Ballonfest

Every June Howell has a big hot air ballon festival. This year it is June 27-29. You can check out what there is to see here. Mom and dad are coming over on Saturday... let us know if you want to come over too!! (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday)

Celtic Connections 8

The New Irish Tradition
Saturday, 3 February 2007

This was the last event of the Celtic Connections festival that we'll attend. Today it comes to an end, which is incredibly sad as we have had a wonderful time this past couple weeks listening to all the music in the city. But our last concert was lovely. This one was held at St Andrew's in the Square which is an old church that was saved from ruin by being converted into a beautiful venue with a restaurant in the basement. As seating was first come, first serve, we decided to get there early. So we had a wonderful meal in the restaurant in the basement. The food was excellent and they use mainly all Scottish ingredients. And the dessert was DEVINE. One of the best cheesecakes I have ever had the chance to consume.

I took a couple of pictures of the ceiling and the clock in the back of the church...

The first group on was Caoimhin O Raghallaigh, playing the fiddle, and Mick O'Brien, playing the pipes. This was an amazing act and I would love to purchase their CD that's out. They were incredibly mellow in their tunes and both played beautifully. I think that their music would be the ultimate relaxation method ... I can just imagine their music playing in the background with a glass of wine and a good book ... it sounds lovely.

The next group that played was definitely more lively in their song choices. They played excellently as well. It was advertised as just being Andy Morrow, playing the fiddle, and Tony O'Connell, playing the concertina, but came with three others playing the flute, guitar, and drum. They all played excellently together as well, so well in fact that they were cheered on to play one more set. The only irritating thing about that was that they seemed to "know" this would happen. They left all instruments on the seats for easy pick up upon returning.

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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.

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Danny Kyle Open Stage

Friday, January 26, 2007

We have found that the Friday and Saturday Open Stage events are by far the best. Obviously more people go, so they line up the better acts to play then. The rest of the week is usually only one or two good acts and the rest are okay (although all are better than I could even hope to be musically.) Here is what we saw last night...




Rapach was first on stage. They were a wonderful Gaelic singing duo. We have come to love Gaelic music. We never know what they are singing, but it always sounds so lovely. For all we know they could be talking of death and despair, but it sounds so nice. And most are incredibly upbeat.




Maggie Anderson & Brian (no idea who he was, but he played the guitar for this girl and the next.) were the next to hit the stage and were spectacular. Maggie is a 14 year old fiddle player from the Shetland Islands. She played amazing well and was so humble too. It was a really wonderful to sit and listed to her play.


Erin Sandison & Brian (same guitar player as before) are again from the Shetland Islands. Like Maggie, she is also 14 years old but sings. And she CAN SING. She had an amazing voice and will hopefully go on to do great things. (Along with Maggie)


The next group was 'La'. As you can imagine from their name, it was a group on four near 16 year old girls. They thought that they were spectacular and talked through everyone else's performance and they were not all that wonderful to listen to.


McArdle Sisters were the last to play of the night. They were five girls (sisters of course... hence the name) all ranging from probably 22 to 14. Mike is sure that the dad is going crazy and definitely has gray hair and sits by the door with a shot gun since they are all of dating age. He has stated that if our first three children are girls, we're stopping. No need to try for a boy he does not want to have to worry about five girls when they start dating. Either way, they were a lovely group to listen to.

Celtic Connections 5

Showcase Scotland
Thursday January 25, 2007

On Thursday night we were able to see the Showcase Scotland act at the Royal Concert Hall. We choose this concert in particular because we were able to see a lot of acts in one night (and at one affordable price.) With all the wonderful concerts going on right now, we could easily spend all our money on concerts in just two weeks, so this seemed like a great deal. The only bad thing was that we got there to find out it was being broadcasted live on BBC Radio Scotland. So you had to sit through all the news broadcasts just for the concert to start and then listen to the radio announcer guy and applause on demand. It was midly irritating, but the music was well worth it.

Some of the wonderful musical groups we heard was: Session A9 - a great fiddle band; Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson - a spectacular piping duo and probably my most favorite of the night; the Fraser Fifield Band - a really great trio; Stramash - a really interesting traditional/jazz group led by Colin Steele; Jenna Reid- who was up on stage with a few other very talented musicians and was great; Lau - this was a wonderful trio with a head banging accordian player; Steve Byrne - who was very talented but he was neither Mike nor my favorite of the night; Iain Morrison - this guy started playing the guitar after winning lots of awards for pipes, he also writes his own music... about mating... I liked him on pipes better than guitar and vocals; Roddy Hart - from Glasgow with an amazing voice; Julie Fowlis - another amazing Gaelic singer.

