Genticorum: in Glasgow for Celtic Connections performance Pic: Catherine Aboumrad
Celtic Connections Schools Concerts
- Wildings
- Wednesday 1 February, 11:00am
- Free for Schools & Home Educators
- Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium
Wildings are a band based in Glasgow, hailing from the far-flung corners of Orkney, Skye and Northumberland.
Jennifer Austin, Fiona MacAskill and Sarah Hayes bring together a diverse range of styles in their performances as a trio. Their creative approach to songs old and new combines rhythmic drive with melodic invention in a fusion of musical and geographical influences.
Since their formation in 2010, Wildings have performed widely as part of the Live Music Now scheme and are gaining recognition throughout the traditional music world.
Suggested stages: Nursery - P3
Danny Kyle's Open Stage
- Wednesday 1 February, 5:00pm
- Free
- Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Exhibition Hall
Hosted by Danny Kyle's good friend Liz Clark, the Open Stage is a chance to see new musical talent as they try to win a coveted support slot at next year's festival - and all absolutely free!
World Turned Upside Down
- Wednesday 1 February, 7:30pm
- £23, £20, £18
- Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium
Borrowing its title from both an English Civil War broadside ballad and Leon Rosselson's contemporary version, The World Turned Upside Down takes the pulse of protest song today. Solidarity and resistance in the face of adversity and oppression have always been intrinsic to folk music, as highlighted by musicians' vital role in the Arab Spring uprisings, and the popular hunger for such expression has rarely been more acute than in our current tumultuous times. Among those standing up to be counted tonight are the pioneering Palestinian singer Kamilya Jubran, whose 20-year involvement with the group Sabreen helped forge new forms of Arabic song, and whose solo work has seen her combining traditional instrumentation with electronic arrangements. Joining her will be Native American singers, songwriters and activists Pura Fé and John Trudell, together with two of Scotland's most articulate and incisive contemporary voices, Justin Currie and Karine Polwart, plus the quietly biting songcraft of England's Chris Wood.
Paul Kelly and Tensheds
- Wednesday 1 February, 7:30pm
- £14
- Oran Mor
Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly's gift for encapsulating his homeland has been likened to Bruce Springsteen's or Ray Davies's in their respective domains. He's been playing his trade for nearly 40 years now, steadily gaining profound respect worldwide as well as Down Under, with recent shows drawing on his massive box set The A-Z Recordings, the audio parent of his "mongrel memoir" How to Make Gravy, published in 2010.
A classically trained pianist with "a voice that sounds like it's lived twice as long as his body" (NetRhythms), 2011 Danny Kyle Award winner Tensheds imbues heart-tugging balladry with an array of Stateside shadings.
Damien Dempsey and Kitty the Lion and Eoin Glackin
- Wednesday 1 February, 7:30pm
- £15
- O2 ABC Glasgow 1
Hailed as "one of the most important and evocative Irish singers of all time" (Irish Examiner) Damien Dempsey has long been a veritable superstar on his native turf, where his stature has been likened to Bob Marley's in Jamaica. An ex-boxer and street-gang survivor from Dublin's harshly impoverished Northside, he brings his searingly pugnacious, polemical yet compassionate perspective eloquently to bear on topics both local and global, expressed in a formidably mighty voice. After 2008's traditional-based The Rocky Road, he's currently at work on a new self-penned album.
With its succinct, she-wolf-in-ewe's-clothing connotations, Kitty the Lion's name provides a clear pointer to this young Glasgow quintet's smart, mouthy, adrenalin-fuelled folk-pop, while Dempsey's young fellow Northsider Eoin Glackin cites "Damo" as the founding inspiration behind his deservedly much-touted debut album, Not Lost.
Louis Abbott and Special Guests
- Wednesday 1 February, 7:30pm
- £5
- Brel
Two evenings curated by Admiral Fallow's Louis Abbott, fresh from a string of festival appearances including Glastonbury and South by Southwest in Texas.
Genticorum and The Maggie MacInnes Trio
- Wednesday 1 February, 8:00pm
- £13
- Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Strathclyde Suite
Described by Montreal's Hour magazine as "a sonic marvel of synergistic chemistry", Québécois stars Genticorum - Yann Falquet on guitar and jaw harp, Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand on flute, bass and fiddle, Pascal Gemme on fiddle and foot-percussion, plus all three on vocals, cheek and charm - return with a rich new crop of material, from their travel-themed 2011 album Nagez Rameurs.
Drawing on several generations of Barra singing renown, award-winning Gaelic singer Maggie MacInnes performs material from her previous six albums and currently-in-progress seventh, including a few Scots songs, accompanied by Brian McAlpine (piano/accordion) and Anna Massie (guitar).
The Deadly Duos
Kevin Henderson & Mattias Pérez with Dagger & Colin Gordon
- Wednesday 1 February, 8:00pm
- £11
- The National Piping Centre
Shetland's Kevin Henderson recently stepped aside from his band work with Fiddlers' Bid and Session A9 to make his first solo album, Fin da Laand Ageen, on which his interplay with Swedish guitarist Mattias Pérez formed a vibrant backbone. Like Father/Like Son is the aptly-titled new release from Highland mandolin legend Dagger Gordon and his guitarist progeny Colin.
Woody Sez
- Wednesday 1 February, 8:00pm
- £13
- Tron Theatre
The political strand within Celtic Connections' 2012 programme overlaps wholly organically with our centenary celebration of Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912-1967), the "dust bowl troubadour" who both chronicled and protested the Great Depression, "singing for the plain folks and getting tough with the rich folks." Named for his Daily Worker newspaper column, this dynamic production features four multi-talented actor-musicians - playing guitars, fiddles, banjo, mandolin, dobro, autoharp, dulcimer, jaw harp and spoons - who bring to life both Guthrie's own colourful, arduous story and the rich cast of characters who shared in it. Featuring around 30 classic Guthrie songs, from desolate ballads to defiant rallying-calls, the show pays fittingly heartfelt, uncontrived and freshly topical tribute to a towering folk icon. "Knocks big West End biopics such as Jersey Boys into a heap of dust. . . stirringly captures the rebellious spirit of Guthrie's times, and of our own." (Guardian)
Produced by Mary Cossette Productions in association with UK Arts International
The Singing Land
- Wednesday 1 February, 8:00pm
- £16
- City Halls, Old Fruitmarket
Maybe it's something in the water up there, but fully one-third of the songs collected by seminal US musicologist Francis James Child (1825-96), for his monumental compendium of English and Scottish Popular Ballads, had their origins in North-East Scotland - hence his designation of this remarkably fecund musical seedbed as "the singing land". Tonight's celebration of this rich past and present heritage is also a 20th anniversary party for one of the region's top contemporary folk acts, Old Blind Dogs, who've continued to mine its wealth of both songs and tunes throughout their long, consistently successful evolution, delivering them in the band's signature stripped-down, powerfully rhythmic, vibrantly harmonized style. The evening will feature giant of the north-east's proud bothy ballad tradition Jock Duncan, as well as television star and one of Britain's foremost traditional singers Isla St Clair. The redoubtable Aberdeenshire fiddler Paul Anderson and the enchanting young Huntly-born singer Shona Donaldson complete the bill.
Celtic Connections Late Night Sessions
BBC Radio 3's World on 3 Live hosted by Mary Ann Kennedy
- Wednesday 1 February, 10:00pm
- £6
- Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Exhibition Hall
Mary Ann Kennedy will present four special editions of BBC Radio 3's World on 3, broadcast live from the Exhibition Hall featuring special live performances from top artists appearing at Celtic Connections 2012.
