Twenty one. It’s a good age for whisky, a milestone age for people and as it turns out in 2014 was a great age for the Celtic Connections festival. Glasgow’s winter homage to all things Celtic came of age this year and did it in style. From its fragile birth in 1993, the festival has grown, with each successive birthday party being more mature than the one before until it can confidently put on 300 events (concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops) in nearly 20 venues over 18 days in January and sell in excess of 110,000 tickets to bring in £1.15m in ticket sales.
Without a shadow of doubt one of the major beneficiaries of, and contributor to, the colourful Celtic Connections piping landscape is Ross Ainslie. He was paired with Irish American group The Olllam for his gig at the Oran Mor. His hour-long set mainly featured tunes from his new album Wide Open, with many of the musicians on the album — eg Innes Watson, Ali Hutton, Hamish Napier and Duncan Lyle also on the stage — this was essentially a live version of the CD. In the end it proved a little funkier with the bass and drum striking a stronger beat than on the CD. This was no bad thing and in the slightly grungy nightclub and sold-out environs of the Oran Mor it was going down well. Ross’s playing sparkled, whether it was on whistle or pipes. The tunes were predominately his own and they are very well put together. If in places the arrangements sound a touch like the Treacherous Orchestra that’s hardly surprising given the prominence of Ross and his collaborators in that collective, and it’s no bad thing. The whole show was terrific from start to finish with the rocking Jig of Beer set, the funky Morning After set and the blistering Problem set being the pick of a very good bunch.
Ross and co may have been moving to a funky beat but they were like Wet Wet Wet when compared to the Sly and the Family Stone groves of Irish American group The Olllam. Formed round the piping duo of John McSherry and Tyler Duncan and percussionist Michael Shimmin the group look to bring rock, jazz and traditional Irish music together in a deep rich palette of sounds that continually delights and surprises.
While The Olllam are just starting out on their musical odyssey as a group, the Peatbog Faeries have wandered many a mile on theirs. They formed in 1991, and have, it seems, reached their own particular nirvana. The band are without doubt one of the best live acts on the scene and their shows are a terrific musical and visual spectacle.
The Piping Concert has been a feature of Celtic Connections from the very beginning and its slot on a Saturday afternoon has become a must-make date in many piping fans’ calendars. Of late, the concert has heavily featured pipe bands but traditionally it was much more of a smorgasbord of piping and this year’s concert returned to that root. It started with a brief set from Angus MacColl as he breezed through a set of 4/4s, opening with a wonderfully relaxed version of the Garden of Skye, an MSR, culminating in one of Angus’s trademark reels The Sound of Sleat, and a Gaelic air and jig set to finish. Most of the audience would have been happy had Angus played for the rest of the show, such is his easy relaxed and very melodic style. As it was, compere Gary West introduced Calum MacCrimmon and ensemble for a short selection of pieces from Calum’s Borreraig suite, a piece commissioned by the Blas festival to explore Calum’s MacCrimmon heritage. The line-up for the pieces included double bass, clarsach, fiddle, whistles and Darren MacLean on vocals. The three sets proved a delight and those going to the full performance the following week had their anticipation heightened. See later for the review of the entire suite.
The last vocables of canntaireachd had barely died away when Xosé Manuel Budiño’s was on stage to reprise some of his show for those who hadn’t made that gig. His infectious energetic Galician dance tunes again impressed. All the above and the first half wasn’t yet finished, but it was to finish in style with Ross Ainslie, Jarlath Henderson and Ali Hutton. Ross on Border pipe and Jarlath on uilleann (and of course both on whistle) is a combination so tight that even Sherlock couldn’t crack it. Their music sparkles, whether on their arrangement of Dolina MacKay or on Gordon Duncan’s Full Moon Down Under or indeed Jarlath’s own Get Your Hair Cut. A storming rendition of Thunderstruck with both pipers in absolute unison had the audience spellbound and when joined by Xosé Manuel Budiño for a relaxed set of reels, the first half was brought to a rousing end. If you haven’t caught Jarlath, Ross and Ali live then track them down to a place near or indeed not so near and revel in their music. You won’t be disappointed.
