*Celtic Connections 2022 both in-person and ONLINE!

For the second consecutive year Celtic Connections has had to cancel concerts due to the Coivd pandemic, while some of the festival has been able to go ahead. At the last minute I’ve had messages to tell me that 2 concerts have been re-scheduled for June, I’ve also had tickets refunded, for the opening concert and Vent du Nord, and Rura and Transatlantic Sessions (Feb. 5^th and 6^th) concerts are going ahead!

Every January its always such a boost to look forward to CC, and gets me through those chill winter nights with concerts full of warmth and joy, poignant ballads, energetic accomplished musicianship and unique collaborations!

 

Its good some concerts have been rescheduled for June though. 

CELTIC CONNECTIONS festival Pass - 

 - https://www.glasgowlifetv.com/products/celtic-connections-2022-festival-pass

 

Celtic Connections is Europe’s biggest winter festival and as well as celebrating Scotland’s rich music traditions, also welcomes international musicians and the strong Celtic links between Breton, Nova Scotia, Ireland, Tennessee, Scandinavia. 

In todays mono-culture of globalization its more important than ever to celebrate our diversities and uniqueness while also enjoying our interconnections. 

Music is our most powerful universal language. 

 

 

MUSIC 2020

 

Christine and the Queens – what style, musicality and joy. Young French singer, who combines melody and funky dance beats. 

 

Bob Dylan’s new album – Rough and Rowdy Ways. His first album of original composition since 

 

Blue Rose Code – New Album - Healing of the Deepest Kind

 

Bandcamp Fridays – when you can contribute all your money to the artists you support.

 

Top 100 albums Rolling Stones

 Includes 

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

Marvin Gaye – what’s going on Joni Mitchell - Blue

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

**Celtic Connections 2021 announces its first live digital festival from 15th January to 1^st February 2021

Offers a unique content online fro the very first time, hoping to reach an even wider audience. With special collaboration and workshops. Folk music is about the community and is inter-generational. The old plus the new.

Celtic connections is Europe’s largest winter music festival – welcoming over 2K artists over 300 events. 2021 will be the festivals 28^th year.- with some of the biggest names in Scottish music scene and beyond. The full program will be announced in early December – with some fo the well-known and bets-loved acts that have graced the festival stages.

 

Roots music is always at the heart of the festival that unites with cultures and music world wide. The festival will focus on creating new digital content commissioned projects filmed over some fo Glasgow’s iconic venues. To support and encourage creative industries and to protect Scotland’s rich musical legacy. 

A number of international artists will be filmed remotely and added to the line up. Shows will be available for a week .

Funded by Glasgow life, creative Scotland and the Scottish government. https://www.celticconnections.com

 

 

We continue to enjoy the entirety and story of the album.

The album, as musician Pat Kane writes – “can contain express and captures a whole imaginary world or a rich slice of their era – and sometimes they can do both at the same time. “

 

*Music Sites Today

NEW Music Sites (digital music services) 

Hype Machine – 1m Users.  Plays on iPhone. Andorid, Windows.  

Soundcloud – 8m Users. The Flickr of Audio. Sound design.

Soundhound -  Mobile phone platform plus share features.

Mobile Roadie - Apps for Artists

Mixcloud - Radio

.MXP4 - linked to Facebook. FB has 800 Users

Spotify (2m Users) and Pandora (60m Users) - Music streaming sites. Many of the new music sites work on a sharing basis.  

The Ease of Free Access

Authors are worried where the future of book sales is heading in this age of free access. I heard an author on the radio the other day saying back in the past writers (and artists and musicians also) were given time and allowed to fail in Public but this is not the case now.  Being able to sustain popularity after a breakthrough isn’t so easy. 

In the Book World festivals matter as book experts study the world book market and carefully evaluate the best writers out there. The music business by comparison with the book world is  'over-diversified' with the ease of access and time… it takes much longer to read a book after all! 

What does a new band need to do?  Oddly with all this internet activity and more music available than ever before, it is harder than ever to get heard!  When MTV started we had ONE excellent music channel, now we have many channels that are diluted. The hard part today is finding the ‘quality’ amongst it all. That is why independent Radio, Websites, DJs, Podcasts, Blogs etc. matter a great deal.

The ‘market-driven’ approach of today's music business takes a broad ‘democratic’ look at ‘polls’ which asks the media which artists they are already supporting and inevitably some of the more innovative music gets sidelined. Marketing polls matter for the likes of Live Nation, labels and the main music festivals.

However to quote Tony Wadsworth former head of EMI Records UK.

‘I’d prefer to listen to the opinion of one trusted blog, magazine or DJ that I’m confident has a history of turning me on to good new artists, rather than the democratic view of the entire business.’ . In music some festivals matter – while some music festivals are mostly Label controlled.