CELTIC CONNECTIONS 2019 launched!

Rab Noakes Old Fruitmarket

Celtic Connections 2019 announced today for its 18 days major winter music festival, 

From 17^thJanuary to 3^rdFebruary

The UKs premier celebration of celtic music. Over 20 venues in Glasgow, 300 events and 2,100 artists.  

The festival will feature alongside one of special event concerts – film screenings workshops, talks, theatre, ceilidhs, exhibitions, free events and late night sessions.

Celtic Connections includes innovative collaborations while respecting past traditions and encourages new talent with late sessions, open mic and more.

Cara Dillon and Scottish National orchestra City Halls

Karen Matheson & Julie Fowlis

In this year of young people, the Opening Concert2019 will celebrate new talent and the passing of traditions between the generations and 15 years since Harvest 2004.

Appearing in 2019 – Rhiannon Giddens, Loudon Wainwright III, Graham Nash, Judy Collins, Kathy Mattea, Eddi Reader, Blazin Fiddles, Cherish the Ladies, Karen Matheson, John Grant, Elephant Sessions, Aiden Moffat and RM Hubbert. 

Special one off concerts include - 

Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInneswill perform with Amilinafrom Iceland, and string section for Sigur Ros. Rachel Sermanni and Jariath Hendersonwith the Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Karine Polwart and Kris Dreverwith the SCO. 

A celebration of folk-blues singer-guitarist John Martyn’s Grace and Danger album with a special line up – Paul Weller, Lucy Rose, Eddi Reader, Ross Wilson, Rory, Butler, Eric Bibb, John Smith, Katie Spencer.

Punch Brothers concert hall

Richard Thompson

*Visual Performances – showcase of Brave in Concert 

And The Bards Tale – a virtual journey through an 18^th century Scotland with music, gameplay and acting and some of Scotland’s  finest singers.

Along with Showcase Scotland, World music, Celtic cousins (Ireland, wales Basque country) 

Full details & TICKETS Celtic Connections website - https://www.celticconnections.com/

**Celtic Connections Journeys and Photos since 2008.

I’ve been looking over some of my favourite images from Celtic festival. I’ve been honoured to shoot at the festival since 2008. Its hard to pick my best memories because there are so many!

From the top ceilidh bands, the famous, well kent faces, the emerging young talent, the skilled musicians, indie rock bands, the exciting collaborations and beautiful singers, the pipes and Gaelic song, world music and Irish dance – Celtic has them all and more.

Mogwai

Danny Thompson

Van Morrison Concert hall 2017

The packed concert hall thrilled to be on his Glory train -

as he took us all on a slow and so rhythmic  jazz train over high ridge mountains, peaceful valleys, and fun soul highways….

He began with one of his signature tunes

'It’s a wonderful day for a ‘Moondance …..'

He sang his songs of optimism, and of blues notes with his power soul voice

Morrison at 71, is as busy as ever and he performed tracks from his two new 2017 albums ‘Roll with the Punches’ and 'Versatile'. Today Morrison sang songs of his favourite artists on his Versatile album - such as Cole Porter, Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Righteous Brothers, and Nat King Cole - as well as his own compositions and several of his favourite hit songs.

Concert *SONGS – ‘I Can Tell’, ‘Here Comes the Night’, ‘Higher Ground’, ‘Days Like This’, ‘Magic Time’, ‘Sometimes We Cry’, ‘Ease My Troubles That’s What you do’, ‘Carrying the Torch’, ‘Don’t Know What it is’, ‘Wild Night is Calling’, ‘Real Love to You’,

He sang ‘One More for the Road’ - with piano cascades, and his smooth voice and lurching on loves highways and along with the golden notes of trumpet and sax. He travelled on to a softer gospel voice and to more contemporary tunes and back again, with upbeat riffs and beats and rhythms and with spiritual hopes.

Relieved from flip flop flying, zoom, flip flop fly, Don’t get behind,

In the midnight hour, and with our musical Holy Guardian angel,

Mood music, with you my love, when he surprised us all, after walking off the stage, with a rendition of his biggest ever hit, ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ for a very welcome encore!

Morrison is the pivotal star with his occasional hand signals to the band.

He sings of distant vibes, and of hurried tones. Fill my heart.

