Celtic Connections

The McCrary Sisters with The Campbell Brothers, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

Rob Adams

THREE STARS

There can be a thin line musically in some parts of the U.S. between Saturday night fever and Sunday morning fervour. Not long ago a Chicago saxophonist told me that his band routinely provides the soundtrack for both, with just a shower and a change of clothes in between, and if Glasgow on a Wednesday night didn't quite match the magic with which the McCrary Sisters illustrated that thin line in Perth in 2013, there was much in this gospel music double bill to combat the winter chills.

The Nashville-based McCrarys inherited their singing from their father, a preacher and singer with one of the premier gospel groups of the 1940s and 1950s, the Fairfield Four (a version still trades to this day), and they deliver with gospel choir commitment and sibling-close harmonies, promising heaven at the end of the Holy Ghost Train's line and inviting all-comers to shake off their troubles.

A more reflective Broken Things found sister Freda singing like a soul balladeering angel and a variety of accompaniments - bluesy guitar only, a double bass and drums shuffle, Hammond organ-led grooves - from their Scottish band let them strut their energetic stuff before returning to serenade the faithful with an encore of Sly Stone's Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).

John Coltrane's A Love Supreme reconfigured for lap steel and pedal steel guitars, and with a certain Bo Diddley quality, was the centrepiece of the Campbell Brothers' splendidly rousing opening set where guitar slides took on a testifying vocal role. At first endearingly novel in this setting, Coltrane's Resolution especially grew into an entirely believable declaration.