CELTIC REVIEW & PHOTOS 2026

 

Fiona Hunter and the Scottish Symphony orchestra

Record breaking Celtic Connections delivers message of hope and unity to the world

Its usually hard to decide, as there are so meny concerts on over the festivals weekends, which concerts to attend. The opening night this year celebrated the over 200 artists from Europe and worldwide who will perform at Celtic Connections. Through diverse, contemporary  traditional, electic, national and roots music. The festival brings people together people from different places, cultures, backgrounds, traditional – to explore and expand our musical horizons. 

This year I decided to attend Friday’s concert which brought together the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and outstanding singers with new orchestral commissions for a celebration of Scots traditional ballads, brought to a deeper resonance. singers of traditional ballads were acclaimed Scots folk singers - Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Lori Watson, Janice Burns with Jon Doran, Emily Smith, Fiona Hunter.  

 

Celtic Connections is Europe’s leading winter and roots music festival, it certainly chases away those winter blues! I was thrilled to attend several high quality and wonderful concerts this year. There are many concerts I might wish to have attended – Mother Tongue, Celebration of Gaelic song, Capercaillie, Jacob Jolliff, and many more. 

Scots legend Dick Gaughan Celebrated!

**The highlight for me at CC this year was the celebration of Scots folk legend Dick Gaughan. He is a voice of deep humanity in our present dark world. This was the most emotional Celtic concert I have been to, over my twenty years attending and doing photos! Testament to Dick’s fame and widespread appeal among legends of the folk music scene, several had travelled far and wide to perform tonight from Ireland, England and Scotland, to perform Gaughan’s well loved songs. Many has also sent messages. 

 

I first heard Dick Gaughan in the 70s at the Police folk club Edinburgh. A musician friend raved about how incredible and distinctive his guitar playing was. Many years later (after being in America for nearly ten years) I heard Gaughan again at Milngavie Folk club in 2007. This was an intimate gig where his chat and stories between songs while he tuned his guitar, was worth going for alone. In his own distinctive voice, Gaughan hammers and speaks with his acoustic guitar.

Gaughan brought many of the traditional Irish and Scots Celtic songs to new life. I’d never heard Robert Burns Westlin Winds before Gaugan introduced this as one of the best songs ever written. He searched through the Scottish national archives for the best traditional ballads. Like Burns and Dylan before him Gaughan has been a genius song collector and remaker of the old songs. He drew on his Scots and Irish traditions to develop his song craft and performance. 

Julie Fowlis and SCO

Another highlight was the excellent Irish Scots folk trad music at the concert with Julie Fowlis with SCO at Celtic Connections 2026 – with their well-crafted songs. Julie has a clear musicality, along with her husband Irish bouzouki (Greek mandolin) player Emanon Doorley and now partnered with Irish fiddler and Gaelic singer Zoe Conway and Irish musician John McIntyre.    The quartet’s 2024 ALLT albums captures their authentic traditional music with that impactful live vibe and a cohesive sound: with soaring pipes, fiddles, melodies, dynamic rhythm guitar, the emotional solo voice, and the collective and caressing soothing vocal harmonies. They played the range and depth of traditional music – and the long roots between Irish and Scottish music. Both intimate and powerful. All performers were clearly thrilled to have the impact and range of the SCO behind them, to enrich their music with strings, percussions, wind instruments. Creatively conducted by David Brophy.

Karen Matheson

The Celtic roots celebration returned for its 31^st year at Celtic Connections music festival. Transatlantic Sessions is one of the highlights of Celtic Connections music festival, with both the familiar tunes and the new. TS brings together the deep connections between Irish, Scots and American music. Its a special blend of the churning rhythms of bluegrass, country, the fine Scots melodies, jigs and reels and the haunting Irish Gaelic song. This year we were treated to a quality range of performers – from America, Kathy Mattea, and Darrell Scott: from Scotland Karine Polwart and from Ireland Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. 

