Full Moon & Celtic Connections

Hello again,

It's been a while, things have been pretty busy over the past year, and the new year has been insanely busy too on the music scene - I can't wait to tell you all about it.

Kicked off on the 17th January with the launch of my new album, Full Moon, at the Micklegate Social, York. It was such a great night, with a fine turnout of friends and family, making it even more enjoyable.

In the band there was Anthony Griffiths, the renowned Celtic guitarist, an old friend who travelled from Aberystwyth. It was great to catch up with Marj, his wife, too.

I was pleased to have Rebecca Burden on cello, standing in for Rupert Avis, who was away recruiting students in India for York University. A student of music at York University, Rebecca is soon to go on to study performance at the Trinity Laban College of Music, London. She was great to work with - her improvisation is sensitive and she plays with a maturity beyond her years.

Magda Phillips, a fine multi-instrumentalist and longtime friend, played tenor sax. Elaine Wallace, well-loved Celtic musician from York, played an emotive fiddle, and last but not least there was my friend Crispin Wright, who came up from London with his wife Maggie to add some mandolin. Crispin's spontaneity and good humour would help to make any gig sparkle, not to mention his wicked mandolin!

As well as the two sets we played from the album, there were solo spots from Anthony, who played some superb instrumentals, Magda did an interactive spoken word piece, plus a jazzy song with guitar. Crispin and Anthony collaborated on a couple of songs with some fine singing from Crispin. In fact everyone was so busy having a great time that sadly, no photos were taken. But don't just take my word for it, why not have a listen, just follow this link to Spotify. Here's a taster:

All in all it was a wonderful expression of enthusiasm for my new album. I'm bowled over by the packed house and feel very grateful to everyone who came for their support.

Next up was Celtic Connections, a marvellous melange of Celtic music. Never having been to Glasgow before, P and I quickly learnt a few important facts:
1   Don't expect good weather, that's not what Glasgow's about. On commenting to a taxi driver that the weather was appalling, he laughed and quickly retorted it was summer weather for Glasgae!
2   We found Glaswegians to be super friendly. People come up to you in the street to offer help and advise on good places to eat, art galleries, directions etc
3   Edinburgh may be beautiful and great for shopping during the day and the Festival in August, but Glasgow wins hands down for the night life.
4   If, like me, you're a vegan, you may have a problem finding places to eat.. We were pleased to find three vegan restaurants/cafes - Mono, 13th Note and Stereo. However, we only tried one. We chose the 13th Note as it was reputedly a good place for music and having looked at the menus on line, all three seemed to offer similar food. But I sincerely hope I'm not doing the other two an injustice when I say the 13th Note was not a great culinary experience (see my review on Trip Advisor)

Sloan's horseshoe bar

Argyll Arcade

The first night we spent at a session at  Sloan's, a Glasgow institution, established in 1797 with its horseshoe bar and ballroom upstairs. Rumour has it that being quite close to the Argyll Arcade, which is full of precious jewellery, a couple would go there to get their engagement rings, then on to Sloan's to celebrate with friends and family in the ballroom. In the bar below we encountered a tight band of musicians playing stomping jigs and reels - a great intro to the Glasgow music scene.

Next night it was the Tron Theatre, a medium-sized venue and the first of two concerts we had booked. Here we heard The Breath, an exciting duo, combining the intricate guitar skills of Stuart McCallum and the stop-you-in-your-tracks amazing voice of Roighnach Connolly.

Next up was Ewan McLennan, a balladeer, storyteller and songwriter for whom social justice is a burning issue.  I loved Blacking the Engines, a song telling of when the workers in an East Kilbride factory went to incredible lengths to demonstrate their solidarity with those struggling for democracy in Chile. The audience enjoyed a good old sing song on Jock Stewart. It was great to hear that the spirit of Woody Guthrie is still alive and well - a fabulous evening and we returned to our hotel buzzing.

The Trial of Cato

Our final night was spent at the Royal Concert Hall to hear The Trials of Cato, a band that has recently had much critical attention. We missed them when they came to the Black Swan Folk Club, York recently, so we didn't want to miss them in Glasgow.

Three young men, two from Wales and the other from Leeds, honed their trade in Beirut, playing some of Lebanon's largest venues. The Middle Eastern influences were all there, the line-up of bazouki, fiddle/mandolin and guitar, plus a couple of high tech bells and whistles, produced a wall of sound the like of which Phil Spectre would have been proud. They were very tight and impressive, but maybe I could have done with a little less of the booming bass beat.

Finally, it was Fiona Hunter's turn. I knew nothing about her except what I'd heard on YouTube, so we brought along no preconceptions. Having heard her now I can't believe I've never come across her before - she's the real deal.

She has the most gorgeously empathetic alto voice, also plays a mean cello. Her band comprised cello, piano, tenor guitar/fiddle and flute and she sang a fabulous selection of traditional Scots folk songs. There was much joining in and even P, who has always said he cannot sing, was to be heard humming along. I was reunited with several songs I hadn't heard for years, but to my relief the words came flooding back to me. It was a glorious finale to our Celtic Connection trip.

On leaving the concert hall we noticed the presence of many police officers who were channelling folks through a specific exit. We were quickly reminded it was Brexit night when we got outside, where there was a perfectly peaceful Pro-Europe/Scottish Independence demo in the torrential rain. There were lots of Scottish flags and we were soon brought down to earth by the reality that on the dot of eleven Britain would no longer be a member of the European Community. We were both very sad about this, so could very well empathise with the demonstrators. As much as I wouldn't want Scotland to leave the UK, I can very much understand why they might wish to.

Finally, just wanted to end this post with another band who were not booked at Celtic Connections, but were busking in Buchanan Street. There are many street musicians keeping music live in Glasgow and these two musicians are wonderful exponents of it. They cheered up the shoppers no end on a very wet day with their infectious Balkan tunes.

But another interesting thing is that if you look closely at the man on the right, you'll see he's playing quite an unusual instrument. After digging around on Google, it appears to be a Stroh violin aka horn-violin, invented in 1899 by John Matthias Augustus Stroh, an electrical engineer in London. Apparently it produces a much louder sound than a normal violin, is used in recordings and traditionally in Rumanian folk music..

That's all for now, thanks for reading my blog and I hope to hear your comments and see you back here very soon.