Paisley-born guitarist Tony McManus introduced the Ottawa Valley�s April Verch on fiddle, Doug Cox on dobro and bassist Cody Walters to Celtic Connections, writes Phil Trotter.

Aly Bain, Ale Moller and Bruce Molsky, with Strung
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
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Paisley-born guitarist Tony McManus introduced the Ottawa Valley's April Verch on fiddle, Doug Cox on dobro and bassist Cody Walters to Celtic Connections. On this showing Strung will be welcomed back.

Verch's clean fiddle style was complemented by Cox's dobro flourishes on covers and self-penned songs with a mostly bluegrass tinge. The highlight was Verch's intricate step dancing to a set of pacy reels, delivered by McManus in sublime style.

A melody achieved from a hunting horn, albeit with great effort, by a crimson-faced Ale Moller opened the headliners' set. The Swede's efforts were echoed by Aly Bain's fiddle and developed into the Shetland tune Yule Time, followed by a Swedish long dance and ending with "troll tunes that are a bit mad", said the Shetlander as the dust settled from a overture that went from near dissonance to lightning but melodic passages.

Bain then introduced American Bruce Molsky and he launched into a series of old time-y yet high-energy songs such as Hills of Mexico and Peggin On about a shoe maker made redundant. Accompanied by Moller's 10-string cittern-like instrument, they rattled along.These long-time collaborators rounded off with "a couple of things in the devil's tuning", an achingly beautiful Swedish waltz, and a frenetic take on Bollweevil, during which the bows blurred as they got into an ever-tighter huddle. "Thank you. we sometimes forget we do this for a living," said a happy Bain.
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