Celtic Connections: Musical extravaganza where even Yeats and Scott play a leading role

AMERICAN gospel, Argentinian tango, Cuban songs, Romanian gypsies and a Swiss cajan band will rub shoulders with tributes to Bob Dylan, Walter Scott and WB Yeats in the next programme for Glasgow's biggest music festival.

• Uplifting gospel music from Mavis Staples is one of the festival's highlights. Picture: Getty Images

Around 100,000 people are expected to flock to more than 300 events being held at 14 different venues across the city during Celtic Connections, which turns 18 in January and is now worth 12 million to the economy. Organisers had to apologise after the festival website crashed due to the volume of people trying to buy tickets.

The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Waterboys, Shane MacGowan, Imelda May, Grant Lee Buffalo, Ani DiFranco, Richard Thompson and Raul Malo are among the international headliners of festival, which will be held across 18 days in January.

Glasgow-born Hollywood composer Craig Armstrong, veteran Dundonian singer-songwriter Michael Marra, former Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie, Gaelic songbird Julie Fowlis, Lanarkshire indie veterans BMX Bandits, and Scottish "supergroups" Burns Unit, Treacherous Orchestra and The Unusual Suspects are some of the home-grown stars to grace the line-up.

One-off concerts are planned to mark the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan and the 200th anniversary of the Walter Scott poem Lady of the Lake, while The Waterboys will stage their own tribute to the work of the Irish poet WB Yeats.

Mike Scott, the Edinburgh-born frontman of the Waterboys, will launch a UK tour of his band performing 20 of Yeats' best-known poems at the festival, while Phil Cunningham, Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson will top the bill at Sir Walter Scott's Trossachs in memory of his epic poem.

Guests from Scotland, Ireland and the US will take the stage for the Dylan night - including Americana star Justin Townes-Earle, son of singer-songwriter Steve Earle - on the 50th anniversary of Dylan's arrival in New York as an unknown.

The festival will host the first-ever European broadcast of the long-running US American radio show Mountain Stage, with the 71-year-old American blues singer Mavis Staples and Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean featuring in the line-up.

American soul singer Bettye LaVette will be sharing a stage with The Blind Boys of Alabama, while Indian virtuoso Zakir Hussain will be working with Scottish and Irish musicians to curate a gala opening concert for The Pulse of the World festival.

Other special events include a 25th birthday party for Bellshill-based indie favourites BMX Bandits, a one-off reformation of 1980s Glasgow pop favourites Love and Money, and a concert celebrating 60 years of Edinburgh University's School of Scottish Studies.

English folk veteran Richard Thompson, Devon singer Seth Lakeman, Irish rockabilly star Imelda May and Kansas bluegrass favourites The Wilders are expected to be among the hottest tickets.Donald Shaw, artistic director of the festival, said: "Every year we encourage artists to bring something special to Celtic Connections, and I think performers really embrace this opportunity. The 2011 festival will feature ambitious new collaborations with musicians from completely contrasting backgrounds."

Tickets for Celtic Connections, which runs from 13-30 January, are on sale now.

Connections from around the globe

HIGHLIGHTS

Pulse of the World: Grammy award-winning Indian tabla wizard Zakir Hussain will take the helm of the festival's gala opening concert.

Grant Lee Buffalo: The Californian rockers, who had four huge hit albums in the 1990s, split up more than ten years ago, but are reforming for just three shows in Glasgow, London and New York next year.

Creole Choir of Cuba: The stars of the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe return to Scotland after signing for Peter Gabriel's record label and appear on Jools Holland's TV show.

The Waterboys: Frontman Mike Scott had a huge hit in Ireland earlier this year with a tribute to one of its favourite sons, WB Yeats, which will tour the UK after the show in Glasgow in January.

Forever Young: A starstudded line-up is promised to mark Bob Dylan's 70th birthday, including Justin Currie, James Grant, Rab Noakes and Justin Townes-Earle.

Mountain Stage: The first broadcast outside of the US or Canada of the longrunning West Virginia-based radio station, featuring legendary American gospel star Mavis Staples.