Celtic Connections 2014

16th January – 2nd February

CELTIC CONNECTIONS COMES OF AGE

2014 will see Celtic Connections really come of age as it celebrates its 21st year. The

eclectic programme for next year’s festival is the biggest and most ambitious yet and

includes some of the best-known musicians in traditional and roots music, world,

indie, jazz, folk, soul and Americana. Over 2000 musicians from every corner of the

globe will come to Glasgow between 16th January and 2nd February 2014.

Next summer Scotland will welcome the world in when the Commonwealth Games

come to Glasgow. Celtic Connections has become the biggest celebration of the

tunes and songs that connect Scotland’s musical legacy to the rest of the world and

never will this be celebrated more than at next year’s festival.

Already utilising venues right across the city Celtic Connections 2014 will also see

the festival expand into Scotland’s leading arena, the brand new SSE Hydro.

Among the artists appearing at Celtic Connections 2014 are Del Amitri, Imelda May,

Capercaillie, Bobby Womack, Mahotella Queens, Salsa Celtica, Amadou & Miriam,

Lúnasa, AR Rahman & Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mogwai, Peatbog Faeries,

Julie Fowlis, Elephant Revival, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Manu Dibango, Treacherous

Orchestra, Shawn Colvin, Nicola Benedetti, Stockton's Wing, The Gloaming, Lau,

Suzanne Vega, Seth Lakeman, RANT, Boban Marković Orchestra, Alkinoos

Ioannidis, The Olllam, Bill Callahan, De Temps Antan, RM Hubbert, Lloyd Cole & the

Leopards, Kathleen MacInnes, Tim Finn, Dick Gaughan and The Stray Birds.

Big Names at the Festival

Celtic Connections 2014 will see a number of famous faces come along to perform

over the 18 days.

Arguably Glasgow’s best-loved outfit from that golden generation of Scottish bands

who emerged in the 1980s, Del Amitri take to the city’s newest and biggest stage, the

SSE Hydro, for their first UK show in over a decade – not to mention their Celtic

Connections debut – which also launches a 12-date nationwide tour.

Glasgow five-piece Mogwai, formed by Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison in

1995, will make their Celtic Connections debut next January. Well known for their

electrifying live performances, their largely instrumental sound has always

transcended pigeonholing, variously dubbed post-rock, art-rock and space-rock.

Multi-Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter will showcase her

incomparable contralto as she gives a world premiere performance backed by the full

splendour of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Having distilled a period of

major personal travail and upheaval into her last album, 2012’s heart-wrenching but

redemptive Ashes and Roses, Carpenter is clearly enjoying a renewed creative high.

Now in the seventh decade of his ever-extraordinary career Bobby Womack will be

performing, amongst others, tracks from his 2012 album, The Bravest Man in the

Universe, his first all-new recording since 1994. Throughout his distinguished career

Womack has collaborated with a myriad of soul and rock legends including Wilson

Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin and Sly Stone while his latest album and his

recent collaboration with the Gorillaz has led to a whole new generation of fans.

As they continue their 30th anniversary celebrations, Capercaillie have long since

secured their place among the world’s foremost contemporary Celtic bands. They

were also among the first in connecting Scotland’s wealth of Gaelic tradition to the

wider pop and world music. Their gorgeous new album, At the Heart Of It All, centres

on Karen Matheson’s beautiful vocals. Their Celtic Connections set will showcase an

array of tunes from across their 30-year back catalogue, in company with some of the

new album’s guests, including Kathleen MacInnes, Sineag MacIntyre, Kris Drever

and Gerry (banjo) O’Connor, plus familiar faces from earlier Capercaillie line-ups.

A.R. Rahman is often described as the “the Mozart of Madras” and “the John

Williams of Bollywood”. He is a composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist,

producer and philanthropist and is by some measures the world’s bestselling

recording artist, with more album sales, via his movie scores, than Elvis, the Beatles

or all the Jacksons combined. Above all Rahman is famed for his soundtrack to the

2008 smash Slumdog Millionaire.

Suzanne Vega is ranked as one of the most durable and versatile artists of her

generation having originally spearheaded the 1980s wave of literate, folk-based

female singer-songwriters. Vega enjoyed huge acclaim for her 2007’s Beauty &

Crime and will perform new material from its imminent follow-up, alongside earlier

classics, in the beautifully dramatic backdrop of Glasgow’s City Halls.

Imelda May is arguably one of the most incredible musical success stories to come

out of Ireland in recent years. With rockabilly at the heart of her electrifying live

performances and drawing inspiration from the ghosts of Elvis and Billie Halliday her

Old Fruitmarket performance is sure to be a melting pot of swagger and attitude.

The Influence of Scottish Music on the Commonwealth

The Celtic Connections festival has always explored and celebrated the connections

and influences of Celtic traditions and cultures across the globe. Celtic Connections

will be showcasing elements of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme with a

number of performances that explore Scotland’s influence on the cultures of the other

Commonwealth countries.

A co-commission for Celtic Connections and the PRSF New Music Biennial for

Glasgow’s Culture 2014 programme sees Scottish powerhouse Lau team up with

contemporary-classical experimentalists The Elysian Quartet to perform their

collaborative, part-improvised composition that seeks common ground between both

groups distinct but mutually recognisable creative territories.

Cluaidh ’s a’ Cho Flaitheas ¦ The Clyde and the Commonwealth is a perfect example

of a performance that explores the cultural ties and influences of Scotland with the

rest of the Commonwealth. This show will celebrate the Gaels and Glasgow, and the

River Clyde their gateway to the Commonwealth. This concert will take the audience

on a musical and visual journey to Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, New

Zealand and will look at the influences of Scottish traditional music on each of these

countries.

Another commonwealth cultural connection performance is the Folk Nations Kolkata

Project. Following a week-long residency last February in the West Bengali capital of

Kolkata, as part of the British Council’s three-year Folk Nations project, musicians

from Scotland, England, Wales and India - fiddler Patsy Reid, singer and clog dancer

Hannah James, banjo player Dan Walsh, harpist/singer Georgia Ruth Williams,

sarangi player Suhail Yusuf Khan and vocalist Saurav Moni – showcase the common

creative ground they’ve charted between their diverse talents and traditions.

Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections, the largest gathering of the international

music community, will be working with two international partners from the

Commonwealth at Celtic Connections 2014. Musicians from India and Australia will

be performing across the Showcase weekend and the strong cultural ties between

India, Australia and Scotland will be explored.

Folk and Trad at the Heart of the Festival

At the heart of the festival is the vibrant folk and traditional music scene, with some of

the UK and Ireland’s finest musicians set to raise the roof this January and February.

In the space of just four years, the many-headed musical beast that is Glasgow’s

Treacherous Orchestra has advanced from their first official Celtic Connections gig to

the opening slot at 2013’s Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park, sharing the bill with the likes of

Smokey Robinson, Manic Street Preachers, Jessie J and Simple Minds. Back to

raise the Old Fruitmarket roof once again, they’ll be airing material from their

forthcoming second album as well as older favourites.

Continuing the back-to-roots direction of 2012’s tales From the Barrel House, and his

recent involvement with The Full English digital archive project, Seth Lakeman’s

forthcoming seventh album Word of Mouth, due out in 2014, finds the Mercury-

nominated singer, songwriter and fiddler revisiting and revitalising the oral folk

tradition, in new songs inspired by stories and memories collected around his native

West Country.

Combining some of Scotland and Ireland's leading Celtic musicians with a stellar

group of international salsa musicians Salsa Celtica is a stunning combination of

virtuosity and energy. The group’s unique synthesis has been rapturously received

around the globe, from the village halls of Scotland to the world's greatest music

festivals. With their long awaited new studio album to be released at the start of the

year, 2014 is going to be a huge year for Salsa Celtica so what better way to kick

start it than returning to the Celtic Connections stage.

Hailed as Ireland’s finest traditional Irish instrumental band of recent times, Lúnasa

will be performing a selection from their back-catalogue of 7 highly acclaimed and

award-winning albums. Their inventive arrangements and bass driven grooves have

steered Irish acoustic music into surprising new territory.

Collaboration and Camaraderie

One-off collaborations have always been a key aspect of the Celtic Connections

festival. Egos are left at the front door as artists join forces to produce unique musical

experiences.

The Opening Night will see a special collaboration between one of the world’s most

astounding classical music stars, the multi-award winning Nicola Benedetti. Nicola

will be premiering new collaborative work with Scottish traditional musicians Julie

Fowlis, Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham and unveiling material from her forthcoming

Scottish-themed album.

Celtic Connections marks the start of World War I’s centenary commemorations with

a reprise of the sellout festival highlight from 2012, Far Far From Ypres which will

feature Scottish songs, stories and poetry that arose from the conflict. It’ll be

performed by a stellar cast of over 20 singers including Barbara Dickson, Dick

Gaughan, Phil Cunningham, Ian McCalman, Stephen Quigg, Sangsters, Siobhan

Miller and Mairi MacInnes. Written and directed by Ian McCalman and based on the

eponymous 2008 Greentrax double album the show combines soldiers’ songs,

music-hall favourites and home-front anthems from 1914-18, plus subsequent

songwriters’ reflections, with projected backdrop imagery. Broadcaster Iain

Anderson’s resonant narration, interwoven with extracts from real-life letters and

diaries, links the music through the story of Everyman Scottish soldier Jimmy

MacDonald, following his odyssey to the Somme and eventually home again, in a

hugely powerful act of musical remembrance.

