Celtic Connections is happening in Glasgow until the 31st January 2010. This is the biggest winter music festival in Europe featuring over 1500 artistes from over 30 countries across the globe with performers as well known as Bobby McFerrin, the Chieftains to less well known but equally special. The performances also happen in a wide range of settings from the Concert Hall, the ABC, the Fruitmarket to bars and clubs. There is also workshops, discussions and exhibitons happening catering for a wide range of ages and abilities. If you ever just fancied playing an instruments then one of the workshops could be perfect. Just take a wander into the Concert Hall if your in Glasgow and see what is happening, there are several stalls and you never know who you may bump into. For further information about whats happening during the festival go to www.celticconnections.com

Danny Kyle’s Open Stage
Held in the memory of well known Scottish folk singer Danny Kyle who passed away in 1998 this show gives the chance for less well known singers to win one of six places in the final showcase concert along with the chance of a supporting slot during next years festival. Competition is stiff with performers travelling from all over the world to take part; with one so keen he flew in from America for the day to compete. Four judges will mark the competitors on their musical performance, their stage presence and the reaction of the audience, I’m just glad it is not me who has to make the decision.
This show is a wonderful showcase of new talent and a great opportunity for a snapshot of the various styles of music on offer during the festival. Even better it’s free but you need to be early as there is limited space so you need to be there especially if you want a seat, they start queuing at 4pm for a 5pm start.

The Winners of Danny Kyle’s Open Stage 2010 where
Michael Clarke
www.acousticbutterfly.com
Ben Powall
myspace/benpowallguitar
Seonaid Aitken
www.seonaidaitken.com
Kilairum
myspace/kilairum
Rachel Sermanni
myspace/rachelsermanni
Lurach
myspace/lurach

The Winners where all presented with a certificate a medal and a bottle of whisky or irn-bru if they where underage. They will also all be playing as a support act at next years Celtic Connections. If you wish further information about the bands check out their web pages or go to Celtic Music Radios website as they have some of the evnings recording on their listen againg page. I will get the rest of the nights written up soon.

Danny Kyles Open Stage Monday 25th January

Starting tonight was young female singer songwriter Emma Gillespie who has just released her debut single ‘Stamp Your Feet’. She is very much in the vein of the recent batch of female singersongwriters that have come from Scotland.  Keep an ear out when you see a busker as she quite often likes to try out her new stuff by busking.

Danny Kyle’s Open Stage Wednesday 20th January
Kicking of tonight where friends Ian Main and Andrew Lyon who have been playing together for the last 3-4 years though they have been friends for longer. They sing play guitar, mandolin and fiddle to mixture of tunes including traditional, modern folk and Irish tunes. They also write their own pieces one a slow air which was written by Ian on the Isle of Taransay after watching the sun rise over Harris a lovely piece which if a certain insect had got its way would never have been written.
John Taylor a singer songwriter from Wishaw who is already onto his second Album ‘A Place called Paradise’ which was released on the 23rd. A melancholy sound as he said himself he doesn’t tend to do happy songs.

Then we had 2 girl singersongwriters Robyn and Amy who where joined by Ian murray on percussion. They played a mix of modern and traditional folk adding an extra to ‘The Dark Island’ by having a piper join them for the last verse.
Things moved uptempo with the next group Stushie. These ten young musicians are from the Callander area, the group has twice won the group competition at the National Mod and many have been individual Mod Medal winners. They play a mix traditional and contemporary music showing their versatility tonight by playing Jigs, Reels, Ruby don’t take your love to town and a jaunty little tune about the whaler ‘The Diamond@ adding their own little twist including playing the fiddle like a ukelele.

Iain Murray was busy as he also suported the last act and it was down to him that they where here as Liz was looking for a last minute replacement for a group that had dropped out. So Iain called his friend Michael Clarke who hotfooted it to the concert Hall with his cousin Olivia. Michael and Olivia usually sings with their band Accoustic Butterflys. Their genre is a mix of acoustic, celtic and folk with Michaels distinctive vocals anf their interesting lyrics, one song was about butterflys and another lifted lyrics form ‘All Smiles’ which was a jazz song sung by Annie Ross - Johnny Logans sister.  

