Review: Celtic Connections

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 10:57 PM

I am grinning ear to ear here. Just how many people are up in arms about this one performance (which I have not seen), but the "uproar" it has created is wonderful, likewise all the posts here.

Johnny J is absolutely right, Celtic Connections is a brilliant event and no doubt will continue to be so. More venues need to fund such events.

I can't be bothered to scroll back up 5 pages or so, but whoever it was describing their like in music.. I am in total agreement. My taste ranges everything from Mozart, through 5 Finger Death Punch, a crap load of pop, roots ridden blues to folk/trad. I have respect for all. What I don't like is when someone tries to take one form and blend it with another. Folk especially as history is my bag and folk is supposed to be "history" I know I am being finicky.

But one thing I am adamant about is burning every bouzi or how the hell you spell it.. we have the mandolin, a far superior instrument.

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,Ake
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 03:19 AM

You are quite wrong Joe, I like American roots music, contemporary singer songwriters(not all) Irish, some Pop and I usually have classical on in the car (I do a lot of driving).
I simply agree with Mick about "fusion", which I see as a tactic propagated by the academic musical elite(you know who they are....the "folk music lovies"), to create an effect which can be used to dilute traditional music and sanitise it for "popular culture".   Large audiences do not necessarily mean quality performance. (Spice Girls? Chilli Pipers?)

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,Santaci
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 05:35 AM

It’s good to see that ‘fusion’ is now a sinister plot by the ‘academic elite’ to dumb down the music world. Even more hilarious that the work of Martyn Bennett, one of the most innovative and exciting musicians Scotland has produced, is being fingered as part of the process.

Sanitising folkto appeal to popular culture has been going on for ever (Lonnie Donegan, The Spinners) and is certainly an issue, but one big concert at an international festival that has had the rough edges taken off is not detracting from all the good songs and music being performed in other venues.

Listening to Ewan Mclennan or June Tabor solo is every bit as enriching as hearing Moving Hearts or the Peatbog Faeries at full blast. It’s not an either or (and one of the highlights for me this year was hearing the Peatbogs backing Vieux Farka Toure, where Malian songs were mixed up with Scottish tunes to fine effect).

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 06:10 AM

I `ad that Robbie McTavish, the well known folk archivist, in my cab the other day. `e was all done up in `is plaid, kilt and sporran, looking like an Edinburgh pox doctor`s clerk.
I said, " Morning Jock, you off to judge some `aggisses or something?"
`e said, " No Jim, get me to `eathrow please, I`ve gotta get home for the referendum."
I said, "I thought that was all done and dusted. Sturgeon said there would be no more independence nonsense."
`e said, "No, that`s all over. This one is a vote on the Celtic Connections that Mudcat is going on about. Do we want more pseudo, pretentious cacophony or more innovative, connective fusion presented as folk music? That`s the question and I don`t know where I stand at the moment!!".

Whaddam I Like??

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: Allan Conn
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 07:14 AM

Santaci is absolutely spot on. It is plainly ludicrous to compare Bennett's work to the likes of the Spice Girls with the idea of chasing the dollar etc. Bennett's work is not really orientated to the mass commercial market. I don't think Ake has actually listened to any of his albums!!!

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 07:37 AM

folk is supposed to be "history"

It never has been and there is no reason why it should become so. It should be up to date and about contemporary issues and reflect contemporary technology and other musical influences as it always has while respecting and referencing historical traditions, stories, musical formats, song themes etc.

"Sanitising folkto appeal to popular culture"

Surely the popular appeal of the music is what made it 'folk' in the first place.

So much of this argument is about personal taste. I wouldn't go to see the Chilli Pipers if you paid me. But I know at least one person who has taken up learning the pipes as a result of seeing them.

I love fiddle music and have played for about 30 yrs (not always that well). My interest was forged by people like Dave Swarbrick and Peter Knight who both worked in tandem with other genres. I've now got a passionate enthusiasm for traditional fiddle music, Irish, Cajun, French, Cape Bretton but especially Scottish.

Bouzouikis v mandolins? They are different instruments for different jobs though there are some jobs that both are OK for. But mandolins don't do everything that a bouzouki do and vice-versa.

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,Joe G
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 08:28 AM

Before I go - I forgot to mention that I love bouzoukis!

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Feb 18 - 09:22 AM

There was an excellent, and by that I mean superb, concert from Celtic Connections broadcast last night on BBC Radio Scotland "Travelling Folk" from the Court and Spark Band paying songs from Joni Mitchell's album of the same name!!!

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,North
Date: 18 Feb 18 - 12:21 PM

some further opinions: would MB have re-arranged his home studio made recording for an orchestra, 20 years later? No, very little to suggest this would have happened.

Is there a trend from individualism toward collectivism in the music of the funded Scottish establishment? Yes, most definitely.

Is this healthy? Like getting hit by a falling piano kind of healthy.

Are expressions like Lawson's "every note was written by one man" cretinous in the extreme? Yes.

How do I feel generally about the 'trad' music scene? Largely dead, taken over by something shallow, happy clappy and, ultimately, boring.

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: peteglasgow
Date: 18 Feb 18 - 01:21 PM

i was at that court and spark gig and found it disappointing really - i thought the musicians were competent but i couldn't help judging each song on how much it was close to the original. there wasn't much spontaneity or improvisation. i wandered upstairs to get a closer look at the decorated ceiling - stunning art work by alisdair gray - while the band continued pleasantly enough downstairs. i've been to oran mor many times but not been up top before - happy enough with this exceptional good bar downstairs or the basement venue. where the following night i saw the Deslondes. bluesy, country folk from new orleans - i love a country band in a crowded responsive venue. anyway, the whole festival, oran mor, partick thistle and glasgow a great way to spend a few days

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 08 Mar 18 - 04:10 AM

Guest North has summed up the condition of traditional/folk music admirably......the slow descent into oblivion.
All that we once loved and was meaningful in music and its emotional content will be lost if we cannot recognise the paucity of what is being presented to us by the establishment elite, who only see value in what brings celebrity.

In saying that Jim Knowledge makes some excellent points in his own inimitable way. :0}

Subject: RE: Review: Celtic Connections
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 08 Mar 18 - 04:16 AM

Jim, I don't know who you are....maybe a member? but your contributions are smart and very funny.
I'll probably be off soon, but you have been one of the best things about Mudcat.....Ake.