Like a musical river from Tennessee to Nashville to west Kerry, than to Shetland and to Pathhead Midlothian. As Mattea described, the colourful, one off collaborating at Celtic Connections lead to arteries “like the roots of a tree that lead to different accents – and make the collaborating more sweet.” Like a fascinating patchwork quilt with the variety and range of musical styles and genres that challenge and add musical colour to our lives.

This has been another hugely successful festival to chase away the winter blues.

Darrell Scott

Kathy Mattea

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

 16^th  Friday -  BBC Orchestra, Beyond the Tradition

 

17^th Saturday -  Celebration of Gaelic song

 

18^th Sunday –  True and Bold:  A Night for Dick Gaughan

 

21^st Wednesday  - Julie Fowlis & Scottish Chamber orchestra

 

23^rd Friday – Capercaillie 

 

23^rd Friday - Jacob Jolliff

 

29^th Thursday  -  Shooglenifty

 

1^st February – Transatlantic Sessions

Kris Drever

Record breaking Celtic Connections delivers message of hope and unity to the world =  Celtic Connections music festival 2026 celebrated several sell out live performances, record-breaking ticket sales and unique events, sending a message of hope and unity around the world about the power of music, cultural identity and collaboration.

More than 1,600 artists over 300 events at 25 venues across in Glasgow - Scotland’s largest live music city. This year’s event recorded over 200 sell outs, compared to 125 in 2025. With attendances of 114,000 across 18 days - with the highest ever number of tickets sold in the event’s 33-year history - cementing its place as the biggest winter festival of traditional, roots and world music on the planet.  Artists from 35 countries, included Palestine, Iraq, Ukraine, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and the United States.

 

Ceilidhs and family events proved popular, with 637 participants taking part in music and song workshops. Four free concerts welcomed 7,000 children and young people from across Scotland to the Glasgow Concert Hall. With performances from Sian, DLÙ, Celtic Fandango and Ímar. Since 1999, more than 300,000 children and young people have benefited from the festival’s learning programme.

  

The last night’s programme, included the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year final, the Danny Kyle Open Stage, Transatlantic Sessions and a performance from three-time Grammy winner Lucinda Williams, concluded the first major event in a busy year for Glasgow in 2026. 

 

Showcase Scotland shone a light on participants from Quebec, along with a wealth of homegrown talent, With international delegates attending from 24 nations for five days of top performances and networking opportunities.

 

The festival is delivered by Glasgow Life in partnership with Innis & Gunn. Celtic Connections is supported by the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO Fund and Creative Scotland.

Glasgow will also host WOMAD for the first time in July, the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the Royal National Mòd in October.

 

Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland said: “Scotland’s trad and folk artists were at full strength every single day during Celtic Connections 2026. Tradition bearers were honoured, new stars were born, and Scotland’s music proved yet again that it contains the very best the world has to offer. This was a particularly strong year for international artists too, as the festival celebrated different global cultures, bringing voices together in harmony, not discord, and creating music without borders.”

 

Celtic Connections Creative Director Donald Shaw said: “Such a unique coming together of performers as a global family sends a powerful message about the strength of music, cultural identity and collaboration, especially at a time when the world can feel more fragmented than ever."

“From the Drygate to Donbas, Byres Road to Baghdad, Candleriggs to Palestine, these past incredible days have been forged in friendship, fortitude and the freedom to express ourselves through song, dance and performance, filled with hope, inspiration and togetherness.  “From unforgettable headline moments to seeing artists step onto a Celtic Connections stage for the very first time, we have been united by the music and that is a legacy that will thrive long after the lights have dimmed. With the extraordinary support of our funders and partners, colleagues, venues, audiences and incredible volunteers, this is a festival built by passion and people, celebrating a rich cultural tapestry, musical pioneers and songwriting greats."

 

“To see audiences turn out in such record numbers through a cold and wet winter month is the most fitting tribute we could hope for, and I would like to thank everyone involved for making our 33rd edition so memorable, as we already begin the exciting work of looking ahead to what comes next.” 