Danny Kyle’s Open Stage Monday 18th January

The evening started with with Susan a gospel singer from San Francisico, who has already tasted fame when singing a solo along with her gospel choir in the film ’The Pursuit of Happiness’. Gospel is believed to have celtic roots and has been traced back to the style of singing in some Scottish Churches where they use presenters. 

Vivien Scotson and Patrick Bullen  both accomplished singer songwriters met at last years festival at the House of Song and enjoyed playing togetherso much just carried on .   

Another singer songwriter was Martin Jones from Scotland but who has spent several years in Spain whose influences come across in his songs. He also sang a song  Music Hall Man with bits taken from the old Music Hall Classic Sally’s Sleepy Valley Alley which he wrote in about his uncle Peter Martin.

Danny Kyle’s Open Stage Sunday 17th January
Tyde a young band from Northumberland who play traditional folk music with a twist including their own compositions ‘Exploding Bananas’ and ‘Look of Death’ which apparently was named after the look he was given by the fiddle players and seeing this fast paced piece of music.
Wing and a Prayer see them self as an educationalist outfit they have been on the music scene for a while one of them having previously played in the Kelvin Delta Blues Band. They play various types of folk music with quite a bluesy feel.
Wild Sarchs are a folk group from Campletown - their name is a local colloquialism for an inconvience - they sang Kintyre songs many in the Kintyre dialect in a rang of tempos. With the audiences favourite probably being the one about every Scotsman dream “Campletown Loch I wish you Where Whisky”
This was Eilidh Pattersons first Scotish Gig she is a singer song writer originally from Derry but now based in Belfast. She is a singer song writer who performed traditional songs and her own songs which are influenced by folk, country, bluegrass and gospel, with Eilidh citing Willie Nelson having inspired some of her songs.
The last group of the night Four Square nearly never made it as their car broke down on the way to Glasgow. They play traditional English Folk tunes with a contemporary twist which included playing the fiddle with chopsticks. Or the tune Beatrice which required the audience to clapp and ‘ooh aah’ likea pirate, with the fiddle player showing her other skill as a tap dancer

Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Piping Competition Sunday 17th January

This competition is held in memory of Gordan Duncan who was one of the most skilled and innovative traditional music performers and composers of maodern times who sadly passed away in 2005 aged only 41. His talent and energy brought traditional bagpipes into the mainstream. This has been carried on by Fred Morrison, many of Duncans pupils and can be heard in many of the contemporary piping bands of today.

The competition features some of the worlds finest pipers and is held along the lines of a Pan Celtic competition where the pipers play a Scottish Set featuring a Strathspey, Reel and March followed by a Breton Set which was less structured than the Scottish Set with Breton Melodies and a Breton Dance piece where the juges where looking out for the step markers. In the next session they play an Irish Set. The sets are judged by two judges from each Country with Ian Duncan and Ronnie McShannon representing Scotland, Herve Le Floch and Erwan Ropars representing Breton and Lenny Browne and David Caldwell representing Ireland.  

There are three pipers from each country, Alan Tulloch from Ireland started the competition, the other Irish Pipers where Jonathan Greenlees who has played with Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band for 25 years and has been All Ireland winner twice and Pibroch section winner five times. Lastly and only just for Ireland was Andrew Carlisle from County Antrim who had flown in from Kansas, his flight was delayed but he still managed to get there to play. He had been competing in the North Americ Gold Medal where he took third, he has also been Ulster Champion three times, All Ireland Champion three times and was the winner of the Gordon Duncan Memorial trophy in 2008.
Representing Breton we had Sylvain Hamon who was the first winner of this competition. Xavier Boderiou from Brittany who plays with The Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. Their final representative was Alexis Meunier who was also from Brittany and has won the Breton Champioship for the last two years.
The Scottish contingency comprised of Willie McCallum who is the most prolific piping prizewinner of recent times being 8 times world champion. Inverarays Stuart Liddell who is current holder of the Glenfiddich Champioshio and pipe major of Inveraray and District Pipe Band which won every championship at Grade 2 last year and are know competing in Grade 1. The Breton contingency where very impressed by his playing of the Dance piece in the Breton Set. Glen Brown is based in Scotland but hails from Ontario he has won both the Canadian and American Gold Medals.

