The Jellyman's Daughter, The Caves

Angus Munro opened the night to a packed out cave.  Bristling with confidence, he and his keyboard launched into a series of bright pop songs that had a bit too much of a hint of manilow for my tastes, but you couldn't fault his enthusiasm or commitment to ensure we were all having a good time.  A fun opener, but not memorable.

The duo Jellyman were doubled in size with the addition of Jamie Francis on banjo and Herbie Loening on double bass.  We've been watching them for several years now and all that early promise is rapidly being fulfilled.  Graham Coe and Emily Kelly have developed their own eclectic sound and style, mixing largely self penned material with a few surprising and imaginative covers.  While both sing and play, it's Kelly's gutsy vocals and Coe's driving, chopping cello that most strongly identify the Jellyman's signature.  They are also a much more assured stage presence, witty, self deprecating, more confident in their craft.

With two excellent albums behind them, and the new EP for which this was the launch gig (I bought it and it offers further development of the duo's unique identity) there's a good fund of material to draw on, and this was a well balanced set, slow and fast, new and familiar.  There is nobody else quite like them.

The Orcadians of Hudson' Bay, Assynt, The Mitchell, Celtic Connections

Young trio Assynt opened the show.  Fiddle, guitar and mandolin, whistles and full fat Highland bagpipes.  The tunes are mostly self penned, but firmly routed in the tradition and many sound as if they could have been around for hundreds of years.  The slower numbers are sensitively played, but it's the fast stuff that gets the crowd going, with David Shedden's pipes rousing the passions and bringing the greatest response from the audience.  They've got a bit of stage presence too, with the odd amusing anecdote.  Great entertainment.

The Orcadians of Hudson's Bay is a project put together by Gnoss fiddler Graham Rorie (and nice to see his fellow Gnossers in the audience to lend him their support) to highlight, in music, how great a contribution the people of Orkney made to the running and success of the famous Canadian trading company - and the impact that had on the islands themselves.  To this end he has undertaken a lot of research on the subject, written tunes inspired by his reading, and assembled, with the help of the Celtic Connections organisers, a top notch line up of traditional musicians to perform it with him.  Kristan Harvey, Pàdruig Morrison, Rory Matheson, Signy Jakobsdottir and James Lindsay, plus a cameo performance from those magnificent Canadians from le Vent du Nord.

The result is a mix of tales and facts from history, music that takes it's key from both sides of the Atlantic, and a performance that is both lyrical and informative.  Who knew that, in the early 19th century, around 80% of Hudson's Bay employees came from that small island group?  Rorie's tales brought the subject alive, and the music impressed, if somewhat sedately.  That's never a term associated with LVdN, and their contribution enlivened proceedings.

An interesting experiment, and one that deserves future hearings.

Della Mae, Teilhard Frost, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Celtic Connections

Canadian Frost is better known to Scottish audiences as one third of Sheesham & Lotus & Son, but his solo performance contains the same primary elements.  A passionate devotion to recreating the sounds of old-time American music, recounting the history of the tunes he's playing. and a lot of humour - even when playing.  Fiddle, harmonica, percussion, kazoo, a strong tenor voice combine to bring to life ragtimes, blues, jazz and folk in an eclectic package.  Unexpected twists, funny lyrics and Frost's own brand of showmanship kept the audience engrossed, and he received strong acclaim for an excellent set.

Della Mae are a five piece, all-female, Nashville-based band with bluegrass roots but a wide range of influences.  Guitars, fiddle, mandolin, washboard and double bass.  While both bassist and mandolin player take a turn at singing songs, most of the lead vocals fall to the good-time voice of Celia Woodsmith who gets more Joplinesque the rockier the numbers become.  The songs are mostly self penned, and the lyrics interesting, catchy.  While there are a few slower numbers for the most part the tempo is rocking, the beat foot tapping, and the solos from fiddle, mandolin and guitar sparkling.  Decent bass solo too.  They're engaging personalities, there's a lot of smiles and joy in their playing, and that transmits well to the rest of the room.  Great stuff and a lot of fun.

Ross Couper & Tom Oakes, Duo Ruut, Luke Daniels and Rihab Azar, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Celtic Connections

A concert featuring three very different acoustic duos, from very different cultures.  Something for everyone or an incongruous mish-mash?

First up was Irish guitarist Luke Daniels accompanying young Syrian oud virtuoso Rihab Azar. The tunes came from all over the Middle East and North Africa, plus the challenge of a set of Irish jigs , Daniels' home territory.  The rhythms might be different from what we're used to, but the delicacy and speed of the playing draws the listener in and it quickly feels natural to be tapping the feet to a different beat.  Plenty of interesting background information too, with Daniels an accomplished raconteur and Azar often amusing in her charmingly accented English.  A lovely experience to start the evening.

From Estonia came Duo Ruut.  Two women, one instrument.  The instrument in question being a Kannel, an Estonian variant of the zither family.  Normally played by one person, the two friends picked one up and, without anyone to teach them, developed their own style of playing.  This resulted in a unique style, both musically and visually.  They play the kannel in a variety of ways, strumming, plucking, bowing and percussively.  And they sit facing one another, side on to the audience, the box balanced on their knees, the pushmi-pullyu of musical acts.  Add in ethereal singing and sensibilities steep in Baltic folk music, and you have a very unusual sound.  Plaintive, eerie, ghostly, romantic, surprising.  At times a little repetitive, and I'd have liked to have heard them using more vocal harmonies, but frequently surprising and they never lost the listener's interest.  Oh, and they laugh.  A lot.  Impossible to dislike.

And finally the headline act, Ross Couper and Tom Oakes, fiddler and guitarist, bringing their Shetland and Devonian backgrounds, mixing them up with Scots and Irish influences, and then playing the hell out of the resulting tunes.  If you want to sum up the two men in two words then Funny and Fast would do well.  Lots of laughs, and well capable of playing the slow sensitive stuff, but renowned for the fireworks and sweat playing that brings wild grins to everyone in the room.  Outstanding.

So to my answer my earlier question - yes, definitely something for everyone, and a learning as well as a musical event.