Celtic Connections 7

Danny Kyle Open Stage
Monday, 31 January 2007

While Mike was at class tonight, I went to the Open Stage. There are only a few nights left of the Celtic Connections Festival left, so I might as well get my fill now before its gone! I think that the best acts are saved for Friday/Saturday nights and possibly these last few days of the festival. There were two bands that played tonight that were SPECTACULAR and the rest were just spectacular. Here is what I saw...

The first to play were the Metro-gnomes (from Glasgow!) and they were one of the SPECTACULAR bands. The female singer was very Nora Jones-esque and the male singer was just as wonderful minus the Nora quality (of course). I hope that these two hit it really big one day so that I don't have to fly back over to the UK just to hear them play. I highly recommend listening to their music by clicking on the link.
The next person up was Cora Bissett. She had a nice voice, but her music was rather odd. It was beautiful and I liked one song in particular. She had watched a documentary on female genital mutilation and wrote a song about it... It was different but good. And I liked the lyrics, but the way in which she sang her music seemed a touch angry at times and I wasn't in an angry music type of mood. Otherwise it was quite lovely.
Greg McGeoch follow after Cora. He played the guitar and sang some songs he wrote. The last two were the best. My favorite of those two was the one where he played the fiddle. It sounded quite Bluegrass like and it was quite nice to listen to. My only complaint about him was that he tried to hit high notes and his voice sounds quite lovely lower. He should stick to the low singing voice... the high notes weren't getting there at all.
The Michelle Burke Band was marvelous. Michelle is from Ireland (but living in Scotland) and was accompanied by a keyboard and guitar player. She sang the most lovely songs and she was another of the SPECTACULAR acts of the night. If I could be her groupie (along with the Metro-gnomes) I would be soo happy. But alas, bills to pay and way to many places to see and things to do for me to be a groupie. (That and I'm not quite sure that either of the bands are the groupie sort...) But either way she had the most lovely voice that at many an occasion brought tears to my eyes. (I am so sad... I cannot find a website for her anywhere...)

When this band, Siller Lake, walked up I thought I would just quietly slip out of the room after they started singing. Then the lead singer started singing and I stayed. They had a wonderful sound to them and both women could sing. Not that anyone who has sung so far has not been able to, but some are better than others.