Musical notes: Celtic Connections artists talk about the songs featured on the Sunday Herald's exclusive CD

Dave Senft, bassist in the Boston-based indie folk band, says: "The Ancestor is about embracing mortality and death by acknowledging that (1) we live on through our progeny, and that (2) one day, when the sun explodes and the earth is gone, what remains of us will become a part of new (and awesome) things! An earlier version of the song had appeared on our first album, so re-recording it with a new approach and putting it as the first track on Birds Say was an exciting way to redefine ourselves. There is also a gorgeous animated music video for both versions, directed by our close friend Keith Boynton."

* Darlingside plays Oran Mor, Jan 28. www.darlingside.com

2. Gillian Frame: Rothes Colliery

This track is taken from Pendulum, the Glasgow-based fiddle player and singer's first solo album since becoming BBC Scotland's Young Traditional Musician in 2001. “Rothes Colliery was written by my husband, Findlay Napier, inspired by the story of Scotland's first ‘super pit’," says Frame. "The colliery was supposed to draw coal up to 2070 but it closed in 1964, just six years after its official opening.” Brought up on Arran and surrounded by traditional music, Frame, a founding member of award-winning band Back Of The Moon, was drawn to Rothes Colliery “as its style and structure reminded me of Gaelic Waulking songs”.

* Gillian Frame plays St Andrew's in the Square, Jan 27. www.gillianframe.com

3. Graham Mackenzie: The Central

"This track is from my debut album, 'Crossing Borders', which was my New Voices commission for Celtic Connections in 2015", says Mackenzie, a fiddler/violinist/composer from Inverness.

"The Central Hotel in Glasgow was the hub for Donald Shaw’s Harvest, the opening concert of the 2004 festival where I performed with over 100 Fèisean and professional musicians. The track also features Megan Henderson, Robbie Mackenzie, Innes Watson, Alice Allen, Stewart Wilson, Ciorstaidh Beaton, Scott Wood and Jim Molyneux. It was recorded and mixed at Castlesound Studios with Stuart Hamilton and mastered by Calum Malcolm."

* Graham Mackenzie plays GRCH Strathclyde Suite, Jan 24 (with Aizle) and City Halls, Jan 29 (with Mark O'Connor). www.grahammackenziemusic.com

4. Roberta Sá: Meu novo Ilê

"This is a song composed by Moreno Veloso, [Brazilian composer] Caetano Veloso’s oldest son, one of the most talented composers of his generation," says Sá, a leading Brazilian singer. "I've recorded Moreno for the first time on my second album, Que Belo Dia Estranho Pra Se Ter Alegria (2007). Moreno has this unique contemporary signature at his work and when I was producing my latest CD he gave me Meu novo Ilê, which represents so well the new Brazilian popular music."

* Roberta Sá plays Drygate, Jan 27; Roaming Roots Revue, GRCH, Jan 28. http://robertasa.com.br/site/

5. Adam Holmes & the Embers: People Come/People Go

"This is a song about not resisting the painful things in life" says Holmes, an Edinburgh-born singer/songwriter. "Allowing them in and facing the darkness, knowing that however hard it is to see the light, we are all one part of a massive territory that we rarely see for our own maps. If you are able to look at things from a distance you can see that nothing is good or bad, only we decide that, as without our various perspectives life is just a series of events. I wanted to say this to a stranger I saw crying in a train station."

* Adam Holmes & the Embers play Oran Mor, Jan 28. https://adamholmesandtheembers.com

6. Laura Marling: Rambling Man

A track from her second album, I Speak Because I Can. In his excellent book Isle Of Noises: Conversations With Great British Songwriters (Picador, 2013), Daniel Rachel put to Marling part of the lyric: "It's funny that the first chords that you come to/ Are the minor notes that come to serenade you" and asked if there was "an element of truth" in the attraction of minor keys. She replied: "Yes, it's self-perpetuating. Once you do indulge in melancholy it's addictive. It's much easier to be unhappy than happy. But that lyric, I wasn't consciously talking about myself. I project a lot of the confusion of songwriting and who I am into other people and characters."