Morrison is one of our top songwriters.

*Van was relaxed and in good voice and form!

Shimmy dancing from the King of Celtic soul.  

Top marks also to his quality band!  

“Recording songs like these - especially the standards - gave me the chance to stretch out vocally and get back to the music that originally inspired me to sing - jazz!”  Van Morrison on Versatile

On his 2017 album Roll With the Punches, he has recorded R & B classics that informed his music (his father had a large collection of these records when he grew up in Belfast city) – Bo Diddley, Mose Allison, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Lightnin Hopkins, which he performs with his highly individual, raw and personal interpretations.

 “From a very early age, I connected with the blues. The thing about the blues is you don't dissect it – you just do it. I've never over-analysed what I do; I just do it. Music has to be about just doing it and that's the way the blues works – it's an attitude. I was lucky to have met people who were the real thing – people like John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bo Diddley, Little Walter & Mose Allison. I got to hang out with them and absorb what they did. They were people with no ego whatsoever and they helped me learn a lot.”  Van Morrison, Roll With The Punches

Van continues: “The songs on Roll With The Punches - whether I’ve written them or not - they’re performance oriented. Each song is like a story and I’m performing that story. That’s been forgotten over years because people over-analyse things. I was a performer before I started writing songs and I’ve always felt like that’s what I do.

Roll With The Punches was produced by Van Morrison and recorded with an incredible team of studio collaborators including Chris Farlowe, Georgie Fame, Jeff Beck, Paul Jones and Jason Rebello.

His Astral Weeks album  is one of the classic albums of all time, all tracks written by Van Morrison – Beside you/ Sweet Thing/ Cyprus Avenue/ The Way Young lovers do / Madame George/ Ballerina / Slim Slow Slider /

Celtic Connections announces its 2017 program today!

CELTIC CONNECTIONS 2017, from 19th January - 5th February 2017

The programme for Celtic Connections 2017 was announced Thursday 27th October by its Artistic Director, Donald Shaw.

This year Celtic Connection will celebrate women musicians with many one off concerts.  The Opening Concert will star award winning folk singer songwriter Laura Marling performing the world premiere of orchestrations of her songs by Kate St. John with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Other women performing are - Roberta Sá, Olivia Newton John, Beth Neilson Chapman, Karine Polwart, and legendary singer Shirley Collins are among other highlights.

The festival also focuses this year on artists who have lived through personal hardships and found success and strength in music - such as world music star Aziza Brahim who grew up in an Algerian refugee camp. Stars of Americana & Bluegrass will also be at the festival - Margo Price, St Paul & the Broken Bones, Darlingside, Hurray for the Riff Raff, the Mark O’ Connor Band and Calexico.  And travelling further down the path to explore connections between Scotland and the deep south of America, Jon Cleary and Dirk Powell will celebrate the Louisiana sound, inspired by Booker Prize winning author James Kelman’s Dirt Road.

Billy Bragg and Joe Henry will perform classic railroad songs featured on their album Shine A Light which was recorded on a four day journey by train across America. 

The core of Celtic Connections is always Traditional and Folk music and this year is delighted to include the popular fiddle super bands – such as La Banda Europa led by Jim Sutherland, Unusual Suspects, Session A9, Dallahan, top piping project Tryst, Ireland’s Sharon Shannon and Four Men & A Dog, Gaelic rockers  Manran and Phil Cunningham’s Highlands & Islands suite. Also Shooglenifty and guests come together for A Night for Angus, paying tribute to their inspirational fiddle player Angus R.Grant who so sadly passed away this month.

(This will be my 10th year shooting at Celtic Connections Glasgow, I am pleased to say! Over the years I have attended some of the best concerts and taken some of my top portfolio images at Celtic Connections. I enjoy the buzz, the unique collaborations, the friendly banter, the top quality instruments and musicianship, the late sessions and the exciting young artists, the moving Gaelic songs and perfect singers, the fun and foot-tapping ceilidh bands at the Fruitmarket, the musians that come from many other countries. I meet so many interesting music fans, photographers and folk musicians there. so Big Thanks to the Celtic Connections team for all their hard work each January!) 
My extensive CELTIC CONNECTIONS PHOTO GALLERIES - http://pkimage.co.uk/celticconnections

The festival will celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Canada with leading Canadian artists Martha Wainwright, Le Vent Du Nord, De Temps Antan and Russell deCarle. The 70^th anniversary of the Partition of India will be marked with a premiere of leading world percussionists Trilok Gurtu & Evelyn Glennie and classical violin star Jayanthi Kumaresh.

