Joshua Burnside Celtic Connections 2024

 Young Irish folk singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside gave a strong performance, at Transatlantic Sessions 2024, at Celtic Connections, Glasgow concert hall - with his thoughtful songs Louis Mercer and 26^th Street. He is influenced from contemporary electronica and traditional Irish songs, evoking lush landscapes, bad dreams and wistful vistas. His debut album Ephrata was awarded the Northern Ireland Music Prize for Best Album.

CELTIC CONNECTIONS 2018!!

I am looking forward now to the 25^th Celtic Connections 2018 Glasgow!

Each January Celtic Connections brightens up the lull and short days after Christmas  -

with a festival brim full of musical cheer, talent and boasting top quality musicianship, perfect singers, unique collaborations and artists worldwide –who will all descend on Glasgow s many fine venues –

from the Hub at Glasgow Concert hall, Ceilidh nights at the Old Fruitmarket, to intimate smaller venues such as the Old Mackintosh church, St Andrews in the Square, Oran Mor Westend, fun evenings O2 ABC. 

Rab Noakes & Kathleen McInnes

Altan

GRIT orchestra

Enjoy day sessions or late night sessions or open mic, of stomping fiddle tunes, Gaelic songs, soul-filled blues, energetic banjo,

This years festival celebrations include the impressive line up of  the late composer and piper Martyn Bennet’s Bothy Culture at the Hydro, led by Greg Lawson. Also tribute nights to Scottish legends Michael Marra, concert, Arrest This moment and also for Dick Gaughan. There will be New Voices and well loved folk Traditions; perfect harmonies, gifted guitar playing, atmospheric pipes, moving flutes, tight basslines. One of the highlights of Glasgow's calendar.  

Photography by Pauline Keightley. Last year I was delighted to exhibit my 10 years of Celtic Connections photo at the Old Fruitmarket venue! 

Blazin Fidles

Cara Dillon

The 18 days of the festival will brighten up the winter nights of January with one-off musical collaborations, talks, workshops, film screenings, ceilidhs, art exhibitions, free events and late night sessions. Celtic Connections festival now has over 300 events across 26 stages and an attendance figure of over 100,000.

Highlights of the 25^th Festival

Following its stand out opening concert at the Celtic Connections 2015, the GRIT Orchestra of folk, jazz and classical musicians, will world premier Martyn Bennett’s Bothy Culture at the Hydro, arranged by Greg Lawson. They will be joined by stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill (55m views YouTube). The GRIT Orchestra is a unique ensemble of Scotland’s diverse contemporary music scene, a scene that Bennett himself helped pave the way for.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS - Shetland’s Fiddler’s Bid, Finnish seven-piece Frigg, award-winning Kate Rusby, punk folk band the Levellers, Sharon Shannon, Skerryvore, The Mavericks, Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer, Julie Fowlis, Dougie MacLean.  

PLUS Highlanders Blazin’ Fiddles, have their 20^th anniversary show, with Jenna Reid, Rua MacMillan, Kristan Harvey, Anna Massie and Angus Lyon – PLUS Duncan Chisholm, Aidan O’Rourke, Catriona Macdonald, Iain MacFarlane, Allan Henderson, Marc Clement and Andy Thorburn. 

Celtic Connections is one of the worlds major folk, world, and roots music winter festivals.  This year the festival twins with Ireland.  My highlights for this year are the Opening concert, Shawn Colvin, Session A9, Bothy Culture and Beyond, Beth Orton, Transatlantic Sessions and many more! 

TICKETS now on sale - https://www.celticconnections.com/

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 /

LIV ON with Olivia Newton-John Celtic Connections 2017

A hopeful and life-embracing evening of song, togetherness and support to lift the spirits and also to heal. 
Australian, American and Canadian, singer songwriters Olivia Newton-John, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Amy Sky shared their grief journey songs on their collaborative LIV On: ‘A New Album to aid & Comfort Those Experiencing Grief & Loss while using the power of music to heal’.
The set moved seamlessly even though this was only their second gig together and was led by Nielsen Chapman as musical director. She sang her well loved songs – ‘Sand and Water’, ‘You Don’t Know what to Say’, ‘This Kiss’ and ‘Christmas Song’.

Canadian Amy Sky played piano on several songs including her moving song ‘Forever Blue. She also performed a dramatic ‘Phenomenal Women’, which had words by the poet Maya Angelou.
Meanwhile Olivia sang some of her best loved songs – ‘Love will See Us Through’, ‘Grace and Gratitude’, ‘I Will Always Love You’. She also performed the signature song ‘LIV ON.’  We all remembered Newton-John from the famous Grease movie. She looked well and had great rapport with the concert hall audience. She also performed her songs perfectly, expressing exactly the right mood and feel for the concert and songs.

Olivia Newton-John

They sang of their love and strength, of redemption songs. They sang with gentle, poignant harmonies and piano of how love will see us through. They also opened up to the audience for their own stories of grief.

This concert was about the journey of grief we must all travel to release the pain, but more than this, it was about the destination of acceptance. For their finale they clapped and smiled and sang the hit song ‘Happy’. Phil Cunningham joined them on stage and they also sang a restoring ‘Do not stand at my Grave.’

While of course Olivia was very much the star!

They were very well supported by the talented fiddler John McCusker and his band with wondrous reels and slower tunes, when they were joined on stage by the singers Heidi Talbot and Adam Holmes.

Review and Photos Pauline Keightley  - http://pkimage.co.uk

John McCusker band