* Laura Marling is in concert with the BBC SSO, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Jan 19. https://live.lauramarling.com

7. Niteworks: Maraiche feat. Kathleen MacInnes

From Skye, Niteworks blend Gaelic language and traditional music with electronic influences. "Maraiche is a song in abbreviation of Am Maraiche 's a Leannan (The Mariner And His Love) by Mairi Cameron and tells a story of love and loss played out from land to sea. We first heard Kathleen’s rendition on the Brìgh an Òrain programme, and were instantly hooked by the originality of the melody. The song’s lyrics are a reminder as to our fickle relationship with the sea, and Kathleen puts the story across so well. We felt it would be an apt addition to the Celtic Connections CD."

* Niteworks play the Old Fruitmarket, Jan 28. http://niteworksband.com

8. Ímar: Into The Light

The first track on Afterlight, the debut album by Glasgow's hottest new folk property, Into The Light sets the scene with a set of three fast-paced reels. "It kicks off with Through The Trade, written by Manx fiddle player Tomás Callister. Then, keeping it in the Callister family, the second tune, Mean Fouyir (Manx Gaelic for "September") is written by Tom's younger sister Isla Callister, who is also a fiddle player from the Isle of Man. To finish off, we launch into our version of the trad Irish tune The Hairy Dogleaf."

* Imar play the GRCH new auditorium, Jan 27. http://www.imarband.com

9. Aziza Brahim: El Canto De La Arena

Says Brahim, a singer born in a refugee camp, el Hamada, in Algeria: “This song is focused on the sounds of the sand dune's movements caused by the wind, known as "the sand singing". The lyrics enumerate different historic desert sounds: the babbling of the water that was there a long time ago, the uproar of the battles or the background noise of the old caravans characteristic of the native nomad populations; among others. Most of them reduced to sand due to the passing of time, like something that never has happened, like the stories that never appear in the media. The chorus mentions the desert rose and the wind rose as symbols of durable and momentary things.”

* Aziza Brahim is in conversation with Karine Polwart and in concert at Drygate, both Jan 21. http://www.azizabrahim.com/new/

10. Jarlath Henderson: The Mountain Streams Where The Moorcocks Crow

Henderson, a singer and multi-instrumentalist and youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Folk Award, says: "I've tried to bring love and loss, the careworn staples of traditional music, up to date in this song. It's the ultimate track on my debut album Hearts Broken, Heads Turned, a nominee for Scottish Album of the year 2016. It uses a combination of uilleann pipe samples, brass and beat boxing, so that the song, handed down from oral traditions since the 1800s, has an unexpectedly modern sound. It was one of the first tracks we started recording but the last to be finished as we didn't know exactly how it would end, so if you haven't come across the album yet then this should be a good introduction – or maybe even a good 'outroduction'."

* Jarlath Henderson is at GRCH, Feb 1; at City Halls with Duncan Henderson, Jan 28; and with Atlantic Arc Orchestra, City Halls, Feb 2. https://jarlathhenderson.co.uk/

11. Vishten: Terre Rouge

Vishten are an acclaimed trio from the east coast of Canada. "This song was inspired by the beautiful red soil on our islands – Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands on Canada's east coast. This couple is madly in love: 'Let's go dance my love, under the starry night. The red soil has led us on the road to paradise. Let's go dance my love, and let go of our troubles.' It's the title track from the award-winning album, Terre Rouge."

* Vishten play the GRCH Strathclyde Suite, Feb 1. www.vishten.net/

12. Billy Bragg & Joe Henry: The Midnight Special

The song comes from from the repertoire of Huddy Ledbetter, one of America's greatest songwriters and collectors. "At the age of 30, he was convicted of murdering a man in a fight over a woman and sent to Sugarland prison farm near Houston, Texas," explain Bragg and Henry. "While he was there he acquired the nickname Lead Belly and most likely heard 'The Midnight Special'. The song takes its title form the name given by the prisoners to the Southern Pacific express train that left Houston every night, headed west for San Antonio. As it passed Sugarland around midnight, its lights would flash momentarily into the prison cells and if the light shone on you, legend had it, you would be the next man to get parole."

