Celtic Connections: RURA and the olllam

•RURA at Celtic Connections 2019. Photo: JohnSlavin@designfolk.com/Bagpipe.news

Highlighting concerts at Celtic Connections 2024 featuring bagpipes or piping-related music. 

The Celtic Connection website says about the event: “A unique opportunity to see, in a single show, two award-winning, progressive bands – one Scottish and one Irish – that are at the very forefront of 21st century folk.

“Famed for its powerful, entrancing instrumentals on fiddle, Highland pipes, flute, keyboards, bodhran and guitar, RURA first found success at Celtic Connections in 2010, before winning the Scottish Traditional Music Awards Up and Coming title. Since then the band has played many of the world’s leading folk festivals and appeared on numerous radio and TV shows. In 2020 RURA celebrated its 10th anniversary by recording a live album in front of a capacity crowd at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket, and its 2023 album, Dusk Moon, has received extensive acclaim.

“Taking its name – very aptly – from the old Irish for a master musician, the olllam brings together a formidable line-up of talent including legendary Belfast piper John McSherry and fellow piper/whistler and Grammy-nominated producer Tyler Duncan. Their instrumental virtuosity and innovative compositions and arrangements marry tradition with technology, creating a sound lush with trance-like melodies. Now considered a cult classic, the ollam’s debut album, elllegy, won the 2012 Indie Acoustic Music Award for Best Instrumental Album, and the band was named RTÉ 2022 Folk Artist of the Year.”