My Chats and Tributes to Scots Legend Rab Noakes

Rab Noakes Oran Mor

A Present with no Past has No Idea, Quote Rab Noakes Branch song. Good Roots

So sad to hear the news of our loss of singer songwriter Rab Noakes - what a true gent and legend of Scottish music. Rest in peace. I've had the privilege of taking Rab's photos at several concerts over many years since 2010. 

I’ve had several chats with him over the past decade, both in person and online. I have such fond memories in my twenties we used to sing his early songs. More recently my son played an excellent version of his classic Gently Does It and Moonlight and Gold.

Rab was always a smartly dressed folk singer songwriter, and one of the top guitarist. He drew influences from the 60s radio growing up in Fife, much as his musical hero Bob Dylan did too. While he drew on many influences. The story of the song mattered to Rab, so his chat between songs laid the musical scene and atmosphere.

In the 60s and 70s, Rab played with greats such as Gerry Rafferty and Lindisfarne. When I hung out in the folk scene then, i remember well the harmony singing of Noakes songs, such as Branch, Clear Day, Together Forever. 

Back in 2007 I saw Noakes still going strong at an Oran Mor gig. He often includes a fifties classic, this time a song my husband remembered his mother singing. He is also a dedicated Bob Dylan follower – check out his excellent version of Dylan’s Mississippi. 

Martha Rafferty & Rab Noakes

Rab led several tribute concerts at Glasgow’s major music festival. Celtic Connections, for Gerry Rafferty and Michael Marra. I expect we will have a concert for Rab – it’s the passing of a whole generation of the folk scene – and we look forward to the passing of the baton to the younger generations. 

He will be sadly missed, his music lives on and in my memories of my son playing his classic "Gently Does it" and Rafferty's "Moonlight and Gold".

Rab at Milngavie folk club

He has been at the forefront of Scottish folk music for over 50 years, and has recorded over 19 studio albums. He often performed at the Glasgow music festival Celtic Connections. In 1970 Noakes released his first solo recording Do You See The Lights, a blend of easy going country rock, with a line-up that included Robin McKidd, electric guitar and jazz bassist Ronnie Rae, and included songs Too Old To Die, Together Forever and Somebody Counts On Me. In 1971 Noakes was a founding member of the folk rock band Stealers Wheel, along with Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, He played on the first album by Gerry Rafferty’s Can I Have My Money Back, notably Mary Skeffington. He also played with the band Stealers Wheel. 

Noakes songs have been covered by Lindisfarne (Together Forever) and Barbara Dickson.

I will post some extracts on his songwriting from my nine RAB NOAKES reviews. 

Rab at a house party

**RAB gig reviews on my blog

2010 -  Oran Mor

2012 -  Concert for Gerry Rafferty

2012 – Milngavie folk club

2013 -  Concert for Michael Marra

2014 -  tour Barbara Dickson

2016 - Milngavie folk club

2017 – Celtic, Old Fruitmarket

2022 -  Milngavie folk club

Rab with Alice Marra Celtic Connections

Eddi Reader, Rab Noakes, Dougie MacLean

Rab & Kathleen McInnes Celtic Connections 2017

Rab & Barbara Dickson

Rab & Jill Jackson Celtic Connections

CHATS with RAB 

A gentle, questioning soul – with a generosity of spirit. 

Noakes says music is all about the dialogue and more about performing than simply the song. Those residency night gigs were artists can learn their craft in front of the live audience and the live performance when 'flying' in the heart of the music toughens you up and you have to learn loads of songs. He played in Denmark six nights a week. Noakes ran his own production company Neon. 