Collaboration and camaraderie at the festival can’t be discussed without mentioning

Transatlantic Sessions, the jewel in the crown of the festival. As always Transatlantic

Sessions will serve up ultra-classy accompaniment and awesome instrumentals by

the crème de la crème of US and Celtic talent. Appearing in her first Transatlantic

Sessions, US singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin who remains as one of the leading

luminaries of that 1980s generation will be performing. Multitalented new-acoustic

prodigy Sarah Jarosz who may well choose a track or two from her stunning new

third album, Build Me Up From Bones. Fellow Americana virtuosi and Transatlantic

regulars Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien are always welcome return visitors, especially

having just released a long-anticipated duo album, Memories & Moments, while

tonight’s Scottish vocal ambassadors include Julie Fowlis and Kris Drever. Double

bass icon Danny Thompson again graces the all-star house band, along with musical

directors Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, Phil Cunningham, Russ Barenberg, Mike

McGoldrick, John Doyle, John McCusker, James Mackintosh and Donald Shaw.

A World of Music

There is a strong world music strand at Celtic Connections 2014 when the festival will

celebrate the musical connections with other countries from across the globe.

One of Africa’s most popular and successful musical exports over the last decade,

the Malian husband-and-wife guitar/vocals duo of Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam

Doumbia who famously met at Bamako’s Institute for the Young Blind in 1977, will

give their Celtic Connections debut performance.

Fresh from celebrating his 80th birthday in December, Cameroonian saxophonist

Manu Dibango, a pioneering giant of world music, long before the term was even

coined, brings his mesmerising mix of Afro-funk, jazz, soul, pop, hip-hop and rock to

the festival. Dibango was first African musician ever to reach the US Top 40, with his

massive 1972 hit ‘Soul Makossa’.

A few eyebrows were raised when Jamaican reggae artist Winston McAnuff, known

affectionately as "Electric Dread" because of his energetic stage performances,

joined forces with French musician and accordion player Fixi. This exciting and

original collaboration has entered its second chapter with the release of A New Day

which they will be performing material from in the Arches during the festival and

giving Glasgow audiences perhaps one of their first experiences of Jamaican singing

to an accordion backing.

Americana at the Festival

Some of the World’s most exciting Americana and bluegrass talent will visit Glasgow

this January.

The Pennsylvanian trio The Stray Birds have been described as one of the most

exciting young Americana bands out there. Their close harmonies and textured

instrumentalism make for a breathtaking sound drawn from the richness of American

folk music traditions.

Co-founder of critically acclaimed roots country band The Gruff, Jenny Ritter will be

showcasing her debut album Bright Mainland packed full of catchy, heart warming

songs of the everyday.

Based in Boston, epicentre of the US new-acoustic scene, acclaimed contemporary

string band Joy Kills Sorrow have evolved from their progressive bluegrass

beginnings, channelling their multi-award-winning instrumental prowess into the full-

bodied sound unveiled on new EP Wide Awake.

Comprising five Colorado-based singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists,

Elephant Revival pool their talents at the contemporary intersection of folk,

Americana, jazz and acoustic rock, with a flair and imagination that’s been likened to

the Flecktones or The Sparrow Quartet. Bonnie Paine’s bewitching lead vocals

feature in mainly original material, arrayed with radiant backing harmonies and

accompaniment including banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, bass, washboard and

musical saw.

The Indie Strand

With the influence of folk on the indie scene the most prominent it has been for years,

Celtic Connections once again features a top line-up of indie and rock artists in 2014.

Bill Callahan stepped from behind his longtime Smog alias back in 2007, with

subsequent albums, including new 15th release Dream River, subtly expanding the

lo-fi yet sensuous, broodingly bleak but darkly humorous Smog palette with touches

of gospel, soul, blues and rock. It's onstage, though, that Callahan's music attains its

fullest potency.

After the sellout, standing-ovation success of 2013’s inaugural outing, the Roaming

Roots Revue returns to celebrate the music of Laurel Canyon, that fabled LA

neighbourhood which, for a decade or so from the mid-1960s, rang with the era-

defining sounds of residents and regulars like Joni Mitchell, The Byrds, The Doors,

the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Zappa, Crosby Stills & Nash, The Eagles, Jackson

Browne, Carole King and Nico. Revisiting songs from this hugely influential time and

place alongside their own work, tonight’s transatlantic, cross-generational array of

artists includes rising alt-country star Lindi Ortega, gritty-voiced roots-rocker Cory

Chisel and avant-folk powerhouse Lau. Curated and hosted again by Glasgow’s own

Roddy Hart, with his Lonesome Fire line-up as house band, the show will feature

performers both individually and in fresh collaborative combinations.

Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow will be showcasing his greatly

anticipated second album Post Tropical, which is out in January 2014. Setting his

high tenor amid a greatly expanded sonic sound, including vintage keyboards and

drum machines, marks the greatest example yet of McMorrow’s artistic vision.

Quotes

Donald Shaw, Artistic Director of Celtic Connections, said: “With the Glasgow 2014

Commonwealth Games just around the corner we thought next year’s Celtic

Connections would be the ideal stage to explore Scotland’s cultural connections with

other Commonwealth countries. Next year’s line-up will be the biggest celebration yet

of the tunes and songs that connect Scotland’s musical legacy to the rest of the

world.

“It’s very exciting to be showcasing the festival at the brand new SSE Hydro with an

International Burns night celebration and Glasgow’s own Del Amitri. The expansion

into this world-class venue really demonstrates the ever increasing stature of the

festival and firmly cements its place as one of the world’s top music festivals.”

Councillor Archie Graham, Chair of Glasgow Life and Executive Member for the

Commonwealth Games, said: “The Celtic Connections festival will come of age in

2014 with the biggest and best line up yet. Over its 21 years the festival has firmly

places Glasgow on the world music map and become a leading light in Scotland’s

cultural calendar.

“The festival attracts visitors from all over the world and therefore contributes to a

hugely positive cultural and economic impact for Glasgow and the rest of the country.

Celtic Connections continues to have an international appeal and enhance the city’s

reputation as a major tourist destination.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:Celtic Connections Press OfficeTel: 0141 287 3565 Email: hannah.matheson@glasgowlife.org.uk

Notes to Editors

Celtic Connections is promoted by Glasgow Life. Glasgow Life and its service brands (found at www.glasgowlife.org.uk) are operating names of Culture and Sport Glasgow ("CSG").  CSG is a company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland with company number SC313851 and having its registered office at 220 High Street, Glasgow G4 0QW.  CSG is registered as a charity with the office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (No SC037844). 

Celtic Connections 2014 runs from Thursday 16th January – Sunday 2nd February and comprises a wealth of concerts, ceilidhs, talks, workshops, free events and late night sessions taking place over 18 days.

Various venues across Glasgow are utilised for Celtic Connections 2014 such as the Main Auditorium in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, O2 ABC, The Tron, Òran Mór, The Mitchell Theatre, City Halls, Kelvingrove, St Andrews in the Square and the Old Fruitmarket will all play host to Celtic Connections events. Celtic Connections 2014 will also use the brand new SSE Hydro, Scotland’s biggest ever music venue.

The festival boosts the local economy and tourism industry in the normally quiet post-festive period. Celtic Connections enjoyed an extremely successful 20th festival in 2013, with over £1m ticket sales and attendances topping 100,000.

Celtic Connections continues to have an international appeal and enhance Glasgow’s reputation as a major tourist destination. Fans visited from all corners of the globe to experience the best in traditional, folk, roots, world and indie music, from Mali to the USA and Canada, as well as across Europe and around the UK. In 2013 Celtic Connections saw an increase in visitors from outwith Scotland, with 14.6% of the audience visiting from the rest of the UK and 4% coming from overseas. 44% of festival fans accompanied their visit to Celtic Connections with an overnight stay, a few stayed with friends but the majority at 69% stayed in a Hotel or Guest House or B&B. An impressive 70% of visitors stated that attending Celtic Connections was their sole or main reason for visiting Glasgow and 77% said they had also attended Celtic Connections in 2012. A fantastic 99.8% said they would come back to the festival in the future. Festival fans attended an average of 4.7 events.

Homecoming Scotland

Scotland will welcome the world in the Year of Homecoming 2014- providing a year-long programme of events alongside the Ryder Cup and Commonwealth Games.

The Year of Homecoming Scotland will run from 31 December 2013 to 31 December 2014 throughout the length and breadth of the country.

Visitors from around the world are invited to join in a celebration of the nation’s food and drink, active pursuits, cultural heritage, nature and ancestral heritage.

Homecoming Scotland 2014 is a Scottish Government initiative being led by EventScotland and VisitScotland, supported by numerous partners.

To find out more visit www.homecomingscotland.com

EventScotland

EventScotland is the national events agency.

EventScotland is working to make Scotland one of the world’s leading event destinations. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the economy by attracting more visitors. For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news visit www.EventScotland.org

Celtic Connections 2014 tickets are now on sale:

Online www.celticconnections.comBy phone 0141 353 8000In person Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

2 Sauchiehall StreetGlasgow, G2 3NY

City Halls and Old FruitmarketCandleriggsGlasgow, G1 1NQ

To apply for Media Accreditation for Celtic Connections 2014, visit www.celticconnections.com