Set to bring music and light to Glasgow’s dark winter months, Celtic Connections 2024 will see more than 300 events take place at 25 venues across the city from this coming Thursday, when the festival opens.
Artists from around the world spanning a vast range of genres, as well as thousands of music lovers, will flock to the city for the 31st edition of Europe’s premier folk, roots and world music festival. Here are 10 performances not to be missed.
Angélique Kidjo
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Monday, January 29
Celebrating four decades in the industry, Angélique Kidjo is one of the most singular and extraordinary voices in international music. Spanning West African music, afrobeat, afro-pop, dancehall, hip-hop, and alt-R&B, and earning four GRAMMY Awards in the process her visionary body of work is rooted in a deep understanding of musical tradition, while being forward-thinking and inventive.
Béla Fleck
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Thursday, February 1
Acclaimed American banjo player Béla Fleck has, over the past four decades, pioneered a musical journey that has taken the instrument from its bluegrass roots to genres including jazz, classical, pop, and world music, earning the musician 15 GRAMMYs. This concert showcasing Fleck’s latest album My Bluegrass Heart, which won the 2022 Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY, will feature special guests Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton.
The Bothy Band
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Monday, January 22
The Bothy Band, one of the most influential and revered Irish ensembles to revolutionise the playing of traditional music in recent generations, made their mark on the Celtic music scene from 1975-1979, releasing four albums in that time.
Reuniting in October 2022 to record a television documentary for Irish television, the band members – all legendary figures in Irish music – enjoyed the experience so much that they were open to the long-standing invitation from Celtic Connections to consider a full concert again. For the first time since 1979, Donal Lunny on bouzouki, Tríona ní Dhomhnaill on keyboards, Matt Molloy on flute, Paddy Keenan on uilleann pipes and low whistle, and Paddy Glackin and Kevin Burke on fiddle come together to perform their first full-scale public concert, joined by Seán Óg Graham on guitar.
Margo Price and Kelsey Waldon
Old Fruitmarket, Saturday, January 27
Starting 2023 with the release of her celebrated album Strays, American country singer-songwriter Margo Price released the album’s second part to critical acclaim in October. Surmounting loss, trauma, demons of self-worth and more, the songs on Strays have cemented her place as an outstanding storyteller.
Price will share the stage with fellow country star Kelsey Waldon, whose new album No Regular Dog is a gritty and glorious portrait of living in devotion to your deepest dreams, revealing her gift for spinning harsh truths into songs that soothe and brighten the soul.
Alison Brown with Low Lily and the Lucie Hendry Trio
City Halls, Friday, January 26
One of the most multi-faceted minds in roots music, Alison Brown is a GRAMMY-winning musician and GRAMMY-nominated producer. Brown has built a reputation as one of today’s most innovative banjo players, known for taking the instrument far beyond its Appalachian roots by blending bluegrass and jazz influences. In 2019, she became the first female five-string banjoist to be inducted into the American Banjo Museum’s Hall of Fame.
Brown will be joined by Vermont-based American Roots band Low Lily, who combine the energy of fiddle music, the introspective quality of contemporary folk, the precision of bluegrass, and the drive of Americana, and Scottish lever harpist Lucie Hendry, who has joined forces with her Danish counterparts to create a captivating fusion of original Scottish folk with contemporary jazz influences.
DakhaBrakha and Angrusori
Pavilion Theatre, Saturday, January 20
Ukrainian quartet DakhaBrakha was created in the Kyiv Centre of Contemporary Art by avant-garde theatre director Vladyslav Troitskyi, and their unique performances always feature a strong visual element. After experimenting with the traditional folk instrumentation of their roots, the band incorporated the rhythms of world music to create a powerful, uncompromising and unforgettable sound.
They will be supported by the Slovakian-Norwegian orchestra Angrusori, who combine ancient migratory song tradition with experimental improvisation, developing new connections between contemporary improvised music from Norway and traditional Slovak Roma music.
The Breath with Pedair
The Barony Hall, Saturday, January 27
The Breath is Manchester-based guitarist Stuart McCallum and singer and flautist Ríoghnach Connolly, who came together in 2016 as a singer-songwriter duo, presenting their contemporary take on alt-folk music.
Pedair draws on the talents of four of Wales’s most prominent folk artists, Gwenan Gibbard, Gwyneth Glyn, Meinir Gwilym and Siân James. As groundbreaking international artists, they thrive on collaboration and the thrill of live performance, with harps, guitars, piano and percussion.
Blanco White and Lily Lyons
Tramway, Friday, January 26
English singer-songwriter Josh Edwards studied flamenco guitar in Cádiz in Spain and the Andean charango in Bolivia. As Blanco White, he brings together his love of the rhythms of Andalusian and Latin American music with influences closer to home. Mesmerising vocals and poetic lyrics underpin soundscapes from haunting acoustic melodies to more expansive instrumentations.
Lily Lyons is a singer-songwriter from London and Cornwall. She released her debut EP in 2022 followed by a string of shows in the UK and US with GRAMMY award-winning pianist Kevin Hays. She recently supported Roo Panes at two sold-out shows at Union Chapel in London.
HEISK with Calum Stewart Trio and Sophie Stephenson
Tramway, Thursday, January 25
HEISK, the vibrant and captivating six-piece folk band, redefine the traditional music landscape by infusing Scottish roots with contemporary energy and a commitment to gender diversity. United by their mission to amplify the voices of women and gender minorities in the traditional music scene, HEISK’s journey is an inspiring narrative of musical excellence, diversity, and empowerment.
Calum Stewart is an award-winning Uilleann piper, flautist and composer. Stewart’s distinct musical voice has been developed through collaborations within the Scottish and Irish traditions.
This performance features Stewart on Uilleann pipes and wooden flute, Luc McNally on bouzouki and Ross Saunders on double bass, with Scottish Step Dance by Sophie Stephenson.
This Is The Kit
Tramway, Saturday, January 27
This Is The Kit is the alias of singer, songwriter and banjo enthusiast Kate Stables. She started playing and collaborating with local musicians in Bristol. Now based in Paris, This Is The Kit has built up a loyal and growing following appreciative of its alt-folk sound with hypnotic and characteristic twang patterns, candid storytelling and the unique beauty of Stables’s voice.
Celtic Connections 2024 runs from Thursday, January 18 – Sunday, February 4. More information on all the shows mentioned, the full programme, and tickets are available at celticconnections.com.
READ MORE: Simple Minds at the Hydro: Jim Kerr is ready for show
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel