In the 21 year history of Celtic Connections, only once before has a band from the Isle of Man performed at it (which was King Chiaullee back in 2010).  So I had the great pleasure of being at a second Manx concert, this time featuring Barrule. This trio comprises of Jamie Smith on accordion, Adam Rhodes on bouzouki and Tom Callister on fiddle and this was their night to showcase some of the best of traditional Manx music. And they certainly did that !!

They opened the show with ‘Mylecharaine’s March’ to get the audience going , moving onto their take on Eurovision with the tune ‘Europop Vona’. Jamie then sang ‘In Search of Manannan’ a song composed by his father in law Greg Joughin followed by  a few traditional Manx jigs and reels.

We then were treated to more tunes from their self titled album released last year, comprising of  ‘O My Graih’, ‘Iree Ny Greiney’ with some more jigs where the audience had to join in when the guys shouted out ‘Engage!’ , before they finished their debut appearance at CC with ‘Allen Barbara‘

The guys got a great reception and certainly are brilliant ambassadors for the Isle of Man and the music from there.

Ruth Hamilton