Withered Hand and Brazilian Criolo at Celtic Connections 2015

Tonight was an unexpected pairing. Scottish indie rocker Withered hand (aka Dan Wilson) has been gathering top reviews for his albums and The Herald recently listed his album as the top Scottish album of 2014.

The busy ABC crowd were mainly there to see Brazilian rapper and hip hop artist Criolo, but Withered Hand and his six piece band received a warm welcome and they played a strong set with both thoughtful and upbeat songs.

He sang with his band that consisted of cello, accordion, bass, guitar, drums and backing singer. Songs included - King of Hollywood (dedicated to Chuck Berry), Fall Apart, New Roads, Religious Song. His music is a all about the song stories and catchy hooks that stand above many songs today - he writes songs to get lost in.

Wilson's first studio album, Good News and 2014 album, New Gods have been released in both the UK and US. He performed at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas in 2014, as part of the Scottish Showcase.  http://witheredhand.com

 

Next up was Brazilian rapper, singer songwriter and hip hop artist Criolo who owned the ABC stage as he danced and acted out his songs and with many Glasgow fans there ready to rock also and enjoy the show. He performed with his band, that included keys, bass, guitar and drums, a dynamically energized set. 

Withered Hand joined Criolo on stage with his guitar for one song in the spirit of the festival's dynamic and wide-ranging collaborations. Criolo was highly entertaining and the audience danced and jumped along to his tracks. His music mixes Afrobeats, soul, samba, and reggae. He certainly brought his sunshine rhythms to a cold Glasgow night.

In 2011 “Nó na Orelha” won Best Album at the Brazilian Music Video Awards. http://www.criolo.net/convoqueseubuda/

It was hard to see the Celtic connections here except that the music festival does encourage music voices world wide – from roots, folk, world and indie.  Music at Celtic is not about the mainstream, but rather about quality and challenging new boundaries.

Scottish Bands Oran Mor final night Westend festival

Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells – whose 2011 album “Everything's Getting Older” recently won the first “Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2012. 

For the final night if the Glasgow Westend Festival 2012 The Oran Mor staged an event featuring several new bands and artists across their 3 venues.
The event featured headliners We Were Promised Jetpacks and more…in the Auditorium. Also in this Auditorium were – Monoganon (surely shades of the Low Anthem here), Miaoux Miaoux (one man electronic band recently album of the week on Radio Scotland’s Tom Morton show), Three Blind Wolves and Remember Remember.
Performing in the Whisky Bar were The Dirty Beggars, a bluegrass band who performed also at Celtic this year; plus Apples of Energy and Wounded Knee.
In the basement Venue were Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells whose 2011 album “Everything's Getting Older” recently won the “Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2012". Moffat’s sound has a rough edged voice with a deep oak timbre and he surely is a fan of Dundee’s treasure - humorous and quirky singer songwriter Michael Marra!  While Well’s piano provided the perfect backdrop. Also in the Venue - Gav Prentice, Olympic Swimmers, John Knox Sex Club, guitarist R M Hubbert and singer songwriter Withered Hand.

There were strong folk and singer songwriter elements to the event with many of the artists on the line-up and with WWPJ providing more of a rock band finale to the evening. 

Worth checking out Withered Hand, Dirty Beggars, Monoganon and Aiden Moffat and Bill Wells. Sorry no photos for this event. I have covered many events at the Oran Mor over the past years with the venue being my closest and probably my favourite Glasgow music venue.  I always thoroughly review the musicians I shoot and take a lot of care over the reviews I post. 

Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat's “Everything's Getting Older” has been named the “Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2012. The duo won £20,000 for their work, which was eight years in the making, beating acts such as Mogwai and Conquering Animal Sound. The Scottish Album of the Year (Say) prize is a new award billed as the equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize. The winning album was awarded by the Scottish Music Industry Association at a ceremony in Glasgow Film City.