I sat beside him at a couple of times at Celtic press release mornings. I told him of my sons guitar playing but that he lacked confidence, Rab said in his young days, performers laid the ground work playing the folk clubs for years – but today people seem to often expect quick, instant results. I told him my son enjoyed playing some of the folk tunes, particularly Gently Does It – I had taken my son to our local folk club to see Gaughan, Noakes, and Dylan at Braehead Arena. My son also enjoyed rock and pop and learned electric guitar and bass from the rock band the Red Hot Chillis!

 CHATS with Rab at Celtic

I sat beside Rab at the Celtic Press launch on Tuesday. He seemed to know me - maybe from his Oran Mor gig, my review and photos for him and his chatting to me on facebook. Cool and what an interesting guy. 

I asked him if he mentored younger artists – he said no he wasn’t going to simply give his secrets away! He said that too many young people expected things on a plate and that they were spoon-fed everything. He had to put in years of graft to learn his craft and he thought that was the way things should be done. He mentioned all these music schools now where they are simply ‘given’ everything, rather than finding out for themselves. 

 

I agree. I worry so many young artists in the folk scene for instance have less depth of character in their voice. He said he enjoyed the thread on FB chat with me - interesting thread he said! I told him how interesting the book festival is and that many authors are also painters and musicians too.

He's a massive Dylan fan too. I spoke of the Dylan ‘Forever Young’ photos, probably my favourite of an artist.  

He remarked that Dylan had so much character he must be good for photos. And I told him of the Chinese writer who when he paints only listens to music for weeks and tries not to think in words at all.   

 

*On Facebook I posted – “The best music is timeless’

Rab replied, ‘No, the best music is very much of its time, and that a present with no past has no future.’ 

Noakes was born in St Andrews Fife in 1947 and grew up in Cupar. He drew influences from the 60s Radio growing up in Fife, much as his musical hero Bob Dylan did too. While he drew on many musical influences. In 1963 Noakes moved to London and worked for the Civil Service, and he played folk clubs at night. He returned to Scotland in 1967 and began a duo with Robin McKidd and they played their first gig at the Glasgow Folk centre. In 1769 he played a months residency in Denmark. Noakes was a founding member of the folk rock band Stealers Wheel, along with Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan. 

In 1970 Noakes released his first solo recording Do You See The Lights, a blend of easy going country rock, with a line-up that included Robin McKidd, electric guitar and jazz bassist Ronnie Rae, and included songs Too Old To Die, Together Forever and Somebody Counts On Me.

He played on the first album by Gerry Rafferty’s Can I Have My Money Back in 1971, notably Mary Skeffington. He also played with the band Stealers Wheel. He performed with Lindisfarne in 1972, on songs Turn a Deaf Ear, Nicely out of Tune, Together Forever, and Fog on the Tyne. He recorded with Lindisfarne for a John Peel concert and in 1995 produced a Radio 2 programme The Story of Lindisfarne. 

One of Noakes's best-known recordings, "Branch", from the Red Pump Special album, was released as a single in 1974 (recorded in Nashville Tennessee and produced by Elliot Mazer) and received Radio One airplay.  He played on a Woody Guthrie tribute album 1987, and toured with the Veraflames – along with Pick Withers, Rod Clements and Fraser Speirs.

Rab & Gerry Rafferty

Rab & Stealers Wheel

 

Bob Dylan on Good Voice Ovo Armadillo Glasgow

Dylan held us inspired with his voice, the master of his song craft, and the unforgettable storyteller. Our iconic bard held sway with his top-rated band – Bob Britt’s flying-V guitar solos, multi instrumentalist Donnie Herron on lapsteel, mandolin and fiddle, the dynamic, unconventional drummer Charlie Drayton, Tony Garnier on upright bass. 

Dylan was centre stage and he stood at times behind his wooden piano: he’s worked to get the sound just right and though he’s mostly in shadow, he appeared upbeat. Dylan digs deep into the American and the more distant European songbooks –and he states both the Scots and Irish folk ballads as influences, along with the classics. He mixes up with Chicago blues, blistering rock n roll, new Orleans flavoured knockabouts and stately melodic reflections.

