Karine Polwart

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…

Interactive children's shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2011

Our tips on the best shows to get children up and moving

8 Aug 2011

The Enormous Turnip, Magic Porridge Pot, Peter Pan on Dinosaur Island, Robinson Crusoe the Lost Jedi Knight Spotlites Theatre Productions don’t just dabble in interactive theatre, it’s their raison d’être. ‘Little ’uns come onstage!’ is the…

Fruit Tree Foundation - First Edition

Astounding group collaboration from some of Scotland's finest

3 Aug 2011

(Chemikal Underground) If you’re looking for proof that Scotland’s musical voices are far-reaching and brilliant, then we cordially direct you to First Edition. It’s a stellar, cohesive collaboration from Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison, The…

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…

Music Like a Vitamin - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sat 2 Oct 2010

Rod Jones, Emma Pollock, Jenny Reeve and Karine Polwart

9 Oct 2010

For their Music Like A Vitamin event, Idlewild’s Rod Jones and The Delgados’ Emma Pollock have enlisted a Scottish musical dream team to create a fundraising album. Coinciding with the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, The Fruit…

Fruit Tree Foundation launches new album tackling themes of mental health

Alasdair Roberts, James Yorkston, Scott Hutchison and others record album

22 Sep 2010

Sons and Daughters. Frightened Rabbit. The Phantom Band. Norman Blake. Perhaps because it sets out to encourage discussion of problems nearly everyone has come into contact with at some point in their lives, the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film…

Autumn highlights: The best albums and gigs from Scottish bands

The Phantom Band, The Twilight Sad and Errors set for action

16 Sep 2010

The Phantom Band Chemikal Underground’s finest, most eclectic and most likely signings of recent years return with the follow-up to last year’s debut Checkmate Savage. The Wants is released on Chemikal Underground, Mon 18 Oct. The Scottish…

Folk-pop collaboration The Burns Unit deliver new album Side Show

Burnsong project supergroup delivers folk-flecked pop album

22 Jul 2010

This is perfect evidence that locking musicians in a room and letting them get on with it is the best idea ever. That’s what happened when the eight members of this ‘supergroup’ were picked for the Burnsong project, and the result is this sumptuous…

The Burns Unit plays the Queen's Hall

Folk supergroup springs out of the co-operative music project Burnsong

22 Jul 2010

Out of co-operative music project ‘Burnsong’ springs The Burns Unit, a band best described as a ‘folk supergroup’ — although such a title conveys a false sense of egotism about the members involved. The roster includes some of the shining lights of…

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

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Still breaking barriers and bigger than ever

17 Sep 2009

It started in 2007, with 40 fairly low-fi events, mostly in and around Glasgow. Two years on, and the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is collaborating with major Scottish artists, musicians and writers, co-running events with the Natioanl…

Hitlist: Music

17 Sep 2009

Speech Debelle, Music Like A Vitamin, NME Radar Tour, Pixies

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2009 launches

10 Sep 2009

Singer Karine Polwart is just one of the many names putting her name – and voice – behind this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Now in its third year, the festival explores mental health in its broadest sense with almost 200 events…

Women in Harmony

Out of the Kitchen

14 Aug 2009

Women in Harmony is a self-described ‘girly trio’ consisting of three well-established Scottish singers and instrumentalists, Karine Polwart, Annie Grace and Corrina Hewat. The trio grew out of an informal get-together in Corrina’s kitchen back in…

Fence Collective's Homegame: Homeward bound

16 Apr 2009

In the ever-growing Scottish music festival calendar, the Homegame remains something of a well-kept secret. Despite a steadily increasing profile since its inception six years ago, the weekend, run by Fence Collective head honchos Kenny Anderson (aka…

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…

Edinburgh Hogmanay music programme swells

27 Nov 2008

One of Edinburgh’s newest venues is set to play host to some of Scotland’s finest folk acts this Hogmanay. The Picture House on Lothian Road will showcase Shooglenifty, Annie Grace, Corrina Hewat and Karine Polwart; alongside the award-winning Malinky…

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…

Women in Harmony: Annie Grace, Corrina Hewat and Karine Polwart

Good things come in threes

21 Aug 2008

Three haunting voices, harp, guitar, whistle and pipes, beautifully blended. Annie Grace (pipes/vocals), Corrina Hewat (vocals/harp) and Karine Polwart (guitar/vocals), are three seriously talented musicians in their own right – each with their own solo…

Karine Polwart

10 Apr 2008

FOLK Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Fri 11 Apr; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 13 Apr; Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, Wed 16 Apr; Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr; Tollbooth, Stirling, Fri 18 Apr The life of a self-employed musician can be complicated at the…

Ceilidh Culture

13 Mar 2008

FOLK Various venues, Edinburgh, Fri 21 Mar–Sun 12 Apr Ceilidh Culture, Edinburgh’s spring fling of acoustic music and the traditional arts has this year moved from its council house, and is now being run by a team from the Usher Hall. Rather than…

Karine Polwart - This Earthly Spell

28 Feb 2008

FOLK (Hegri Music) Karine Polwart is already established as Scotland’s premier purveyor of progressive folk, and this consummate and lush album consolidates that position. A flip side to last year’s traditional collection Fairest Floo’er, this album…

The art of writing love songs

31 Jan 2008

How do you approach writing about love? Kenny Anderson AKA King Creosote, Fife’s own regal tunesmith of the heart With my heart on the accelerator and my head on the brakes. Emotional turmoil is exactly what you need to get the pen moving, but…

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…

Karine Polwart on Thank You For the Music

6 Sep 2007

When choosing eight Scottish songwriters to profile, the BBC Radio Scotland series Thank You For the Music wisely eschewed yer flashier, more tabloid-friendly Tunstalls and Fratellis, focussing instead on low-profile, home-grown indie and folk heroes…