icy temperatures is Alaska’s Bearfoot. The bluegrass quintet grew up with the music (all their parents played some form of American roots music) and have gone from…

Jan Garbarek & Trilok Gurtu

12 Jan 2010

Saxophonist Jan Garbarek’s long-standing influence from Norwegian folk music picks up on an equally well-established strand in the Celtic Connections programme, but there will be a much more broad-ranging musical canvas explored in the two concerts in…

Alasdair Roberts, The Low Anthem and Buffy Sainte-Marie set for Celtic Connections

7 Jan 2010

With Alasdair Roberts, The Low Anthem and Buffy Sainte-Marie all featuring, the Celtic Connections festival just keeps going from strength to strength, says Ninian Dunnett

Bobby McFerrin

6 Jan 2010

Celtic Connections has always cast widely for artists, and jazz musicians have figured in the programme over the years, but few with quite as high a profile as American singer Bobby McFerrin. Actually, singer doesn’t quite seem to cover it in McFerrin’s…

New Voices: Iain Morrison

6 Jan 2010

This Outer Hebridean singer-songwriter has dabbled in indie pop – as a member of Crash My Model Car, dipped a toe in to alt.folk – as frontman of the Sleepy Cafe Band, and done a bit of traditional piping too. Just before the release of his album Trust…

Way to Blue - Songs of Nick Drake

6 Jan 2010

A quarter of a century since his untimely death, Nick Drake’s poignant, haunting acoustics leave an enduring legacy, cited by Coldplay, Kate Bush and Paul Weller among others as a major influence. This special tribute concert, brings together Vashti…

Natalie Merchant, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder set for Celtic Connection 2010

30 Oct 2009

Celtic Connections launched with a suitable level of expectation this fortnight – and it doesn’t look set to disappoint. Comprising 1500 artists, 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, workshops, free events and late-night sessions, the programme of events will…

News in brief

19 Feb 2009

Organisers at Glasgow’ s Celtic Connections have reported ‘an extremely successful’ year, with ticket sales reportedly on a par with 2008. Festival heads also announced that they had secured sponsorship for another year. The Greek Film Festival…

Celtic Connections - Branford Marsalis

22 Jan 2009

Celtic Connections has never been overly troubled by any lack of an actual Celtic connection in the artists who visit the festival, but Branford Marsalis must surely qualify as one of the furthest stretches so far from any perceived Celtic-ness.

Celtic Connections - Michael Nyman

22 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Despite his ongoing frustration at being shunned by the BBC Proms, Michael Nyman remains the most widely heard of contemporary ‘serious’ composers in the UK. An early experimentalist in the 60s avant-garde, Nyman is one of the very…

Celtic Connections - Follow That!

22 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS The title of this latest round of commissions inspired by the music of the late Martyn Bennett underlines the far-reaching influence of his eclectic, open-minded approach to traditional music (while simultaneously suggesting that…

Celtic Connections - 5 Eclectic Celtic Connections

22 Jan 2009

1 Youssou N’Dour and Old Blind Dogs Fancy an African music superstar? Check. Fancy some of Scotland’s finest contemporary folk? Check. Fancy both? Here you go, then, enjoy. 2 Jamaican Burns Night What better way to celebrate Scotland’s national poet…

Celtic Connections - Ceol’s Craic featuring Kathleen MacInnes

22 Jan 2009

With her low and husky tones, the beautifully luminous voice of the actress and singer from the Hebridean island of South Uist will be teaming up with Belle & Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson at one of the Celtic Connections specials of the monthly Glasgow…

Celtic Connections - Carrie Rodriguez

22 Jan 2009

Before being a fiddle-toting, mandoguitar-slinging Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, Carrie was a violin student in Texas absorbing the influences of an opera-obsessed mother and folk-singer father. It was only when she went to Berklee College of Music…

Celtic Connections - Béla Fleck

8 Jan 2009

What’s in a name? In the case of Celtic Connections, not much, or at least, nothing too literal. Anyone who insisted on the strict application of the name would have found themselves left well behind almost from the launch of the festival back in 1994.

