The Oysterband, Celtic Connections, Glasgow review: 'full of emotional energy'

The Oysterband | Judith Burrows/Getty Images

Celtic Connections: The Oysterband, St Luke's, Glasgow ★★★★

Kent’s folk rock veterans Oysterband are enjoying their Long Long Goodbye tour so much that, according to fiddle player Ian Telfer, they are “saying goodbye to a whole load of places we never said hello to”. This Celtic Connections show was their peachy keen festival debut and also their last hurrah, with all the associated emotional energy coursing through the set.

The six-piece conjured an instant celebration with their heart and soul sound, opening with the lusty urgency of When I’m Up I Can’t Get Down and the rollicking rhythm of By Northern Light before adjusting the pace for the uplifting Celtrock of A River Runs.

There were echoes of Runrig’s rousing sentimentality in the likes of The Deserter and Native Son but their repertoire runs all through Britain and Ireland, taking in a resonant rendition of Irish standard Blackwaterside, Spirit of Dust, a song allegedly about “shagging on the Welsh border” and the Isle of Man-inspired Roll Away.

John Jones’s soaring notes were accompanied by some virile haka-style backing vocals on Where The World Divides while the lithe jigging fiddle was as much the lead instrument as the potent vocals on Walking Down the Road With You.

They claimed political prescience by reframing the blithe folk pop of All That Way For This as a song about Brexit, but also admitted that “once a ceilidh band, always a ceilidh band” with an accordion stomp bolstered by beefy drums.

There was a rare glimpse of fragility when guitarist Alan Prosser took on June Tabor’s vocal part on civil rights song Mississippi Summer before the band powered down the home straight with the barnstorming Uncommercial Song, rumbling bassline and powerful harmonies of Dancing As Fast As I Can and anthemic singalong Everywhere I Go, expressing but somehow also exorcising the confusion and consternation of the times.