*Tonight Dylan sang his new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, 

Bob is proud of his new album which has had top reviews, his first of new songs since Tempest in 2012. Dressed all in black, the band are silhouettes and as the songs begin they are illuminated by the brightly lit squares beneath them, backdropped by deep red velvet – as if floating to that promised land Dylan’s’ words and songs offer us. He’s the true prophet of our times, even though he asks not to be! 

We’ve entered slower paced past times before mobile phones, before flashing lights, to inhabit the moment and be free of burdens. The band are strung as one, emphasising the rush and flow – asking, questioning, apologising, and quiet searching of our souls. Dylan’s been through many doorways, seen many distant shorelines. At 80 he’s given us another classic album.

 

Now at 80 he continues as the journeyman going strong – His band are on top form with surging guitars, to subtle, gentle, backing rhythms surrounding the deep power of Dylan’s words. He savours the live experience, that exchange of song and audience, sharing his voice with his long standing and admiring fans. He seems more at ease with himself, and certainly the new album is slower tempo, chilled and intimate: while still offering the questioning and grit we expect. His songs don’t come easy and they get under your skin. 

**SONGS

**Dylan sang 17 songs tonight – 9 from his 2022 album Rough and Rowdy Ways

He began his show with Watching the River Flow (written 1971) about those creative urges so crucial to his life. And followed by the complex opening track from R & R, I Contain Multitudes.

The memorable and often quoted lyrics of False Prophet and When I Make my Masterpiece. The intimate stillness of a lovely love song I’ve made up my Mind to give Myself to You. He sang an impressive Black Rider, with unexpected key changes, ‘The road that you’re on, same road that you knew, just not the same as it was a minute ago.” My mind is at war, Hnag off your arm. 

Followed by My Own Version of You, Mother of Muses.The haunting slow drumbeat of Crossing the Rubicon, a metaphor to take a leap into the unknown and commit to certain journeys - Take the big road, whatever road you can. Bob sang the chilled relaxed happy rituals of favourite track Key West. We were left in harmony. After which he said, “Hello everyone”. Dylan was centre stage and he stood at times behind his wooden piano: he’s worked to get the sound just right and though he’s mostly in shadow, he appeared upbeat

 

**Other than the album, Dylan performed Most Likely You’ll go your Way and I’ll go Mine from Blonde on Blonde album. Followed by one of his ultimate classics with surging guitars Gotta Serve Someone, from Slow Train Coming album – backed by Bob Britt’s surging guitar, Donnie Herron’s dynamic pedal steel guitar and the thundering drummer Charlie Drayton. And a very slow version of I’ll be Your Baby Tonight; a cheerful and an cheerful upbeat Be Alone with You, from 1969 album Nashville Skyline - Under the starlight sky; and a swinging cover version of That Old Black Magic. 

Dylan performed a rousing rock blues Goodbye Jimmy Reid on which he plays harmonica – an upbeat tribute to the blues giant. To those having a free voice. When Dylan said, ”Thank you everybody, Hope you are all well.” For their final song the band performed Every Grain of Sand – and with band introductions. 

After which the band and Dylan lined up centre stage, then exited and came back for a final bow, when there was a rush of applause when I thought how much Dylan’s songs and music have meant to so many, and especially for those musicians in his footsteps (and for me). Like the Scots bard Robert Burns, Dylan looks back to the great writers before him and also to what lies ahead.

I might have hoped, as in 2011, Dylan had encored two of his classics (Rolling stone, All Along the Watchtower), but this show was about new material mostly and we left grateful, satisfied and thankful.  He sits at the turbulent crossroads. He continues being the journeyman bringing his messages of a better way. Hope of those journeys, Fear of time taking us all. 

 

In my life by far, his long life of music and poet of our times. I’ll cross that Rubicon to the Promised land. Take me to the river – free me from sin. Will he still be touring at 80, still the journeyman, journey home. The Never ending Tour runs through 2024.

