On the opening night of Celtic Connections in 2022, Scottish singer Hannah Rarity showed how comfortable she was at playing host on the big stage of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. This year, she was back on that stage as the opening act for the evening. The power and clarity of her singing was immediately on show as she performed the traditional Land o’ the Leal, with just Innis White’s guitar for company. James Lindsay on bass and Rory Matheson on piano completed the backing for the rest of a set that ranged through a couple of Hannah’s own songs – including She Must Be Mad about women doubting themselves, songs by Boo Hewerdine, Tom Waits and Stephen Foster’s Hard Times, as well other traditional songs, including a lovely version of The Moon Shined on My Bed Last Night (sung by the legendary Jeannie Robertson). It was a composed, confident set from Hannah; you sensed that she could sing anything and do it just as well as she does with folk and traditional material.
Carlos Nuñez, the Galician piper, flute and whistle player, and inveterate collaborator, particularly with Irish traditional musicians (he was a de facto member of The Chieftains for a period, and their influence is still very evident in his music), gave a spectacular, over two-hour, performance, covering an extensive range of musical ground.
After an opening set of reels from the core band – harp, fiddle, accordion, guitar and percussion, they played Carlos’s new album Celtic Sea in full, with Tim Edey joining the band on guitar and accordion. Celtic Sea is unusual in that it was commissioned by Brittany Ferries to mark their 50th anniversary. Unsurprisingly, it takes the form of a journey, travelling between all the Gaelic regions and European countries, playing sets of traditional tunes from each along the way. Having explained the provenance of the suite of tunes and that Brittany Ferries began life as a way for Breton farmers to convey their produce across the English Channel, Carlos then provided a short narration of the place and its music at each step of the journey. Beginning with The Sea Invocation/Graves from the Isle Of Man, then a ‘simple Galician melody’, and then The Bishop’s Jig from Cornwall played on accordion by Tim Edey. And so, the journey continued, through the Basque Country, Asturias, leaving from Santander in Cantabria, Brittany, Scotland, Ireland (tunes from the Bunting Collection), Normandy and returning finally to Santiago in Galicia. Marche Mare Brittanicum, the album’s anthem (the medieval name for the Celtic Sea), with the addition of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland, completed an utterly fascinating musical documentary, an atlas of Celtic tunes that rolled over from one to the next, each distinctive to its own location, but the connecting Gaelic musical thread there for all to appreciate.
At this stage, we weren’t even halfway through the show. The following section illustrated classical arrangements of traditional tunes and songs, starting with three Irish and Scottish tunes, including The Massacre of Glencoe march, and next Capercaillie’s Karen Matheson, came on to sing, Sunset, sung as commandingly as ever, together with Donald Shaw on piano, employing a version of the traditional melody written by Beethoven. The National Youth Pipe Band returned to play along with Entrelazado, enhancing the effect by marching through the auditorium and onto the stage. The great Cape Breton fiddle player Natalie MacMaster and her daughter Mary followed on and played two high-energy Galician-themed tunes.
The final round of guests were Irishmen Brendan Begley on accordion and Glen Hansard on guitar and vocal. Glen told us about the Galician connection through a journey they had both undertaken with poet Danny Sheehy and artist Liam Holden in a naomhóg, a canoe-like Irish rowing boat, from Ireland to Santiago (a documentary, directed by Dónal Ó Céilleachair, was made about the voyage). He sang a song that he’d written as a dedication to Danny after his death, following that with The Foggy Dew. The epic proceedings moved towards a close with a series of guest and band solo slots starting with a rip-roaring Rocky Road To Dublin from Glen Hansard, instrumental solos on a few more reels, and Karen Matheson singing a dance tune to Tim Edey’s unique guitar accompaniment. The young pipers returned, so everyone was on stage for the majestic, exciting last tunes, a couple of Carlos Nuñez favourites, An Dro, a Breton dance tune and Aires de Pontevedra, a Galician tune.
You can only describe the performance as a jubilant extravaganza; Carlos Nuñez, an impeccable master of ceremonies, ceaselessly switching between pipes, flute and whistle, seeming to barely stop for breath but always at the centre of the tune. One to remember for a long time.