Making 'Celtic Connections' In Glasgow

By Gwen Orel

Every year in January, Glasgow is the center of the world. The Celtic music world, that is, but that's a world that is, increasingly, global.

That global outlook is the point, for the Festival's Director, Donald Shaw, a musician himself, who plays the outstanding Scottish folk group Capercaillie, and works as a producer.

The Festival, which goes on for nearly three weeks, includes Japanese, Swedish, Norwegian, Mexican, and, particularly, American musicians, who play rock and roll, indie, jazz, bluegrass, and traditional folk.

I went for the last four days of the Festival, on something of a fact-finding mission. I was really blown away. Next time I go, I'll stay longer.

This year, the 19-day music Festival in Glasgow, Scotland, took place from January 14-31. The strum of a Mexican guitar joined the evocative whine of the Irish Uillean Pipes, as the Chieftains played with Los Cenzontles and Ry Cooder, playing music from the upcoming album San Patricio, a "story" album about Irish immigrants in the Mexican-American war (the album comes out March 9; look for the concert at Town Hall in New York on March 17; tickets are already on sale).

An old-timey fiddler played with an award-winning Scottish accordionist, to the breathy voice of a young bluegrass soprano-as Bruce Molsky played with Phil Cunningham and Sara Watkins. An American indie pop star sang, accompanied by an Irish band - Natalie Merchant with Lúnasa.

There were stars - Bobby McFerrin, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Angelique Kidjo - and New Voices. With 300 events over 19 days, including concerts, workshops, late night sessions in the Festival Club, Celtic Connections, founded in 1994 is one of the biggest, and definitely the longest, Folk Festivals in the world. Over 1500 musicians attended.

Unlike many U.S. music festivals, each event is ticketed separately-meaning you have to really peruse the brochure in advance, as some of the best acts (Transatlantic Sessions, about which more below!) sell out quickly.

Each year the Festival spotlights an international partner in an event known as "Showcase Scotland;" this year it was Norway (the event took place from January 28-31).

Scandinavia is not that far from Scotland (in her novel "King Hereafter" Dorothy Dunnett posits that Macbeth was actually Norse), and the connections run deep. New Yorkers saw some of the Celtic-Norwegian connection in December at the Irish music showcase when Caoimhin Ó Raghaillaigh (playing with Boys of the Lough's Brendan Begley) played a decorated Norwegian fiddle. I had a chance to hear fiddler Synave S. Bjorset, and Norse string ensemble Majorstuen, at the Festival Club one night.

Musicians love the Festival, because they get to play with people they might never even meet. Some musicians, like John Doyle (who was nominated for a Grammy for his album "Double Play," with Irish-American fiddler Liz Carroll), who tours the East Coast for one week with Karan Casey this week (February 7-14), are there for weeks - he played with Cherish the Ladies, who had an "Irish Homecoming" concert on January 17th (which included special guests Liz Carroll and Maura O'Connell), Transatlantic Sessions, and of course, with Karan.

Others, like Irish guitar player Gerry O'Beirne, are in and out for one gig (he played with Scottish vocalist and former Silly Wizard bandmember Andy M. Stewart, with whom he's often toured. Look for O'Beirne in New York in April). The Festival's mission "connect the dots" between Celtic and world music. Shaw knows firsthand how musicians love to learn riffs and tunes from one another and to play for a listening audience. He plays in Transatlantic Sessions, and he's in the process of finishing production on two CDs.

Many of the connections created at the Festival cross continents: Scottish folk trio Lau played with Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu. The National Jazz Trio of Scotland played with Japanese singers Nikaido Kazumi and Shugo Tokumaru. But it's the crossing of the Atlantic, and the look at how music ebbs and flows from shore to shore, including old-timey, country, rockabilly and bluegrass, that is most spotlighted. Many of the concerts feature opening acts that are American and Celtic headliners.

The format of the Festival means that not that many American tourists attend - you can't see more than two or three events in a day - but it's a worthwhile trip (just don't expect too much from the food, except for Indian food, and bring sneakers, because the hills are steep).

The press office told me about a Californian who has bought a flat in Glasgow which she lets out all year, so she can be there for the three weeks of the Festival. American roots label Rounder Records hosted their 40th anniversary party at the Festival on January 19, featuring Alecia Nugent, Sarah Harmer and James Hand.

The sell-out "transatlantic sessions," which take place at the end of the Festival, bring together Celtic and American musicians for what the Festival describes as a "back-porch session." It's a highpoint of the Festival, and of my trip.

The concept actually began with film-makers Douglas Eadie and Mike Alexander, and has been regularly shown on BBC TV.

This year, for the first time ever, in response to their popularity and the public's demand for tickets, Transatlantic Sessions toured the UK and Ireland in February, concluding at the Royal Festival Hall in London on February 6th.