Shoeshine Showcase

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS The Shoeshine imprint isn’t so much a label (although it’s that too) as it is a catch-all umbrella term for any venture which Francis Macdonald has a hand in. The Glasgow-based musician, producer, manager and musical entrepreneur’s…

Malinky

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS In many ways the ever-growing success of Scottish folk outfit Malinky mirrors that of Celtic Connections, a festival the band have become inextricably linked with over the last decade. The band formed ten years ago from the vibrant…

Hallaig - A Celebration of Sorley MacLean

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS A gathering of Gaelic musical talent will celebrate the work of Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain) in this concert, which will feature both vocal settings of the poet’s work and instrumental pieces inspired by it. The show…

Conflict and Resolution

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS The life of Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh will be celebrated in unusual fashion in this concert featuring a specially commissioned new work for musicians from Scotland and Catalonia, with the BBC…

Gaelic film festival announced as part of Celtic Connections

8 Jan 2009

Film companies Craic and MG ALBA have announced details of an all Gaelic film festival to be held between 22–24 Jan at the CCA in Glasgow, presented as part of this year’s Celtic Connections festival. Held over three days, the festival will showcase…

Celtic Connections add to line-up

13 Nov 2008

Celtic Connections have announced two more impressive additions to their line-up. Martha Wainwright and Teddy Thompson will perform a double-bill at the Old Fruitmarket on 27 January. A host of special guests have also been added to the bill for the…

Celtic charms

Celtic Connections

30 Oct 2008

From Africa to America, bluegrass to country, Celtic Connections looks set to showcase a roster of international talent, finds Anna Millar

In the swing of it - Jazz, Blues and Folk venues

15 Sep 2008

Boasting some of the finest new names and most exciting stalwarts of the jazz, blues and folks scene, Edinburgh and Glasgow have long set an impressive stall with some of the most diverse festivals and year round line-ups.

The Sound of new Scotland

14 Feb 2008

REVIEW CELTIC CONNECTIONS Classic Grand, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan The title of this show was a bold one, but proved Scottish music is nothing if not diverse. Trio Zoey Van Goey traded instruments more frequently than a Govan pawnshop while spinning their…

Koshka World Gypsy & Jazz Band

31 Jan 2008

CELTIC CONNECTIONS This will be – literally as well as metaphorically – a big night for the Glasgow-based trio Koshka, and one that should make up for the disappointment of the late cancellation of the project last year, one of a number of events in…

Trilok Gurtu

31 Jan 2008

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Trilok Gurtu may have begun his musical life in a family thoroughly steeped in the strict disciplines and formal cohesion of Indian classical music, but his own career has taken him into some of the most diverse world-jazz fusions…

Colin MacIntyre

31 Jan 2008

POP Gone is the Mull Historical Society pseudonym and in its place is Colin MacIntyre, a couple of choirs and a veteran politician. After three critically acclaimed albums, MacIntyre is back with his latest, The Water, and a set at Celtic…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

KIDS’ WORKSHOPS Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 19 Jan (percussion) & Sat 26 Jan (singing) Given that most children derive pleasure from a) making lots of noise and b) hitting things, a drumming workshop for kids seems like a match made in…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

Music isn’t what it used to be. This is something we have to be thankful for as the constant evolution, recycling and re-fashioning of music means there’s always someone out there trying to do things a bit differently. While there’s been much carping…

Celtic Connections - Mindy Smith

17 Jan 2008

Two albums in, Mindy Smith is solidifying her reputation as one of America’s most affecting songwriters. 2006’s Long Island Shores showed her gentle touch and growing prowess as a writer. Her ethereal vocal style at first brings to mind Joni Mitchell…

Steve Earle

4 Jan 2008

You’ll know where Steve Earle lives if you can picture the famous cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Just up that New York street where Dylan huddled against the snow with Suzie Rotolo in 1962 is the apartment Earle shares with his wife, the beautiful…

Opening Concert: Common Ground

4 Jan 2008

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Wed 16 Jan Celtic Connections will launch this year with what artistic consultant Donald Shaw likens to a giant session. Common Ground will be led on stage by John McCusker, and will feature a host of…

Islands

4 Jan 2008

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow, Thu 17 Jan The irony of this Celtic Connections presentation of Luke Daniels and Donald Grant’s Islands is that Grant will not be there to take part. The Highland-born violinist has a very active…

Dispatch - Roddy Woomble

The Dispatch

12 Feb 2007

Celtic Connections passed by in all its hazy, folky glory. I had a great time during the festival, and managed to see a few concerts I’d been looking forward to: John Martyn performing Solid Air, and Dick Gaughan performing his 1981 folk masterpiece…

L'Occidentale Dr Fanfare

Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 30 Jan

15 Jan 2007

CELTIC CONNECTIONS First, a credo. ‘We have arrived at the time of Fusion. The era of conventional folk music had to travel through the social and cultural storms of the 20th century in order to emerge fully in the 21st. Some medievalists claim that…

Cascade

Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow, Thu 1 Feb

15 Jan 2007

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Cascade is a new project featuring a number of familiar names from a diverse range of musical backgrounds. The five-piece first got together at the London Jazz Festival in November, and this will be their debut in Scotland. The…