FORMER Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, a re-imaging of a classic Joni Mitchell record and a celebration of Edith Piaf form some of the highlights of next year’s Celtic Connections programme.
The 2016 festival programme was announced today and the annual Glasgow event will kick off its 23rd year next January with a special opening night concert that will serve as a celebration of 50 years of the traditional music and song association of Scotland.
One of the hottest tickets will be Plant’s appearance at a tribute to the legendary Scottish guitarist Bert Jansch on Sunday January 31 at the Old Fruitmarket, where he’ll be joined by other names like Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
The festival’s artistic director Donald Shaw said: “He’s someone that I wanted to involve in the festival before because of his love of blues and roots music, and obviously Led Zeppelin themselves were really inspired by Bert Jansch’s playing, so as a Scotsman of such pedigree it’s good to do something for Bert.”
As always the winter event, which runs from January 14 to January 31 and sees around 2,500 musicians visit the city, will feature a number of unique events, including a special Joni Mitchell tribute on January 16 at the Royal Concert Hall.
Donald added: “James Robertson has rewritten Joni Mitchell’s Hejira album into Scots tongue, and Karine Polwart is the musical director of that one.
“The opening night will be an important show for us, as it’ll show the journey that traditional music has gone on over the past 50 years.
"A special part of the festival for me is musicians interacting and coming together, and there is a lot of that this year.
“There also seems to be a lot of anniversaries this year.
"We’ve got a young band from Edinburgh, Bwani Junction, doing Graceland (Paul Simon's classic album) with some of the original musicians from the record, and then there’s a strong French theme in the last week of the festival, as they’re our international partners this year, so we’re bringing in the show Piaf at the Theatre Royal (on January 27 and 28).”
Local talent will continue to be catered for, and the Danny Kyle Open Stage, of which the Evening Times is media partner, will offer stars of the future a chance to shine.
Other big shows will include rising Americana star Sturgill Simpson at the O2 ABC on January 15, country legend Lucinda Williams at the Royal Concert Hall on January 20 and Senegal singer Baaba Maal at the Concert Hall on January 22.
Full details of this year’s programme can be found at www.celticconnections.com
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