If there’s one thing that makes wintertime in Glasgow great then it’s Celtic Connections. Staged every January since 1994, the eclectic roots music festival directed by Capercaillie member Donald Shaw will this year welcome more than 2,000 musicians from around the world to participate in an 18-day programme at 17 venues city-wide from concert halls to clubs. The variety of styles represented in the lineup is as diverse as the roster is broad: traditional, folk, alt-folk, jazz, classical, rock, soul, indie, country, Americana, Afrobeat, electronica and countless global sounds, each coloured by geographic, linguistic and cultural nuances galore.
A world première commemorating a late Celtic Connections luminary will fittingly open proceedings in 2015. Newfoundland-born Scottish piper, violinist and Celtic fusion pioneer Martyn Bennett passed away from cancer a decade ago this month at the tragically young age of 33; Grit was his final album and in many ways his masterpiece – a dramatic juxtaposition of traditional folk singing with pounding electronic beats (he was too weak from illness to play his instruments so relied on synths and samples). Originally released in 2003, and recently introduced to a younger audience by the use of the track Blackbird in an epic Danny Macaskill mountain-biking video (27m YouTube views and counting), Grit has been specially reconstructed by violinist and composer Greg Lawson for a custom-designed orchestra of folk, jazz and classical players (15 January).
Another tribute event will see the much-missed Ewan MacColl – leftwing activist and figurehead of Britain’s post-war folk revival – remembered with a night of song curated by his musician sons Calum and Neill. Titled Blood & Roses, it’ll see MacColl’s compositions well-known and less well-known performed by a hand-picked clutch of artists including Jarvis Cocker, Kate St John, Dick Gaughan, Martin and Eliza Carthy, and Karine Polwart (25 January). Elsewhere in the Celtic Connections lineup, look out for later-period exponents of British folk’s 1960s renaissance in Fairport Convention, a group who in their own words “did for real ale what the Grateful Dead did for LSD” (16 January).
From the rootsier end of the American indie spectrum come Kurt Wagner’s uncategorisable country, soul, jazz, R&B, vintage pop and avant-garde melding ensemble Lambchop (31 January), as well as Tex-Mex purveyors of “desert noir” Calexico (1 February), and a family affair in the form of Tweedy – that’s Jeff Tweedy, fulcrum of revered Chicagoan alt-country Grammy-winners Wilco, backed by his teenage son Spencer on drums. Nashville Americana singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle has experienced a less harmonious relationship with his famous father over the years – Steve Earle kicked his boy out of his band some years back because of Justin’s drink and drug problems, which is fairly rich considering dad’s hell-raising history. But Justin is clean and sober these days, and his appearance in support of his latest album Single Mothers ought to be a highlight (17 January).
If there’s another aspect beyond its sheer eclecticism that makes Celtic Connections special, it’s the festival’s intuitively crafted double-bills, pairing and indeed sometimes partnering similar or simply complimentary acts.
Take for instance Afrobeat veteran drummer of Fela Kuti’s band and Damon Albarn’s The Good The Bad and The Queen fame Tony Allen’s appearance with support from exciting new English-Nigerian Afro-electro collective Ibibio Sound Machine (1 February), or fragrant Anglo-French electro-pop ensemble François & the Atlas Mountains’ unique performance featuring guests musicians from Burkina Faso – Sanou Darra on balaphon and Djiga Boubacar on ngoni (a theme of Celtic Connections this year is celebrating hand-made instruments from around the world).
Factor in Celtic Connections’ legendary late night club events at The Art School – drawing together musicians and fans alike for late-night spontaneous dance and jam sessions – and you have a true festival of discovery. Put simply, if you haven’t found a favourite new artist by the end, then you haven’t done Celtic Connections right.
• Celtic Connections begins on Thursday 15 January and runs at various venues throughout the city until 1 February. Full listings here.
