Glasgow’s annual festival of traditional and world music, Celtic Connections, gets underway with a bang.

Seydou Keinou on percussion with Eryn Rae and the SAZ Trio mix up the continents.

smörgåsbord of artists

The opening night of Glasgow’s annual festival of roots music traditionally starts with a smörgåsbord of artists from the fortnight to come, providing instant buyers remorse when you realise you have booked tickets to see something else on the night they are playing in their own right. This 33rd year, with the Commonwealth Games beckoning in the summer, the theme is even more global than usual with Africa, Asia and the Americas represented alongside the Celtic heartlands.

The first world musician to take the stage is Moroccan Mohammed Errebbaa, whose gimbri is accompanied by Justin Adams, late of Jah Wobble and Robert Plant’s Sensational Shape Shifters, on electric guitar. They are followed by Palestinian folk singer Amal Kaawash – and sometimes not understanding the language is no barrier to understanding the song.

Canadian Rose Cousins brings her compatriots k d lang and Suzie Ungerleider to mind, although she suffered a little from a strained voice – hopefully she will be recovered by her headline concert on Saturday. She was joined for a second song by Irishman Niall McCabe.

unstoppable beat

Highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Malian songstress Rokia Koné and her backing band of Salif Koné on guitar and the irrepressible Seydou Kienou on percussion. Her improvised songs over the unstoppable beat of her band were a delight.

Opening the second half, Gambian kora player Sona Jobarteh provided a more delicate counterpoint accompanied by her son on balafon, before the sounds shifted to the subcontinent with the SAZ trio, led by Asin Kahn on sindi sarangi.

Scotland was represented throughout by the excellent RURA, joined by a quartet of Highland pipers to supplement their usual complement of one, as well as gaelic singing from Kathleen MacInnes and the combined talents of the youth of the Traditional Music and Song Association. Plus of course the house band led by festival organiser Donald Shaw and Michael McGoldrick.

chaotic but entirely compelling

The evening climaxed with a set of tunes and songs where many of the artist took the stage together for a slightly chaotic but entirely compelling crescendo with Wayfaring Stranger (even if the lyrics got a bit stuck repeating the first verse!) and an instrumental finale.

If the rest of the festival is half as good as this, visitors to Glasgow are in for a treat. It runs until February 1st, and many tickets are still available.

All live photography by Stuart Anderton

Celtic Connections: Website

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