There is a commanding and soulful vitality on display throughout Carry Me Home that stands as a wonderful final thread to Mavis Staples and Levon Helm’s shared musical connection.
If you love music and sometimes muse over why it occupies such an important place in your life, you will revel in Jude Rogers’ sweeping, often raw, but decidedly life-affirming book ‘The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives’.
Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones’ “A year too late and a month too soon’ is traditional folk music at its most beguiling. An immersive album on which the songs are centre stage, performed by two of Yorkshire’s finest, delivered with absolute conviction and palpable charm.
There was a definite buzz around RURA’s Celtic Connections appearance and their collaborative EP launch gig featuring an extended band and guests: Duncan Chisholm, Julie Fowlis, Hannah Rarity, Ross Ainslie and Michael McGoldrick. It couldn’t have been better.
The Transatlantic Sessions are, in many ways, the centrepiece of Celtic Connections. The performances were exuberant and full of energy, featuring a star-studded house band and guests Leyla McCalla, Siobhan Miller, Sarah Jarosz, and Paul Brady. An unforgettable night.
If you are looking for bright, stirring, exceptional fiddle playing and variety, then Aidan Connolly’s “Portland Bow” will make your day. His warm, melodic playing carries the collection, adding just enough ornamentation to put his personal stamp on a great set of tunes.
With Shared Notes, Martin Hayes has written an engrossing book that illuminates his life-long musical purpose, where his music fits in the multi-faceted world of Irish traditional music, and how he overcame the bumps in the road along that journey.
Featuring Andy Cutting, Ríoghnach Connolly & Ellis Davis, Rosie Hood and more, Locations is the result of the efforts of three Liverpool students who drove across the North of England in a red Corsa filled with audio and film equipment to record six musical combinations in six different locations.
Mick O’Brien, Emer Mayock, Aoife Ní Bhriain return with a second recording of music collected by James Goodman. ‘More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts’ has the intimacy and warmth of a pub session.
Diana Jones’ ‘Song to a Refugee’ engenders empathy with those forced to flee, while at its heart, there is a deep compassion that will stop you in your tracks.
In part 2 of the story of Michael McGoldrick’s “Fused” we look at its influence and talk to Julie Fowlis, Duncan Chisholm, Jarlath Henderson, Damien O’Kane and more.
In celebration of Michael McGoldrick’s ‘Fused’ and its 20th Anniversary, we explore the making and influence of a ‘ground-breaking’ album in a special two-part feature including exclusive interviews and more.
Recorded live at Celtic Connections in 2008, ‘Waterman’s Live EP’ offers a glimpse of the magic that takes place when Michael McGoldrick and his band get together. Simply breathtaking.
With a bonus opening by Smith and McClennan, Dirk Powell’s album launch at Celtic Connections had a warm informal back-porch feel, as if Dirk and his transatlantic band were playing as much for their own fun as for ours.
20 years on, Michael McGoldrick and his band return to Celtic Connections to perform Fused, locked into the groove, they stayed there like they’d never been away from the Old Fruit Market in Glasgow. Plus Michael talks us through the album, track-by-track.
Iris DeMent and Pieta Brown made for a very welcome addition to the Celtic Connections programme. There was clearly plenty of Iris DeMent fans present among the enthusiastic audience who were treated to an exceptional evening featuring some special guests musicians.
That Julie Fowlis, Éamon Doorley, Zoë Conway and John Mc Intyre are on a bill alongside Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn says a lot about the riches that this winter Festival has to offer. A wondrous evening in the charming surroundings of Glasgow City Halls.
The Manchester Folk Festival which incorporated this year’s BBC Folk Awards was an undoubted success and Manchester more than warrants a folk music showcase of this kind that continues to grow and develop.
