Goin' to Glasgow: Celtic Connections 2007

Back in my first post here, I talked about Celtic Connections, a major music festival held each winter in Glasgow, Scotland.

They've just opened the site for January 2007 -- more than 240 events, they say, 12 venues, one festival.

Celtic Connections 2007 website

Normally I am not a big fan of festivals. One gets a lot of music for buck, yes, but I tend to prefer the quieter, more intimate settings to hear music, and I also have this thing of really wanting to concentrate on one artist, or event, or concert -- which makes festival going a bit problematic for me sometimes.

Okay, that's me, and all that said -- Celtic Connections is great. Loads of small and large venues, very weill organized yet still with a feeling of informality that suits the music, and speaking as a writer and photographer, some of the best press officers around.

One great memory from last year: Alison Brown and Joe Craven leading their fellow musicians from the ABQ and Crooked Stiill in a dance through the audience at the Old Fruitmarket. And not to forget the learning bodhran players on Saturday morning -- you've not lived until you've heard three dozen people all working to meet the same rhythm of the drum, some of them not even having ever held the instrument before.

More thoughts about last year and this year to come, meanwhile songwriter
Gretchen Peters will be there.


a taste of Scottish music today Contemporary Caledonia


and of course, no doubt January is winter in scotland

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