Glasgow bar Brel has hosted some excellent Celtic Connections fringe gigs this year.
Last week there were intimate sets from Remember Remember, Malcolm Middleton, FOUND and the frontmen of Admiral Fallow and Frightened Rabbit, and its quality run extended with this live showcase from Scottish record label Chemikal Underground.
Edinburgh's Drew Wright, aka Wounded Knee, is a terrific, punk-spirited folk alchemist. He has reduced his signature vocal loops and primitive beat-boxing of late, but remains an arresting performer, as testified by his illuminating rural epic, Hill Medley, and his rousing variation of Hamish Henderson's (inter)national anthem, Freedom Come Aw Ye.
The billing suggested that winsome indie troupe Zoey Van Goey were the headline act, and a new song, Five Four, offered an interesting (and to these ears, welcome) divergence into harmonic Bonnie Prince Billy territory – but ex-Delgado and Chemikal co-director Emma Pollock stole the show.
She is a stunning vocalist, and her evolution from indie sovereign to torch-song chanteuse continued at Brel thanks to a spine-tingling collaboration with six-string virtuoso RM Hubbert (Half Light, from the latter's new album). Hubbert retained evocative guitar duties for Matteo Salvatore's "Italian beggar song", Mo Ve'la Bella Mia Da La Muntagna, which saw Pollock duet with a rose-bearing Alasdair Roberts, who played the role of romantic vocal foil beautifully.
Pollock's voice is equally suited to alt-rock, as evinced by solo favourite, I Could Be A Saint, while some brand-new songs penned for the occasion spanned a blues-folk ode to being careful with your words, and an understated aria, Making It Up.
"You're just going to have to like it," she joked of the new material. We were more than happy to oblige.
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