Celtic Connections 2008: the concerts

And it’s finally time to talk about the main course of CC and, it couldn’t be different, it’s an amazing list of concerts. I already talked about the difficulty of making a good selection of what you want to see. Nevertheless, whatever the choice is, it’s almost impossible not to succeed with such a high level of quality. Besides, in many cases, there’s the addition of the personality of many of the venues, helping music sound even better. Unfortunately, I missed a few of them: Òran Mór, The Nacional Piping Center or The Tron Theatre for instance, but I certainly set foot on many others:

ABC
Funny name for such a big hall of concerts, and, seeing the enormous mirror ball on the ceiling, macro discotheque as well. It’s a good place for medium/big size concerts, although, it may end up being a bit "cold" if the crowd is not big enough. I was there during the first Alison Brown songs, as I wanted to attend another concert somewhere far in Glasgow city centre. By the way, I advise not trying to be in two places at the same time and follow the festival in a relaxed way.

Alison was one of the artists I mostly wanted to see live, (being so complicated, even impossible to see such important bluegrass artists in my area) but I must say I was a bit disappointed. Not that what I was hearing didn’t have a good quality, but... I was expecting Alison’s banjo at 10.000 revolutions, as it can be heard in her highly recommendable album Fair Weather. But the show followed other styles. Unfair appreciation, I know, given the case that I didn’t hear the whole gig, but I certainly listened to her complete show during the Education Concerts, and I felt the same way. Alison Brown Quartet was accompanied by guitarist John Doyle and theatrical multi instrumentalist Joe Craven (candidate to Folk Bizarro section), counterpoint to Alison’s tepidness on stage.

But before Alison Brown came on stage, we could hear an interesting proposal: The Greencards, who mostly play placid ballads, accompanied by Carol Young’s warm voice. I must say they also play fast bluegrass, of which, Mucky the Duck is a fine example. It actually brought them a nomination in the category of "best instrumental country number" at this year’s Grammy awards.

St Andrew’s in the Square
With Old Fruitmarket’s permission, in hard competition with it, this is the most beautiful venue of the festival. It’s an eighteenth century church, happily recovered as a cultural centre after being abandoned at the end of the twentieth century.

This was actually my first contact with CC, Annbjørg Lien’s concert. This Norwegian violinist is another big artist hard to find in our stages. This time, it might be more accurate speaking about a presentation Waltz with Me. It’s the name of her new project, where she’s accompanied by great musicians like Bruce Molsky, Christine Hanson and Mikke Marin; also present on stage that night. Giving a concert a single name is somehow complicated at CC, being more appropriate speaking about projects with the participation of outstanding musicians from different countries. This was, no doubt, an excellent beginning for my Celtic Connections.

The reason for my second visit to St Andrew’s was the show named The Irish Tradition which was really Zoë Conway and Cran’s concerts put together. Zoë’s, beautifully assisted by guitarist John McIntyre was simply one of the best gigs of my CC. Exquisite and crystalline, Zoë’s violin style brought memories of other equally elegant and equally Irish Nollaig Casey, also somewhere between classical & traditional music. And, given the venue and its excellent acoustics, Zoë decided to include a brilliant classical piece among the reels, jigs and waltzes. But even more surprising was her virtuous version of a theme by deceased jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. And, to add to it all, she turns out to have a beautiful voice that unfortunately, we could only hear once. Seeing Zoë live makes understandable the fact that her album has been produced by nobody but Bill Whelan.

Cran closed the night with the direct evocation of Irish vocal tradition. Their vocal harmonies was what I enjoyed most of this group, even more than their instrumental pieces. Not to forget, their cooking directions to prepare the typical Irish Staimpí, that can be found on their site. Funny enough, when I got to the Festival Club that night, they were already there, playing again. I still can’t explain how they did it, as I headed straight there after their concert!

City Halls: Recital Room
As one can think from the name, it’s a small space inside the City Halls, which include a big auditorium and the Old Fruitmarket itself. It’s a simple, elegant place, ideal for small acoustic concerts. Good place for starters before visiting bigger venues (bigger in size I mean, not related to the musical grandeur heard inside).

In the following shows, during that week, the audience grew until mythical left handed Scottish violinist Angus Grant, who put an end to the gigs at this space, hanged the full house sign. Accompanied by Christine Hanson’s chelo (often heard during the festival, she was everywhere!) and Ross Martin, Angus’ violin sounded movingly natural and, far from being artificial. His son was in the same line. Same name and popularly known for being the picturesque violinist of Shooglenifty, he joined at the end for a couple of numbers. Simply fantastic. And the audience gave Angus a warm standing ovation, showing their devotion towards him, in one of the most intimate moments of the festival.

