Emeli Sande Photos

Emeli Sande Photos - from her gigs here 2007 to 2012 are available to purchase on my website - http://pkimage.co.uk/f514285744

PHOTOS – our eye improves  - just through practice, practice, practice. Sorry there are no shortcuts.

 

Celtic Connections 2014!

I am looking forward to Celtic festival 2014!

Celtic Connections includes well known musicians from traditional and roots music,world, indie, jazz, folk, soul and Americana. I always particularly enjoy the unique and often fun collaborations.  

This year the festival will host concerts at the new Glasgow Hydro venue and will showcase some of the cream of Scottish musical talents. Highlights include 80s Scottish band Del Amitri and respected rock band Mogwai along with RM Hubbert.  

Also an International Burns Night at the Hydro that includes - world musicians The Mahotella Queens, Alkinoos Ioannidis, Raghu Dixit, Neil Finn of Crowded House alongside Scottish talent with Karine Polwart, Salsa Celtica, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Capercaillie, Rachel Sermanni and Dougie MacLean

The Old Fruitmarket during Celtic hosts fun ceilidh nights with bands such as the Treacherous Orchestra and  Irish singer Imelda May.  

There are also wonderful small venue gigs worth checking out that include some of the stalwarts of the Scottish music scene including - Rab Noakes, Dick Gaughan. Plus the beautiful singing voices of Julie Fowlis, Eddi Reader, Mary Chapin Carpenter,  
  

Also a 30^th Anniversary concert for Capercaillie one of Scotland’s foremost Celtic bands. The band were among the first to connect Scotland’s Gaelic traditions to the pop and world music scene, with all the “boldness, sensitivity and deep-dyed musicianship” such cross-fertilisations demand. Their new album, At the Heart Of It All, circles back towards Capercaillie’s founding Gaelic wellspring, centring on Karen Matheson’s sublime vocals, arranged with consummately elegant restraint. 

Among the artists appearing  -  Del Amitri, Imelda May, Capercaillie, Bobby Womack, Mahotella Queens, Salsa Celtica, Amadou & Miriam, Lúnasa, AR Rahman & Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mogwai, Peatbog Faeries, Julie Fowlis, Elephant Revival, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Manu Dibango, Treacherous Orchestra, Shawn Colvin, Nicola Benedetti, Stockton's Wing, The Gloaming, Lau, Suzanne Vega, Seth Lakeman, RANT, Boban Marković Orchestra, Alkinoos Ioannidis, The Olllam, Bill Callahan, De Temps Antan, RM Hubbert, Lloyd Cole & the Leopards, Kathleen MacInnes, Tim Finn, Dick Gaughan and The Stray Birds.

2014 will see Celtic Connections celebrates its 21^st year. Over 2000 musicians from every corner of the globe will come to Glasgow between 16^th January and 2^nd February 2014. 
 All Photographs are copyrighted Pauline Keightley and are taken with the permission of the artists, the festival, and the venues involved. Please respect my copyright. Photos at Celtic Connections since 2008. http://pkimage.co.uk/celticconnections

Next summer Glasgow will host the Commonwealth Games. Celtic Connections has become the biggest celebration of the tunes and songs that connect Scotland’s musical legacy to the rest of the world.

 http://www.celticconnections.com/

Del Amitri Fri 24 Jan 2014, 07.30 PM
The Hydro

MOGWAI
Tue 28 Jan 2014, 07.30 PM
Main Auditorium

The NEW female Piano singer songwriters

Back in the 70s there were so many wonderful piano singer songwriters. There is something quite special about piano melodies as opposed to guitar composed songs.

There was Paul Simon's Bridge over Troubled Water (while he composed mostly on guitar), McCartney's Long and Winding Road, Elton John's Your Song, Carole King's Tomorrow and of course Joni Mitchell's songs.

But today, while there are many top guitar carrying singer songwriters I struggle to find any quality piano singer songwriters ... where are they? 
  
The only high quality younger piano singer songwriters I can think of are all female - Adele, who had to fight to have ONLY piano on her massive hit Someone Like You; Emeli Sande and her lovely Clown and River songs; and Canadian singer songwriter the irrepressible Sarah McLachlan and her very moving piano song Answer (new album next year).  She sings songs of understanding that are haunting and questioning. 

The only guy I can think of is Chris Martin's piano songs with his Coldplay band (Fix You).

Here's the irrepressible piano singer songwriter Sarah McLachlan. I listened to her Afterglow album quite often a few years back and I went to check on her and she has a great YouTube clip with a great band too here -    

Sarah McLachlan, is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2009, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and four Juno Awards.

The Right Arrangements

I watched Lana del Ray’s 'National Anthem' video trailer with its' strong black and whites and it moves at just the right pace. I also watched Lana's gig at Hackney weekend where the crowd was singing along and clearly into the music. This was very good and touching too her joy of the crowd and lovely to see after the poor reviews for her Saturday Night Live performance - when the rock band backing her didn't work with the style of her music and I posted that she needed simply 'strings and piano.' So why do label people always think 'to be cool' the artists needs a rock band when it all depends on the type of music.

Newsroom

I really like the theme music for the American HBO Tv series Newsroom – it evokes all those past B & W news stories when news seemed to be real and hard hitting, individual, and on the ground rather than the smooth over versions we seem to get now.

So I checked to see who the composer was and discovered it was a Thomas Newman who has also composed the music for films such as American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall and others.

I often switch off the news because it is so bland and gets blogged down in minute details rather than really telling us the story. HBO has the freedom to be creative with its writers and it seems these days that the DVD tv series are often of higher quality than most movies screened at the cinema.