Celtic Connections (From The Northern Echo)

Celtic Connections

5:48pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Folk By Jez Lowe, Folk Music Columnist

AS I head west on my trip to the Antipodes, there’s a lot going on back home as usual, not least the amazing three weeks of folk entertainment, and much more, at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow.

The line-up of performers is huge and eclectic, and the event itself has become world-renowned as a unique gathering of roots music in all its various forms.

Coming up next week are the annual BBC Folk Awards, which for the first time has moved from its London base to the Lowry Centre in Manchester, and will take up a more permanent home at Celtic Connections from next year. I took a peek at the list of performers at this year’s ceremony, and without “blowing the gaff”, I can assure you it will as star-studded night as it always is. Also, for the first time, it is open to the public, though I’d guess that by now all tickets are gone, and the rest of us will have to make do with recorded highlights on Mike Harding’s weekly Radio 2 show.

Locally, this week we have the opportunity to catch Judith Haswell and Trish MacLean at Guisborough Friday Club tomorrow, Scots balladeer Ewan McLennan at Washington’s Davy Lamp on Saturday, Flossie Malavialle at Westoe Club in South Shields on Sunday and Tom McConville and Dave Newey at Stockton’s Sun Inn on Monday. Meanwhile, I’m en route to New Zealand, via a busy week on the Celtic Music Cruise of the Caribbean, a dirty job, but someone has to do it.