There is never a shortage of fiddles – blazing or otherwise – at Celtic Connections, the sociable celebration of roots music that has thawed the January chill in Glasgow since 1994. Less common is the sight of a full orchestra, despite the home of the festival being a formal concert hall. To bolster the launch of the 2017 edition, artistic director Donald Shaw recruited the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, who – under the baton of Jules Buckley – served as a sensitive, if undoubtedly luxurious, house band at a diverse opening concert.
Shaw was not the only Donald to be referenced from the stage. Opening a jammed first half, festival regular Karine Polwart updated her Trump protest song Cover Your Eyes with some inauguration-themed jabs, the BBCSSO adding widescreen drama to her elemental tale. From there, the rapidly rotating bill served as a vertical slice of the entire festival, spotlighting talent both homegrown (a brace of moving duets from Scottish troubadours Rachel Sermanni and Adam Holmes) and far-flung (some boisterous Michigan bluegrass from Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys).
After the good-natured rumpus of shuffling half a dozen acts on and off stage in quick succession, Laura Marling’s headline appearance set a rather different tone: poised, reflective and hauntingly hushed. The peripatetic English singer already has five albums of filigreed songwriting under her belt with a sixth, Semper Femina, imminent. Some of her most deeply felt songs – full of emotional depth charges and scabrous snapshots of relationships in freefall – were expanded and enhanced by sympathetic orchestral arrangements from Kate St John.
Building from a bedrock of atmospheric strings, there were many intriguing flourishes: Marling’s plaintive vocal melody shadowed by a muted trumpet on I Was An Eagle; cinematic harp flurries emphasising the apocalyptic visions of Hope in the Air; a spine-tingling cover of Leonard Cohen’s Avalanche. It demonstrated that Marling’s knack for creating startling moments of intimacy could survive – and even thrive – on the broadest sonic canvas. For a festival that has always encouraged cross-pollination and collaboration, it was an appropriate and impressive curtain-raiser.
- Celtic Connections continues at various venues in Glasgow until 5 February.
