With a near-as-doesn't matter full house for its opening concert, Celtic Connections 2008 has opened with the feel-good factor. Knowledge of such a large turn-out in advance may have worked against the idea of a spontaneous, big glorious session, as not too much seemed to be left to chance, and if the music often settled on to an enjoyable, folk-with-a-beat plateau, the peaks were notable.
Instances such as Karan Casey putting her heart and soul, and her very own style of decoration, into an unaccompanied ballad and the Aidan O'Rourke-Lauren MacColl-led set of fiddle tunes, where a real flavour of tradition shone through, gave the whole evening a lift.
There were contrasts, too, such as Luka Bloom rabble-rousing an ensemble that outnumbered a rugby team in a kind of Pogues-with-polish routine shortly before Karine Polwart introduced stark murder balladry with a fine Dowie Dens of Yarrow.
Possibly the closest we got to the kind of cross-genre get-togethers that happen by accident was the Irish quintet that opened the second half with a bluegrass guest in mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile. Thile is making his Celtic Connections debut and is bound to make a big impression. A short cameo by his Punch Brothers, who appear on Friday, was another highlight, as was the bodhran magic of John Joe Kelly.
Waterboys frontman Mike Scott's gusto and humorous wedding tale, complete with fight and jealous sibling taking nun's orders, and some bluegrass grit from Kane, Welch and Kaplin, who did apparently just drop in, were also among the moments to savour.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article