* Billy Bragg and Joe Henry play the Old Fruitmarket, Jan 26. http://shinealight-joehenry.billybragg.co.uk/

13. Ewan McLennan & George Monbiot: Such A Thing As Society

This track comes from the album Breaking the Spell Of Loneliness, a collaboration between the award-winning singer-songwriter and the noted campaigning journalist. “The song is our answer to the claim that we are and should be at war with each other," says Monbiot. "This belief – that we achieve fulfilment by fighting like dogs over a dustbin – encourages us to forget the countless instances of generosity and compassion we encounter, and to focus on the far rarer (but often more spectacular) moments of cruelty and viciousness. There is a sense in which loneliness is a political project: if we can be persuaded that we exist apart, citizenship is replaced by consumerism, the ideal outcome for those who see democracy as an impediment to profit. We need to keep reminding ourselves of who we really are.”

* Ewan McLennan & George Monbiot play the Mackintosh Church, Feb 3. www.ewanmclennan.co.uk/; http://www.monbiot.com/

14. Margo Price: How The Mighty Have Fallen

Price won "Emerging Artist of the Year" at last year's Americana Music Association awards. "This song was written by my friend Mark Fredson," she says. "It was initially in 4/4 time and we changed the tempo and started covering it because I thought it was such a great song. I remember the night he wrote it he came over and played it in our basement. He was so excited to show it to us. Because I didn't write it, I can only guess what he was trying to convey ... I think the song shows vulnerability, resilience, strength, and the ability to have faith in yourself even when nobody else does."

* Margo Price is at Oran Mor, Jan 24. margoprice.net/

15. Heidi Talbot: The Year That I Was Born

“I wrote this with Louis Abbott from Admiral Fallow," says Talbot, a Co Kildare singer/songwriter now living in Scotland. "I sent Louis a few ideas I was working on; these lyrics caught his attention and he wrote the melody. It's a nostalgic song about my experience growing up in an Irish household, big family, not loads of money – my dad went to England as there wasn't any work for him in Ireland at that time. I recorded the song in the studio we built beside our house, in a 17th century Bothy. Louis sings and plays electric and my husband John McCusker produced the track.”

* Heidi Talbot plays the Mitchell Theatre, Feb 4. heiditalbot.com/

16. Shooglenifty: Two Fifty To Vigo

James Mackintosh of Shooglenifty, specialists in "acid-croft since 1990", says: "This tune was inspired by a lift on the back of a 250cc motorcycle from Arbo to Vigo, in South Galicia, in the early 1990s. Angus [Grant, who died last October] and I had saved up our busking pennies made during the Edinburgh Festival and flown to Amsterdam. I returned to Edinburgh but Angus travelled onto Switzerland with a pal to busk for a few months. They travelled to Galicia and visited friends in Arbo. One evening Angus was offered a backie from someone he'd only just met and took him up on the offer. The road to Vigo from Arbo is very windy, and Angus was initially terrified but once he relaxed he found it exhilarating. The tune featured on our first studio album, Venus In Tweeds. Our producer encouraged experimentation in the studio, which added to the atmosphere of the recording – bells, whispered Galician phrases – but the tune in essence is a beautiful expression of an innocent and exciting time in Angus's life, which we never tire of playing, and which has inspired dozens of different versions around the world. A lovely legacy.

* Shooglenifty and guests stage A Night for Angus, GRCH, Jan 21. www.shooglenifty.com

17. Seth Lakeman feat. Wildwood Kin: Meet Me in the Twilight

"This was written at the end of the summer of 2015," recalls Lakeman, the award-winning singer-songwriter. "I was standing on the coast of west Cornwall and watching the sunset, with lots of others. I wrote the song on electric tenor guitar back on Dartmoor. It's got a hypnotic pulse throughout and seems to drive itself along. The lyrics and sentiment are written about the memory of a familiar tune that reminds us of someone special. We recorded it in a Jacobean Manor House with producer Ethan Johns back in March last year."

* Seth Lakeman plays GRCH, Jan 22. www.sethlakeman.co.uk/

* celticconnections.com