Celtic Connections review: Rhiannon Giddens with The Celtic Blues Orchestra and Kaia Kater, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

THE smiling shade of Nina Simone must surely have attended this show, with both its compelling support act, the young Grenadian/Canadian singer-songwriter Kaia Kater, and electrifying star Rhiannon Giddens not only honouring her influence within their song selection, but all-round doing her proud.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Feb 2019, 13:33 BST
Updated 1st Feb 2019, 18:45 BST
Giddens was worth her three standing ovations and moreGiddens was worth her three standing ovations and more
Giddens was worth her three standing ovations and more

Rhiannon Giddens with the Celtic Blues Orchestra, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall *****

Kater’s new album Grenades digs into her Caribbean family history – both long before and since her father left Grenada as a refugee, after Ronald Reagan’s 1983 invasion. Like Giddens, again, her mercurial melange of styles mingled notes, accents and echoes from throughout African-American musical history, including blues, soul, old-time, jazz and folk, channelled in a richly-textured voice that matched earthy rawness with cool, bell-like clarity.

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Her own densely layered songs, brimming with pent-up purpose and intensity, predominated alongside a couple of equally covers, R&B star/rapper Frank Ocean’s uneasy, heartsore Swim Good and a beautifully understated rendering of Simone’s Trouble in Mind.

But it was Giddens, one of the most enthralling roots artists working today, who’d sold out the venue to the choir stalls – well, her plus the Celtic Blues Orchestra, a Scottish folk/classical ensemble hand-picked by conductor Greg Lawson. As with Giddens’ previous such collaborations Stateside, the arrangements were by Punch Brother Gabe Witcher, with both music and musicians boldly and brilliantly expanding upon her repertoire and framing her dazzlingly athletic vocals. Material ranged from field-holler – a positively explosive Waterboy – to Gaelic puirt-à-beul; from softly searing originals addressing slavery and racism (Lullaby, Birmingham Sunday) to her majestic, magnificent take on Simone’s Tomorrow is My Turn. Three standing ovations scarcely seemed enough. - SUE WILSON