Congratulations to Stuart Liddell from Inveraray who came second Willie McCallum came first and Xavier Boderiou was third. 

Danny Kyles Open Stage 16th January 2010
Saturday night is the first night for the first of the 80 acts that have been chosen from the hundreds that applied to try to impress the judges and the audience. The opening act was Fiona Keenan a singer songwriter who plays guitar originally from Aberdeen but now based in Dublin. She sings Protest Songs of a topical nature lines including British jobs for British workers, and fat cat bankers could be heard. She has supported David Rovick, a well known Protest song singer and has even written the tune for one of his songs.
Then we had a much more traditional folk group Elaine Davidson and Danny Hart from Cumbria. Elaines vocals had a haunting quality about them in some of the songs. They redressed the balance of Cumbrias famous fox hunting songs by singing one about a wiley fox.

The True Gents raised the tempo with their guitrs, fiddles, drums, mandolin and squeezebox. This seven piece admited theyhad taken a couple of years  of practice  to get here. This paid of  as they showed their versatility by bringing the tempo down before revving it up again with a handclapping finale.

Pembrokeshire singersonwriter Lowrie Evans added a twist by singing in Welsh as well as English. She is a well travelled young lady going as far as South America and has played support to many well known artistes in these travels.

The evening finished with a very different sound with a band from Edinburgh called Gol they reflect the multicultural nature of Scotland. This six piece are influenced by Jazz, World Music,  Pop and Iranian music. This ecletic mix was shown in one song that was dedicated to the freedom fighters which had Persian lyrics,  a North African Tune  played on Western and Iranian instruments 

Danny Kyle’s Open Stage 15th January 2010

The opening night of Danny Kyle’s Open stage is  a chance to see all of last years winners before they played their supporting gigs, the first band Skalder where actually rushing off to St Andrews in the Square for their gig. They are a traditional quartet with a twist from Orkney and showed their wide repertoire by going from a lively piece to a slow melodic one then a very atmospheric piece they had written themselves about a nightmare.

Then we had singer songwriter Craig Jeffrey from Galashiels in the Borders. Craig has a very soulful voice which lends itself very well to his expressive lyrics and adept guitar playing.

You could well have been forgiven for thinking that the next band  Anarkali originated in India when in fact they are from Govanhill in Glasgow of Irish descent which was evidedent in their music with its foot stomping beat. The name is actually from their favourite Indian restaurant.

The magic Lantern Show where another band with an Irish influence mixed in with Celtic and Folk, they played a mix of soulfull and uptempo tunes, with their last one having everyone clapping along and looking out for the nonsensical line - I’d have a guess at ’hitch a ride on a psychodelic smile’

Singer Lucy Pringle who was accompanied on the mandolin by Charles Wright where more traditional singing in old Scots. They mainly play mellow Scottish tunes but can through in the odd humorous number.  And tonight they included a lovely Norwegian love poem which had been translated into old Scots.

Finishing the evening where Tyskie  who take traditional tunes and add a contemporary twist of their own. They are a trio comprising of harp, bodhran and fiddle which is played by Daniel Thorpe who is competing in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Final 2010. They also write their own pieces including an unusual one in 16:18 time especially for their bodhran player.

All these young artistes played very accomplished sets and I know it will not be the last time we see them at Celtic Connections very likely headlining their own gigs.