Celtic Connections

Siobhan Wilson And Friends

St Andrew’s In The Square, Glasgow

Alan Morrison

Four stars

The “and friends” bit in the title of Siobhan Wilson’s Celtic Connections gig was the key to unlocking the set list. A year on from her New Voices commission (initially advertised under her now abandoned alter ego Ella The Bird), the Glasgow-based singer-songwriter probably does have enough material from her two EPs and various covers to fill a headline slot.

Here, however, she generously gave stage time to three other artists, often taking merely a supporting role herself. “It’s really ‘Siobhan’s a fan and she’s invited her favourite singers’” was how she shyly described the format.

Adam Holmes’s smoky voice provided a nice counterpart to Wilson’s immaculately clear range, and later his guitar fitted with the harp and fiddle of Twelfth Day’s Esther Swift and Catriona Price on a beautifully melodic version of Richard Thompson’s Beeswing.

Emma Pollock was allowed to showcase a couple of tracks – Cannot Keep A Secret and Dark Skies – from her upcoming new album In Search Of Harperfield before duetting in French with Wilson and adding a café-culture flavour to the proceedings.

When the spotlight was passed over again, it was to Roddy Woomble, who drew from his solo songbook rather than Idlewild repertoire, performing Between The Old Moon and I Came In From The Mountain. A subsequent duet, Wilson fan favourite All Dressed Up, walked with a sassy swing.

It all made for a fine fun evening in the collaborative mode that Celtic Connections has made its own. But for most of the audience, I suspect, the highlight might well have been Wilson’s solo rendition of Dear God, her breathing itself like an extra musical detail that had us hang on every syllable.