Celtic Connections 2018. Marnie. Peter Broderick

Marnie. The Hug and Pint, Glasgow. Celtic Connections. 28th January, 2018. Live Review. 

Helen Marnie, once of Ladytron, has been performing solo for a couple of years now as Marnie, and played a hometown gig in Glasgow tonight under the Celtic Connections umbrella. Despite The Guardian guide describing her as folk-pop, this is a decidedly synth-pop affair.

Kelora

Support act Kelora gave us a surprisingly original warm-up, the best medieval futurist, nu-celtic folk band I have ever listened to. Marnie came on to a sold out crowd dressed like a Gothic Victorian doll, all staring eyes and attitude. The music however is breezy, with catchy pop riffs throughout, with G.I.R.L.S. a stand out track. Basically just F.U.N.

Marnie

Peter Broderick. The Hug and Pint, Glasgow. Celtic Connections. 2nd February, 2018. Live Review. 

Looking like the love child of Nick Cave and Mackenzie Crook, Peter Broderick is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist from Oregon. Whether it is the fact the gig is advertised through Celtic Connections or not, he was happy to see a full house tonight in The Hug and Pint after telling us the same venue made a loss on his gig in the same venue a few months ago.

Playing keyboards, violin and guitar, with and without loop pedals he mixed up some of his own tunes, with covers of several artists, including a few songs by Arthur Russell. This has come about through a project he is involved in with Russell's former partner, to re-master and release some unreleased music by the musician, clearly a project he is relishing. Some of the most moving music of the night however were the instrumental pieces he played, either at keyboard or violin, and it would be nice to have heard more of this stuff tonight.

Good company throughout he was a cheery and energetic performer. Don't be put off by the austere pictures on his posters.

Peter Broderick

Celtic Connections 2018. Live review

Julie Fowlis, Live Review. City Halls, Glasgow.
Max Richter, Live Review. Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. 

Celtic Connectios 2018. The 25th anniversary edition.

Julie Fowlis, City Halls, Glasgow. Celtic Connections. January 20th 2018

Of all the stand out shows at this year's Celtic Connections music festival in Glasgow, a big pile of them were all on the same night. Julie Fowlis's sold out solo show at Glasgow City Halls was the one I plumped for, and it was a good choice. On stage she was accompanied by fiddlers Duncan Chisolm and Patsy Reid, bass, two guitarists (including husband Eamon Doorley) and various harmonium and keyboards from Celtic Connections director Donald Shaw. Much of the set drew from the new album, Alternum, from opening piece Òran an Ròin (Seal's Song) to Cearcall mun Ghealaich in the encore, and was a mixture of old, old songs and new. 

With no percussion, the singing provided much of the rhythm, the back and forth that often creates a connection to the world of the singer in Gaelic songs. Bright and breezy throughout Julie Fowlis led from the front, introducing us to the story of one song with a cautionary "because it is happening in a Gaelic song, we know it won't end well."

Going out of her comfort zone, one song was given to us in English (or "the other language"), a version of "Go Your Way", whilst another was taken into Gaelic ("Blackbird" by The Beatles.) When I have seen Julie Fowlis before, it is when she gets out the whistle that the audience are getting ready to tap their feet, and it was the same again here, and I had completely forgotten that she is an excellent bagpipe player too, until the pipes appear as a finale. There were several young children in the audience, I thought drawn there in the hope of hearing the soundtrack songs from the Disney movie "Brave". I was wrong, the wee super-fan sitting behind me sang along in perfect Gaelic to every song in the set. A warm and smile filled evening's entertainment.

Max Richter Ensemble : Three Worlds. Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Celtic Connections. January 23rd 2018.

With his increasing involvement in soundtracks, modern classical composer Max Richter seems busier than ever. The concert he performed at Celtic Connections harked back to a ballet score he produced for Royal Ballet's Woolf Works, a triptych of works choreographed by Wayne MacGregor in 2015. The recently released recording based on this music was brought to the Glasgow Concert Hall by Max Richter and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra tonight, though much of the orchestra were hidden behind the banks of keyboards, pianos and celesta that Richter played at front of stage. 

Virginia Woolf's books, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves were the inspiration for the three pieces of music performed here. I am not a great fan of her books, but the recording of her voice that introduced the first piece was electrifying. The music that followed was melodic, with the violins and piano ebbing and flowing, but ultimately going nowhere, so pretty much like the book. Orlando was introduced as an other-worldly tale and the music representing it was more dynamic, with pizzicato strings and synthesizers leading to an impressive cello solo. The music felt quite cinematic, like a Philip Glass piece from 40 years ago, but was no poorer for that. The unimpressive flashing LED light show was a pointless distraction. Gillian Anderson's recorded voice reading Virginia Woolf's poignant suicide note led us into the final piece, where solo soprano voice of Grace Davidson made the whole thing more like a requiem.

The music was not quite muscular enough to fill the venue, but pleasant and graceful none the less. An encore of On The Nature of Daylight was enough to please the screaming super-fans at the front in a congenial, rather than barn-storming, evening of music.

Karine Polwart. Wind Resistance. Celtic Connection 2017

Karine Polwart. Wind Resistance. Tron Theatre, January 2017. Review

Karine Polwart's Wind Resistance was first performed at the Edinburgh International Festival last year, and now finds its way to Glasgow as part of this year's Celtic Connections festival.
I had tried and failed to get tickets for it last year so was pleased to see it being revived.

Written and performed by Karine Polwart, with input from David Greig and directed by Wils Wilson, Wind Resistance is a mixture of story-telling, folklore, traditional, and original songs all woven together around the musicality of Karine Polwart's voice. Twenty four hours on I am still digesting all that it contained.

The starting point is Fala Moor in Midlothian, close to where Karine Polwart lives. From describing the vista that opens up in front of you there, to crouching down and inspecting the smallest moss over the course of 90 minutes she explores the inter-connectedness of land, people and society. The mixture of personal memories and the story of a couple who lived 100 years earlier on a farm close to where Karine Polwart now lives give a humane heart to the piece. The songs give the whole story a feeling that we are sitting around a campfire on the hillside hearing secrets and tales in the oral tradition, passed on to us.

The skein of pink footed geese that arrive on the moor in autumn from Greenland are the visible proof of the benefits we can all gain by sharing the load. I laughed as that led us into an excuse to recall the Aberdeen's 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup winning team, as then manager Alex Ferguson is a big fan of that metaphor. Karine's enthusiasm for that team was shared by non-Old Firm supporting classmates of mine in 1983 who started following Aberdeen and Dundee United around that time (I stuck with Partick Thistle - whose laughing now?).

It is also a story about womanhood and childbirth that manages to avoid any tired "mother Earth" tropes. The warnings about the current atomisation of the health service are clear. It is a humane piece and focused on the benefits we all get from society pulling together, looking after our wild sites and each other. Like the geese I was lucky enough to be in Greenland recently, where the effects of global warming are visible in front of your eyes, and not acting is clearly no longer an option.

A timely warning against isolation and individualism. If you get the opportunity to see it, I would encourage you to grab it (and take a hankie).

Cowboy Junkies, Celtic Connections 2013

Review - Cowboy Junkies, Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Celtic Connections, Glasgow January 23rd 2013.

I bought a very random selection of tickets this year for Celtic Connections, which has a great knack of turning up surprisingly random gigs. However, when I saw that Cowboy Junkies were playing I was genuinely and nostalgically excited. It is 25 years now since they brought out Trinity Session, their second album. It is often cited as the forerunner of all the alt.country stuff, with its lo-fi sound and Margo Timmins's languid singing. When I was in the mood for it I'd have many a night of playing that album over and over, maybe alternating with kd lang's "Absolute Torch and Twang" and 10,000 Maniacs, "Hope Chest". Their "Sweet Jane" was the one that I knew, long before I heard of The Velvet Underground.


Kelvingrove Art Gallery dressed up for a gig

The venue for this gig was intriguing, the main hall at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. I've heard baroque music here, choral music and the big organ of a Sunday. The echoey acoustics work brilliantly for those things. I was less sure if this would be the case for amplified electric guitars. First up was John Murry. He looked like a man who'd be happier playing in a darkened bar than the rather to the stilted, seated, middle-aged Celtic Connections audience. My fears about the acoustics were shown to be justified as soon as he started talking. His opening gambit of stating "I am not intoxicated!" was almost unintelligible and once he started playing the muddied acoustics did his confessional tunes no favours at all. About the only thing I understood after that was when he asked the audience "Why is there a Spitfire chasing an elephant?" which to be fair was a valid point. The atmosphere was pretty flat during his set, but he finally relaxed into by his last song and was chatty and relaxed at the merchandise stall. I'll buy his cd "Graceless Age" and try it again back home.

I was hoping that this had just been the traditional "don't give the support act much time for a sound check" thing and I had high hopes that Cowboy Junkies would temper their sound to the venue, after all the Trinity Session album had been recorded in a Toronto church.


A Canadian fan looks on from the side gallery

Although their more contemplative tempo worked better, they still struggled with the acoustics except when the bass player and drummer stood down and they did a few more acoustic numbers, such as Remnin Park. A lot of the set was made up from material from their "Nomad Series", 4 albums recorded over the past 2 years with common themes running through them. Late Night Radio and Damaged From The Start were stand out songs, whilst 3rd Crusade seemed to borrow and stretch a riff from "Play That Funky Music White Boy".