Other artists appearing this year include - C Duncan, Pictish Trail, Fairport Convention, Liz Lochhead, Aidan Moffat, Seth Lakeman, Tom Paxton, King Creosote, Siobhan Miller, Orchestra Baobab, Robyn Stapleton, and Anna Meredith.

The festival will also host the important Showcase Scotland when musical directors and music promoters from around the world will attend performances by Scottish musicians. The concerts along with a trade fair provide invaluable opportunities for Scottish musicians to gain new worldwide opportunities thanks to this leading industry delegate event.  Plus Celtic Connections Education Programme when more than 11, 000 children across Scotland will take part in five concerts and workshops led by leading Celtic musicians. 

The Education Programme has reached more than 200,000 children across the country since it began in 1999.  Its work is supported by membership fees from the festival’s Celtic Rovers scheme – which gives discounts and exclusive experiences during Celtic Connections 2017.  The always popular programme of public workshops will give people of all ages and opportunities the chance during the festival to learn new musical skills and have fun too.

This year the festival includes The National Whisky Festival which will offer a wide range of whisky tastings and music hosted at the SWG3 venue, on Saturday 28 January 2017.

And to banish the winter chills the sunshine of Brazilian sounds the festival is pleased to celebrate Brazil as the partner country for 2017, with performances by some of the country’s leading artists including Hamilton De Holanda, Yamandu Costa and Renata Rosa – and Roberta Sá.

Donald Shaw, Artistic Director of Celtic Connections, said: “A breath-taking range of styles and traditions radiates throughout Celtic Connections 2017. Artists who have shaped the present day and artists who are re-defining music for the future will take to the stage. Artists whose lives and cultures could not be more different will come together to share their stories, passion and skill. “At the heart of it all is the simple life-affirming experience of being at a live music performance during a world leading festival. We can’t wait for Celtic Connections 2017 to begin.”

One hundred musicians from across the world will  take part in 300 events at venues in Glasgow, for one of the leading annual folk, world and roots festivals.  18 days of concerts, ceilidhs, talks, art exhibitions, workshops, free events, late night sessions and a host of special one-off musical collaborations will brighten up the winter evenings.   

TICKETS ON SALE NOW - http://www.celticconnections.com/

Supported by Glasgow City Council and Creative Scotland, and  promoted by Glasgow Life. 

Brexit: Has the Nation State changed?

Now is a time to look at the bigger pictures after this surprise Leave EU vote by middle England’s older voters. In todays world of instant Internet connections and easy travel - perhaps the Nation State and what it means has changed irreversibly? 

Its important to know and understand both our nationhood and our interconnections with other places.  Perhaps it is necessary to be grounded in order to be outward-looking?

Englanders want England back it seems. Scottish people want Scotland back too. What this all means for Ireland or for their ancient old rivalries is hard to call – will the northern Irish people really want old borders back again?

However what will this mean for scientists and others who rely on co-operation and funding in Europe?

The rest of England has spoken up against the Elites of both London and Europe. Just as Scotland too has been speaking against these elites. The banking crash of 2009 is causing major upheavals.

**The EU is not a Super state – neither a state nor an empire but a union of states and peoples whose policies were arrived at through consensus seeking and compromise.” 

Scotland has voted to REMAIN in Europe and Nicola Sturgeon has said another independence referendum is now on the table. 

**CELTIC Interconnections Against Imperialism of northern Europeans are discussed by historians Alan Raich and Alexander Moffatt, All the ways of marking beliefs and expressing power, and understanding of our heritage and place in the world.

“British nationalism and legacy of imperialism, comes to the 21^st century through contemporary mass media every day and evening”

Perhaps this VOTE has been about the Control and Lies of Murdoch's press?

http://www.thenational.scot/comment/there-were-many-celtic-connections-in-the-fight-against-reactionary-imperialism.19148