Celtic Connections review: Bring It All Home - Gerry Rafferty Remembered, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

By Fiona Shepherd
Published on Tuesday 24 January 2012 00:00

THE fastest-selling ticket at Celtic Connections may just have yielded its most memorable concert.

A year on from Gerry Rafferty’s passing, his daughter Martha and former Stealers Wheel compadre Rab Noakes have curated a “commemoration and celebration” to be proud of with a sprawling yet unified line-up of Rafferty acolytes and associates, not least his former backing vocalists Barbara Dickson and Betsy Cook and trusty sessioneers Hugh Burns, Mel Collins and Graham Preskett, who wore their substantial skills lightly alongside rock solid house band Roddy Hart & the Lonesome Fire.

With a revolving door of guest vocalists, ranging from old stagers Jack Bruce and Tom Robinson to an ensemble of Rafferty’s nephews and nieces, the logistics of this undertaking hardly bear thinking about. Yet this touching tribute succeeded wholeheartedly in placing Rafferty’s music front and centre, from his early days as Billy Connolly’s straight man in The Humblebums through Stealers Wheel to his own sporadic but inspired solo career. Early highlights included The Proclaimers’ spirited Mattie’s Rag and Ron Sexsmith’s innately soulful Right Down The Line, while the second half threw up even more gems. The lusty band performance of Get It Right Next Time contrasted with the simple integrity of Emma Pollock’s version of Late Again, while James Vincent McMorrow’s sublime contribution to Waiting For The Day, the soothing solo reverie of Noakes’s Moonlight and Gold and the Rafferty family’s poignant harmonies on The Ark all delivered delicious shivers.

It fell to Paul Brady to front a wonderfully rich rendering of Baker Street, crowned with Collins’s powerhouse sax solo, before a massed finale of Stuck in the Middle with You. Maria Muldaur announced that she has adopted Rafferty as her new guru – after this labour of love, the entire audience were under his spell.

Rating: ****

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