This is Bob at his classic and contemporary best! This is my third Dylan concert. First was with my son at the SECC Glasgow, when Dylan was hunched over his keyboards. The second gig, 2011, was a much livelier Dylan performance at the Braehead arena, where Dylan even danced! And we stood alongside his long-standing disciples at the front. The fan beside me was my age and also with his son and he had been to every Dylan concert here since his first one in Scotland – at the age of 18. It was a humbling experience and Dylan performed several of his classic songs (set lists are online)

Dylan clearly much prefers the smaller venues and this concert in 2022 at the Armadillo was more intimate and old worldly, took us back in time, before mobile phones, before internet and before flashing lights, glitz and glamour- when we could simply be in the moment to listen clearly to the quality, aged instruments, to the changes in tempo, clarity, depth, resonance and range of voice. We’ve forgotten today how to be in the moment, how to look or listen, as we disappear into our virtual realities.

I hope Dylan continues on his ever ending world tour and continues to write and perform such memorable and hard hitting words and music. And that I get to hear him some more live – it’s a surreal and uplifting experience.

**SET LIST

*Watching the River Flow

*Most Likely You’ll go your way and I’ll go Mine

I Contain multitudes

False Prophet

When I make my Masterpiece

Black Rider

My Own Version of you

*I’ll be our Baby Tonight

Crossing the Rubicon

*Be Alone with you

Key West

*Gotta Serve Someone

I’ve made up my mind to give myself to You

*That Old Black Magic

Mother of Muses

**REVIEWS

Neil McCormick on the Telegraph, as “one long magnificent ride for his most loyal fans and “The wise old poet has stirred up a cryptic cauldron of truths and clues, philosophy, myths and magic.”

 

“Breath of its cultural references and the depth of Dylan’s lyrics ‘ Mikal Wood Los Angeles Times.

“old blues songs, Shakespeare, classical mythology, the bible and pop culture” Kenny Doole Exclaim

 “why are intellectual references so rare in contemporary music.”

 

Rolling Stone ranked Key West as second best songs of 2020 and 7^th in a list of 25 best Bob Dylan songs 20^th century. 

“ a poetic balm for a world in profound turmoil.” 

Bob Dylan, All the Songs, Philippe Margolin and Jean Michel Guesdon, claim R & R is placed between Highway 61 Revisited, Blond on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks, and in other words on the same level as his master works. Several stand out tracks are singled out for mention – Key West, I Contain Multitudes, Black Rider. 

Rough and Rowdy Ways album -  is the 39^th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan released on June 2020, through Columbia Records.It is Dylan's first album of original songs since his 2012 album Tempest following three releases, one a triple album a triple album that covered traditional pop standards. The album was recorded at Sound City Studios in January and February 2020. The session musicians included all of the then-current members of Dylan's Never Ending tour band alongside other musicians, such as Blake Mills and Fiona Apple. The album's sound was described by critics as Americana, folk, blues and R & B. 

Rough and Rowdy Ways was preceded by the singles "Murder Most Foul", "I Contain Multitudes" and "False Prophet", "Murder Most Foul" became Dylan's first song to top any US Billboard chart. The album was universally praised by critics, described as being one of Dylan's best works and placing highly in many year-end album lists, including the top spot on four lists. It peaked at No. 1 in more than ten countries and No. 2 in the United States and Australia.

Surrounding Dylan, leaning in like heliotropes, are three guitarists playing electric, acoustic, lap steel, mandolin and fiddle (the latter three are by Donnie Herron, and not all at the same time). Longtime electric upright bassist Tony Garnier plucks away next to newbie Charley Drayton, a loose and bouncy drummer who seems to make contact with his kit via anything but wooden sticks. The transitions between the songs are jazzy and fantasia-like, as though each cut played is conjured afresh out of a shimmering ether.

Crucially, there’s an air of playfulness here – testament to Dylan actually being in a very good mood