Sunday, February 04, 2007

Celtic Connections

Last night I went to a double bill concert as part of the Celtic Connections Music Festival that's been in town for a couple of weeks. The venue was The Old Fruitmarket, which really was a fruitmarket in it's day.

The first band up was The David Munnelly band from the west coast of Ireland. They were amazing. The thing about Celtic music is that the musicians rarely stay put, so I apologize for the blurriness of the photos (I also wasn't allowed to use a flash)


Next up was The Unusual Suspects. Take a Scottish Ceilidh band, double it, add 3 pipers, and throw in a killer brass section and that's pretty much the band. I think there were roughly 20 musicians on stage. The music was a fusion of some traditional jigs and such with some jazz & funk thrown in for good measure.


Both bands were fantastic and the venue was perfect. I'm just sad that this was the only concert I was able to catch of the festival. I was supposed to go to a Finlay MacDonald concert a week a go Wednesday but that's when I got sick. Well the good thing about festivals is they come back every year.

2 comments:

Meic said...

I would love to go to such an event. When I went to Breizh in the summer, I was greatly impressed at the atmosphere and the availability of drink. Are you aware of any other such events? I live in tbe South of Cymru. Does Celtic Connections move around?

Diolch am dy amser (Thank you for your time), a chadwa'r blog yn fynd (and keep the blog going), wi'n hoff o'i ddarllen (I'm fond of reading it).

Meic

Chris said...

Hi Meic, thanks for stopping by. I believe the Celtic Connections festival is just in Glasgow. It started in January and ended Feb 4th but it is an annual festival.

Do what I do, if there are bands/artists I like I try to find their website and then get on the email list. Usually then when the tour dates get released you get an update so you're aware of it. Sometimes you find out about the dates before it's been released to the media so it's easier to get tickets.

Good luck.