Cowboy Junkies on stage at Kelvingrove Art Gallery

They finished off with some of their earlier stuff including "Sweet Jane" and an excellent rendition of their "Blue Moon Revisited" and an encore of "Misguided Angel" confirming that Trinity Session stuff was what most of us had turned up to hear, and they ended with a Neil Young cover.

 

I enjoyed seeing them and she has a great and voice, but I am not sure if I'd pay to see another band play in Kelvingrove Art Galleries as the echeoy sound was entirely predictable and pretty disappointing.

 

 



Getting Folky. Celtic Connections Begins

Review: Celtic Connections 2013, Scots In The Spanish Civil War

Glasgow's annual "folk, roots and world music" festival, Celtic Connections is up and running, now amazingly in its 19th outing. Unconnected with this but getting into the acoustic/ folky vibe I took up a friend's invite this week to come to her house for a "living room gig".

The idea is that you push your sofa to the back wall, squeeze in some friends for some nibbles and the band squeeze themselves into your bay window to provide the tunes. On this occasion the band were Ashton Lane playing their alt.country thing, two acoustic guitars and the voice provided by Esther. The music isn't really my usual thing but it's a great way to listen to live music, and the guitar playing in this instance was great to watch, particularly when one of them was Esther's dad, Graeme Duffin, once of Wet Wet Wet. Weird, eh?

 

After that I made a quick dash across to Mono to catch the tail end of Alasdair Roberts wee freebie gig launching his new album, A Wonder Working Stone, which is getting rave reviews.

That got my folky juices flowing in time for tonight's gig at the Mitchell Library. "Scots in the Spanish Civil War" was the name of the concert, based on the album that came out last year from Greentrax; "No Pasaran" (They Shall Not Pass). As a child my brother and me often sang along to Jarama Valley on the Laggan's old STUC album "I Am The Common Man", and even though it seems further removed in time now, it is a song that my kids all love to sing along to since I bought it again on CD recently.

The grandfather of a good friend of my parents died in Spain in the International Brigade. I can remember standing near her as the La Pasionaria statue was unveiled on the Clydeside. In my head I can therefore make a direct connection to those that left their homes and families to make a stand against Franco and Fascism. With the passing of the last Scottish veteran of the Spanish Civil War last year it is important that books like Daniel Gray's "Homage to Caledonia" and cds and concerts like this one commemorate these events and I was glad when my son was keen to come along to this concert with me. (If you haven't read Daniel Gray's book I can heartily recommend it, also his romp around small town Scotland "Stramash" is a great wee book).

Citizen Gray

The theatre at the Mitchell Library was full and the audience were clearly in a mood for joining in. The stage set up was interesting with the aforementioned Daniel Gray and Radio Scotland's Iain Anderson sat at wooden desks either side of the stage with a small lamp illuminating them like journalists in a 30s movie. They acted as narrators between the songs and poems, telling the stories of individuals deciding to leave home and join the International Brigade, their experiences there and of those left at home and ultimately, for many of them, their death or imprisonment. Several of the songs I already knew, but hearing them in this context often brought a lump to my throat. Also, my son got a lot out of the night being presented in this carefully shaped way, with the songs matching the story. The music was outstanding too, with a great mix of styles and ideas. There were eight or nine different groups of performers coming on and off stage to organise. Some old hands were there such as Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre and I won't be able to look at the "sleeping giant" of the Campsie Fells again after hearing their song "Another Valley". The Wakes a "Glasgow/Irish folk 'n' roll band" were excellent throughout, particularly their bodhran player. Gallo Rojo, an Edinburgh based group of Spanish and Scottish musicians were my son's favourites on the night with their lively "No Pasaran!". The Peatbog Soldiers is one of my favourite songs on the cd and it was fascinating to hear German trio Liederjan sing the German original version of this marching song. I had never before thought about the bravery of German International Brigade volunteers, who knew what fascism would do to Spain from their own experiences back home before they left everything behind to join this fight. It was a shame that Dick Gaughan was unable to be there due to illness as his heart-felt singing would have gone down a treat on this evening, but Arthur Johnstone stood in for him to lead off the mass singing of Internationale to end the first half and The Wakes sung Ewan MacColl's "Jamie Foyers" in his place. The evening ended with Iain Anderson reading Bob Cooney's poem "Hasta La Vista - Madrid!" and a massed singing of Bandiera Rossa, which was made more emphatic with the German and Spanish musicians singing the verses in their languages. With Arthur Johnstone getting the whole audience going with that and his earlier Jarama Valley. At the end of Bandiera Rossa I wanted to stand and sing the verse from the Soviet Airmen's Song that my brother and me used to finish it with when sung at parties.

This was a great night of music, of stories, of remembrance and of politics combining a lot of what Celtic Connections does so well. The whole complicated event ran like clockwork and had obviously been carefully planned and thought out and we had a really good night out.