The 2010 line-up included Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, O Brother Where Art Thou?'s Dan Tyminski, fiddle player Bruce Molsky and bluegrass star Tim O'Brien, with Scotland's Eddi Reader, Capercaillie's soprano Karen Matheson and Ireland's Cara Dillon.

Musicians included Phil Cunningham, Michael McGoldrick, Aly Bain and John Doyle, among others. Molly O'Brien, Tim's sister, also sang. I didn't know of her before, but wow, what a big, expressive voice.

All of the musicians are onstage all of the time, with the singers sitting on a couch stage left (until they come up for their song).

At one point Cara Dillon joked about the craic they were having - and it's true, you see them chatting, joking. This lends the feeling of a session, even though it's in a large, sold out hall.

Dobro player Jerry Douglas and Scottish fiddler Aly Bain lead the concerts. They take place in the main auditorium at the Concert Hall, a building housing several venues, the press office, a café bar, a restaurant, the gift shop etc. I booked a (cheap) hotel room closer to the Festival Arts Club, but in future I'd stay nearer the Concert Hall. But trekking to events around town gives you a chance to see a little of Glasgow without trying.

This part of Scotland really flourished during the Industrial revolution. But Glasgow has Victorian charm, with cobblestoned streets, hills with lovely vistas, and architecture by James Rennie Mackintosh.

This three-hour concert feels alive and fresh, maybe because there's only one day of rehearsal with very little programmed in advance (there are two performances, with a day off in between).

Each number blends Celtic and American sounds; when Cara Dillon sang "Hill of Thieves," the title song from her last album, somehow it had a Southern twang. There are two long sets, with nice long intermissions in between, with plenty of time to get a drink-and bring it back to your seat. This strikes me as very civilized.

Still, "real" sessions were not in abundance - although connections made at afterparties are something the Festival is known for, I didn't see it happening, perhaps because what was once the central hotel had been condemned (Shaw assures me it is being refurbished and this will change next year).

Two late night events are meant to ameliorate this somewhat - one is called "late night sessions" and is held at the Concert Hall "Exhibition Hall" (a room used for exhibits during the day), and the other is the "Festival Club" held in the Art School (up a very steep hill from Sauchiehall, Glasgow's main drag). But both are programmed, not spontaneous.

The Festival Club is like a weird folk disco, with twenty-somethings in fishnets (Glasgow style includes four-inch sequined heels and, for girls, no overcoats outside of nightclubs) making a jigging mosh pit. There's a bar downstairs, where I chatted with Gerry O'Beirne one night. I met Luka Bloom and Martin Simpson with Gerry at the Novotel bar later - they had come from playing a concert called "Danny Thompson and Friends," which was a kind of tribute to John Martyn, at a venue called the Old Fruitmarkets. I heard from a few people that that was one of the Festival's top events.

Old Fruitmarkets is in a building called City Halls, where I had seen (while "Danny Thompson and Friends" was going on, but you can't be in two places at once) an amazing trio of three Scottish musicians, Karine Polwart, Corinna Hewatt, and Annie Grace, all individual stars-they haven't recorded together, but they gig together, and their tight harmony has a jazzy quality that is something like Manhattan Transfer with a brogue. They had been inspired by Bobby McFerrin's concert (I was not in town for that), an event Shaw also praised.

On my first night I saw another concert (at the Concert Hall) Natalie Merchant, whose CD "Leave Your Sleep" comes out in April. Lúnasa recorded four songs on the album, consisting of poems set to music. They opened for Merchant and played a set with her too, with Crawford in particularly fine form. Lúnasa, too, have a new CD coming out in March, which will be called Lá Nua (and they'll be here in NY at the Highline in April). Merchant was in amazing voice, but she was liveliest with Lunasa, who added a welcome lilt and energy to her soulful tones. Merchant is sure to play a New York date when the album comes out.

My second night, I took in Irish chanteuse Imelda May at 02 ABC, a smaller, "downtownish" hall just a few blocks from the Concert Hall (look for her in New York at Town Hall, supporting Jamie Cullum, March 4).

While she's mainly rockabilly, she also channels Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield, and Billie Holliday (Fitzgerald and Holliday are heroes of hers). She writes her own songs too, and the band were just amazing - particularly the trumpet player who I guess is Dave Priseman (at least that's who it is on the album). But all were seriously chop-filled, including husband Darrel Higham on guitar. The audience (a standing crowd, but polite) adored her. She was at the Grammy's the next day, playing with Jeff Beck.

But for me, the best audience was without question the kids at a children's concert, at which Canadian group Le Vent du Nord were the headliners.

If the Scots at times seemed a little restrained in their clapping, Scottish children were not. They step danced in the aisles, they hooted and clapped (even to slow airs). When they didn't dance they waved their arms. It was so infectious some teachers began dancing too - and it was clearly informed clapping. These kids loved trad music, clapped with passion and kept the beat.

Le Vent du Nord will never have a better house, and it was great to be among future New Voices and Young Traditional Musicians. That the Festival fosters that connection to the future may be their most exciting achievement.