Old Fruitmarket
It happens often that, after having seen many pictures of a place, your first visit is a bit deceiving. Well, this is not the case, not at all. The recovery of this old market has resulted in one of the most beautiful and charismatic hall of concerts I’ve ever seen. The lighted, wooden, vaulted ceiling, the metallic balconies leaning over the central section and the old signs of the stalls, now part of the decoration, form together a hardly beatable ensemble. Definitely, music sounds better here.

It was awesome being able to see Cara Dillon there for the first time. Her angelic voice (that’s for sure!) and her live show do nothing but confirm what you can hear in her albums. But the sometimes aseptic sound of her studio pieces quickly vanishes live, giving way to a comforting, warm natural manner. A whole surprise, as well, seeing that Cara handles the whistle and, in a shy way, the violin too. Magnificent singer - songwriter Luka Bloom closed that night, able to fill like no one the vast space of the Old Fruitmarket with nothing but his voice and guitar.

For the eagerly awaited Capercaillie night, sold out long time before, chairs and tables under the stage were taken away, creating a much more hectic atmosphere in the packed hall. Given the state of the audience, waiting to see the Scottish, I don’t think it favoured the placid music of Kirsty McGee, presenting her new work Hobopop Collective, music maybe more appropriate for quieter atmospheres, as we could check around here a couple of times. Anyway, her show ended in an culminating way, with a lively Profit Song, where Kirsty had a luxury choir, formed by Karine Polwart, Corrina Hewat and Annie Grace, specially invited for the occasion.

Capercaillie played some of the pieces of their new work Roses and Tears, album with a certain taste of goodbye (already mentioned in this site). This might have been the last chance to see them at CC and nobody wanted to miss it. The show was as big as we could expect, and emotion was in the air, mainly in the slow songs where Karen’s voice made the noisy audience hold their breath. Personally, I’d rather had had a quieter atmosphere also for this show. You can’t please everybody, that’s for sure, but, getting all wet from somebody’s beer from the top terrace didn’t help either (it doesn’t seem to happen around here exclusively). I can only hope this was totally accidental, although, I wasn’t the only one to be bathed in beer.

Royal Concert Hall
This is the neuralgic centre, the core of CC. A labyrinth of corridors, stairs and halls, where every single corner is used during these days: record shops, press office, luthiers, wokshops, bars and of course, the halls of concerts, everything at the festival’s service. Not so different to any modern auditorium in any big city anyway, but no doubt, the one where more and the greatest folk music can be heard around the world.

One of the halls in the RCH is the so called Strathclyde Suite, where I gladly enjoyed the new and extraordinary choral project by Brian Finnegan The Singing Tree. Brian brought here to stage great musicians such as Cara Dillon, Jarlath Henderson o Trevor Hutchinson, until a total of thirteen, to recreate Northern Ireland’s musical tradition. The result: more than brilliant! Before Finnegan himself, we enjoyed the incredible group The Rooneys, six Irish brothers whose short age you could hardly imagine by listening to them. They are all excellent players of their respective instruments and they are perfectly coordinated. In fact, they were one of the winners of the Open Stage 2007. I’m curious about how far this group can get, starting with such a high level already.

Still in Strathclyde Suite, on the last day of the festival, Patsy Reid came to stage. This was one of the three concerts within the series of New Voices. The organisers ask the artists to present a set of original and unpublished pieces, made especially for the occasion. I was expecting a small size concert so, it was surprising finding myself with a stage set for thirteen musicians, grand piano included, and even more, seeing familiar faces like Aidan O’Rourke or Natalie Haas. The show took place somewhere in between traditional and classical music. We even had a hand program and the concert was divided in three movements. The final ovation was, and very deserving, one of the biggest of the festival.

Celtic Connections 2008 was coming to an end and the Transatlantic Sessions at the big auditorium at the Royal Concert Hall was a great way to do it. Just listening to the way the presenter named the participants sent shivers down my spine: Joan Osborne, Tim O’Brien, Mindy Smith, Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, Alison Brown, Bruce Molsky … in the transatlantic side and Aly Bain, Karen Matheson, Phil Cunningham, Eddi Reader, Donald Shaw, Michael McGoldrick, James Mackintosh… at this side of the ocean. I would gladly attend a separate gig by any of them and now, I had them all sharing the same stage. The night crossed quiet grounds avoiding easy topics towards the audience. Here, I could finally hear Alison Brown playing "real" bluegrass with a luxury band (not a group of individuals). Karen Matheson sang puirt a beul with a country style, nice fusion indeed. And I must mention the original idea of having a "waiting room" in one side of the stage (a couple of sofas, a coffee table and a lamp) for the musicians to rest in between songs; when Phil Cunningham was around, they seemed to enjoy it more there than playing! And so, after three short musical hours, CC this year came to an end. Only the last Festival Club with a taste of goodbye.

As I was leaving the Royal Concert Hall, many pictures of my week in Glasgow came to my head. The most recurring being maybe that, despite the grandeur of the show I had just seen, I had enjoyed even more the music of the smaller concerts, apparently "hidden" among the big names of the program and, rarely sold out.