The second half was dedicated to a set from The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. At 31 pipers, eight snares, six tenors and a bass drummer plus accompanying musicians, this is a stage full of people even for the main concert hall. It is also a big impressive sound that is the match for all but the very elite pipe bands. This is not surprising given the band are full to the gunwales of Grade 1 players and in many ways, with their individual band kilts on, they are the Barbarians of the pipe band scene. Highlights abounded with a Break Yer Bass Drone and John Keith Laing set featuring a jazzy bass line, a delightful rendition of Bannockburn going from whistle to solo pipe, band and back to solo pipe, and a set of slower paced reels, Sound of Sleat, and The Little Cascade, all impressing. The finale featured Allan MacDonald’s cracking Ló Deló Deló before a rousing set of jigs and summarised the band nicely, great playing, brave arrangements and buckets of energy in the performance. The only downside to their performance was the backing band could have turned their sound down a touch.
It was back to the main hall the next day for the Cauld Wind Blaws Big. This was as, it says on the tin, a performance of Finlay MacDonald and Chris Stout’s latest album, The Cauld Wind, with a bigger ensemble cast. The second half started with Chris and Finlay going straight into their version of the Stuart Samson piobaireachd The Land of Bens and Glens and Heroes. This was a beautifully evocative start with Chris’s deep resonant fiddle tone adding richness to the sound that perfectly compliments the melodic line of the tune. As Finlay moved from whistle to pipe, the strident lines of the melody cut through the fiddle tone to dramatic effect holding the audience in silent reverence before they erupted into applause at the end. This was simply a stunning start. The tempo lifted with a version of PM John Mackay’s Dark Lo’ers the Night before Finlay, Chris and the ensemble of well-kent faces launched into one of Finlay’s own tunes Heather Croft and finished with the Jim Sutherland’s Border Crossing. In a departure from the Cauld Wind album theme, Siobhan Miller sang a brace of songs, False False which she got from Sheila Stewart and the marvellous Ewan McPherson arrangement of the Edwin Muir poem Scotland’s Winter.
The Borreraig opening set was an easy, melodic piece. Calum collaborated on the suite with Darren MacLean who put Gaelic words to some of the music, something best seen on the ode to the MacCrimmons where Darren’s voice resonated out over the double bass acting as a drone, with the rest of the ensemble coming in to help out vocally in the chorus. As the suite continued Angus Nicolson did most of the piping as Calum concentrated on whistle. This changed when he picked his pipes up to play a piobaireachd written by his father Ian.
The last Saturday of the festival had another festival take centre stage. The Ceolas festival in South Uist is now in its 18th year. The festival has always had strong links with Nova Scotia and the sold-out concert at the Old Fruitmarket featured tutors and past students from both sides of the Atlantic. There was blistering piping from young Uist piper Seonaidh McIntyre, Fin Moore, Angus MacKenzie and Angus Nicolson, fabulous singing from Catherine Ann MacPhee, Kathleen McInnes, Gillibride MacMillan and Sineag MacIntyre, terrific Cape Breton music from Howie MacDonald, Dwayne Cote and Kimberley Fraser and a strong powerful Breton song from Breton singer Brigitte Kloareg. It was pretty much as you’d expect, a full on ceilidh, just missing the dancing (although there was step dancing), full of good music and song and a very good way to spend a Saturday night.
This is but a taste of the Celtic Connections festival but hopefully it does show that, while the headliners may get all the publicity the festival is still very much about all that is good in Celtic traditional music and that most definitely includes the music of the pipes. Here’s to another 21 years of music brightening the dark January Glasgow nights.
•Words by Chris MacKenzie for Piping Today magazine issue 68.
Click here for a list of piping and piping-related concerts at Celtic Connections 2025