International connections for folk festival

Published on Wednesday 24 October 2007 01:12

THE American singer Steve Earle, who battled drug addiction and took on the "war on terror" in his songs, was among the top acts unveiled yesterday at Scotland's annual celebration of Celtic music.

Bill Wyman, the former Rolling Stones bass player, with his band, the Rhythm Kings, and the Canadian singer-songwriter KD Lang are also on the bill for Celtic Connections. They were touted as major coups for the festival in a line-up that goes well beyond traditional Scottish, Gaelic and folk music.

The January festival in Glasgow will be aiming to improve the 17 per cent rise in audiences that the director and musician Donald Shaw, of the Scottish band Capercaillie, notched up in his first year at the helm. Two new venues have been added - the tall ship in Glasgow Harbour and the Oran Mor in Great Western Road.

Mr Shaw said that bringing the likes of Wyman, Lang and Earle put some "real coups on the bill". He continued: "Some of the most exciting music anywhere in the field of folk music is coming out of North America."

Home-grown talent is represented by artists such as Julie Fowlis, the Peatbog Faeries and Capercaillie. The final of the BBC Scotland's Young Traditional Musician of the Year contest will be opened by Linda Fabiani, the culture minister and a long-term supporter of the festival.

The popular Barnsley-born folk singer Kate Rusby is one of the acts joining a huge joint session in the opening event, Common Ground. Once described as "England's answer to Dolly Parton", Rusby and her band released the album Awkward Annie this year and are touring the UK in the spring. Celtic Connections 2008 marks the festival's 15th anniversary. The programme includes about 300 concerts, ceilidhs, workshops, talks and other events in 14 venues from 16 January to 3 February. In 2009, the festival is considering taking on an even bigger venue, the 9,000-seat Exhibition Centre.

Ian Green, of Greentrax, the biggest of the Scottish folk labels, said: "With the fusion of Scottish music and various world artists, it looks to me like there's a lot of very interesting things going on here."

International acts rub shoulders with home-grown veterans such as Donnie Munro, who won album of the year at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards this year, and Bodega, a rising young Scottish band formed by students at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music based at Plockton High School.

Earle has been through multiple marriages and a reported 50 arrests and, at 52, is working on his first novel. In 2002 with his home country on the warpath over the 9/11 terrorist attacks in full swing, he released John Walker's Blues, which called the United States "the land of the infidel" and featured a chorus in Arabic.

His anti-war songs saw him vilified by the US press, but he has 11 Grammy nominations in his long career and won in 2005 for best contemporary folk album. He is kicking off a European tour with his Glasgow appearance.

Simon Thoumire, the concertina virtuoso and composer, said: "Acts like Steve Earle pull huge crowds; on the same bill there will often be a Scottish act."