Celtic Connections Opens in Glasgow

It doesn't seem like a year since the last Celtic Connections. It doesn't even seem like two years since my last visit to that wonderful Scottish city.

This week the annual pilgrimage of musicians and fans of the broadest range of Celtic music and more began in style. This year the line up is as impressive as ever with shows by people like Joan Baez as well as regulars like Altan, Dougie McClean, Donald Shaw, Karen Casey, Shane McGowan, Jerry Douglas and many more. The festival really is a bright light in the world of music and is one of the best run festivals in the world.

Tonight sees a wonderful event with Donald Shaw from Scottish Band Capercaillie who is presenting a 75 minute piece called Harvest. In this piece Shaw has gathered 70 or 80 of the finest musicians from all over Europe including Galicia , Brittany and Ireland among others and using the influences of the traditional music of those regions has created what by all accounts is a wonderful piece of music. One of the aims of this piece is to bridge the gap between all the various European regions musically at least. The piece comprise of songs and instrumentals as well as group slots and full ensemble pieces played by the huge group of musicians whose ages run from 12 to 18.

On Thursday there are concerts by folk legend Joan Baez, Nollaig Casey and Arty McGlynn and also a show with he excellent James Grant. Then on Friday one of my favorite songwriters Dougie McClean is on stage as is the wonderful Hans Theesink.

There are many events all over the city though from workshops and talks as well as regular music concerts. We will try to bring you as much news and updates as the days go by. For now though just start planning ahead and be there for next year's event.

One event I really do wish I could make it to takes place on January 27 th at the Auditorium and is a live stage version of The Transatlantic Sessions. If you ever wonder what JigTime is about, it is about just this sort of cross cultural musical exchange and the television series the Transatlantic Sessions is by far the best program of it's kind in the world. This live show features the two musical minds behind the series Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas and for this concert features the amzing McGarrigle Sisters.