Concert Reviews
THE QUIGGS The Nova Scotia Folk Club is generally well-attended. On this occasion it was packed to the gunwales with the normal contingent of members supplemented by other Quiggs fans including a sprinkling of the area’s folk aristocracy. Stephen Quigg has more than paid his dues on the Scottish folk scene. For more than […]
Dervish came on stage to a rapturous reception that never diminished throughout the evening’s entertainment. I use the word ‘entertainment’ advisedly as Cathy Jordan showed herself a mistress of stagecraft with a stream of witty banter that had the auditorium in stitches. Around the banter, there was an alternation of skilfully performed sets of […]
DEAN OWENS Dean Owens believes in is heart that music is all about connections – and this marvellous Celtic Connections’ gig shows he knows how to make that happen with shades of fun and sadness, big sounds and tender interludes and a top-class, wide-ranging career set list. His music is thoughtfully compassionate and impassioned. […]
There was no messing about, no preamble, just straight in with the version of Black Is the Colour that had won her Best Traditional Song at the BBC Folk Awards in 2002. Then she moved seamlessly on to Coming Home and proceeded, with an enchanting blend of story, poetry, and song, to conjure up […]
Even WILLIE WATSON – in brilliant form here – freely admits it feels weird to be touring a solo, self-titled, debut album when he has plenty of lauded, recorded music out there, on his own or with Old Crow Medicine Show. The source of songs on his playlist really is incidental as this […]
ERIC BIBB Grainne Hunt Another wonderful Celtic Connections evening where both support and main act got a rapturous reception from an enthusiastic packed house. Grainne Hunt has been called the hardest working woman in Irish music, and she’s certainly had a busy year that included a showcase at Folk Alliance International before her first […]
Celtic Connections is always the highlight of the twelvemonth that is January… Last night I was lucky enough to witness the rebirth of a band I have loved and supported for 25 years (yes I am that old). Blazin’ Fiddles filled the vaulted chaumer of the Barony Hall on Castle Street with light and […]
SHANE COOK & THE WOODCHIPPERS TERN I was really looking forward to this one as my appetite had been whetted by having seen Shane Cook (fiddle) and Joe Phillips (double bass) as part of Allison Lupton’s band at a truly marvellous gig on their UK tour last year. But they weren’t the only ones […]
In the year that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, George W Bush was still in the White House and Mariah Carey had the best-selling album, Josh Rouse released a farewell record titled NASHVILLE as he quit Music City for pastures new. It was 2005. He clearly has a dominant nostalgia gene as another […]
Su-a Lee I’ve had the album, Dialogue, by cellist Su-a Lee, since it was released, and I like the fusion of classical and folk music. They sit well together. I was very much looking forward to her concert at Celtic Connections and as It was a dry night, I walked from the Royal […]
