Celtic Connections review: Woody At 100 - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

By FIONA SHEPHERD
Published on Friday 27 January 2012 00:00

CELTIC Connections generally gives good tribute, and there can be no greater legacy looming over folk music than the words and music of Woody Guthrie.

To mark his centenary year, the extensive archive of his unreleased lyrics has been subjected to a respectful raiding, the fall-out from which was aired at this muted celebration.

Guthrie’s granddaughter Sara Lee and her partner Johnny Irion opened the show with a waft of pleasant, whimsical Americana and some good-natured anecdotes, before inviting Martha and Mark Rafferty – who know all about preserving family tradition – to join them for their sweetly but hesitantly harmonised rendering of Guthrie’s impish There’ll Be No Church Tonight.

Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar was then joined by his alt.country contemporaries Anders Parker and Will Johnston for a Guthrie-inspired sedentary singaround which was short on background detail, leaving the audience of Woody acolytes to guess where their own songs ended and the Guthrie lyrics began, so timeless were his words and so seamless and samey were their arrangements.

As this insular ensemble brought the show to a close, it was clear that the “inaugural flight” of this painstaking project was more of a personal trip for the musicians involved than a rousing communal celebration of a formidable musical force. Even the encore rendition of Guthrie’s Pastures of Plenty, with Sara Lee and Irion joining the fold, failed to stir the emotions.

Rating: ***

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