KT Tunstall, Celtic Connections Glasgow review: 'effervescent'

Despite her undoubted ability to hold a room as a solo performer, KT Tunstall is a social animal who relished the opportunity to front a big beefy band – in this case Celtic Connections’s hardest working outfit, the Lonesome Fire – and muster many guest performers to help her mark the 20th anniversary of her debut album, Eye to the Telescope.

The album remains the best-loved expression of her infectious rootsy pop, encompassing the soaring sentiments of Other Side Of The World, the wistful Under the Weather, country waltz Through the Dark and the choppy acoustic guitar and bluesy vocals of Miniature Disasters, a track which provided the blueprint for breakthrough hit, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, a call-and-response stomp mashed up with a rhythmic Irish chant in honour of guest co-vocalist Chris Leonard.

Kindred spirits Amy Papiransky and Donna Maciocia supplied guest harmonies on yearning acoustic ballads Heal Over and Gone to the Dogs respectively, while Laura Wilkie added Celtic soul fiddle to the sassy Stoppin’ the Love. Lonesome Fire frontman Roddy Hart – the self-declared “Poundshop James Bay” – put in a soulful turn deputising for the real thing on Two Way but there was no competing with the response for the two Scottish pop giants who joined KT on busker renditions of their own songs, with Eddi Reader also reliving her street musician roots on Perfect and Justin Currie a class turn on Nothing Ever Happens. 

Tunstall packed her own pop anthem to rival her guests, dispatching Suddenly I See with an effervescence which overshadowed many of the selections from her subsequent albums – the atmospheric Americana of Feel It All from Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon excepted. There was, sadly, no sign of her erstwhile tourmates Simple Minds but KT and her CC all-stars made a fine fist of Don't You (Forget About Me) to finish.

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