Whisky Speed Dating

Mike found a really interesting article in The Evening Times the other night about the Whisky Festival going on in Glasgow right now. In order to get 20 - 30 somethings more interested and educated on whisky, the festival coordinators set up whisky speed dating sessions. We went to one last night at the Brunswick Hotel Bar.

The sessions were free and it was just a first come, first serve basis. They had four different tables set up and each whisky rep was to bring two different whiskys. Each couple went from table to table and learned all about what the rep brought. We had five minutes at each table and then the bell rang and we moved to the next table. We actually tried nine different whiskys last night and learned all about them and why each one tastes the way they do. It was really interesting to first learn how to actually properly drink them and to learn all about the huge variety of Scottish whiskys. Here are the whiskys that we tried: Johhnie Walker Black Label, Talisker 10 year, Bell's 8 year, Caol Ila 12 year, Dalmore Single Highland Malt, Jura 10 year, Jura Superstition, Glenrothes Select Reserve, and Highland Park 18 year. Our favorite of the night was definitely the Jura whiskys and we highly recommend trying it if at all possible.

I actually tried all of the whiskys whether I liked the smell or not. (We were told if you don't like the smell, you won't like the whisky.) I have actually quite amazed myself over here. Not only have I tried whiskeys, but I have tried haggis (and like it!), eat lamb and beef, actually like Guinness, and generally at least try anything that is put in front of me no matter what it looks like. I've come a long way from the girl who HATED meat and would definitely not eat it unless there was a massive pile of ketchup on my plate and would DEFINITELY not try anything that looked odd. I won't eat pork though, and I'll still choose a salad over steak any day of the week.

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Danny Kyle Open Stage

Monday, January 22, 2007

The first act of the night was Garry Stewart, from the Garry Stewart Band. He is really talented singer, guitar player, and songwriter. Mike thinks he sounds similar to Paul Simon. He was probably the best act of the night. We really liked his song lyrics and of course the way he sounded.

Philmari was up next. They are a married couple from Loch Lomand (north of Glasgow) and have of so creatively combined their first names to make a band name. Phil was a vocalist and guitar player while Mari was a vocalist and played the tambourine. Phil was a great guitar player and his singing was quite nice. Mari on the other hand could have been left at home and nothing would have been missing. She has a lovely voice, but does an odd wavering thing (which Mike calls vibrato) with her voice, and I don't like it. If she stops, she should be allowed back in Philmari.
Seylan Baxter and Cheyanne Brown were wonderful. Seylan was the vocalist and played the cello, while Cheyanne (from Alaska!) played the Scottish harp. Oddly enough, Cheyanne had no idea what the name of the music was called that they were playing, but she played beautifully. We are pretty sure that some of the songs were sung in Gaelic (which makes sense why Cheyanne was having problems remembering the names). Either way, they are both really talented.
The next to play was Jill Leighton, who is living Glasgow right now. She plays the guitar beautifully and she was great at the harmonica. I have no idea how people can play the guitar, and the harmonica and still remember what they are doing and to stop playing the harmonica and sing. I am in awe of people like her. She has a beautiful voice, but I am just not sure of her lyrics. Maybe its just that I didn't understand them, but who knows, you can decide for yourself.

The last to play for the night was a Scottish Celtic Progressive Rock Band called Aroora. (Unfortunately I cannot find a link to the band website, but I do have video clips for anyone interested.) We were a little apprehensive at first since we saw drums, a guitar, a bass guitar, fiddle, bagpipes, and flute like instrument. We were really amazed by the band though. I am not a huge fan of heavy metal bands, I like them but have to be in the right mood to listen to them. I liked their music a lot; it was interesting to hear the rock music with traditional Celtic instruments, and the bass guitar player was phenomenal. Even Mike who is more analytical of the guitar players than I am (since he plays the guitar) liked this guy.

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Danny Kyle Open Stage

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Due to popular demand (meaning that my lovely wife has been asking, repeatedly, that I do something to assist in the construction of this blog) I will be writing a few entries about our nightly experiences attending the Open Stage Series of the Celtic Connections Festival.

First tonight we were unfortunately running behind and therefore missed the opening act altogether, though we have decided that it was for a good cause. Many of you loyal readers are aware of Trish trying out authentic Scottish recipes since we have moved here as a means of gleaning even greater enjoyment of the culture which surrounds us. Though tonight it was me slaving over the hot oven rather than her.

This, though the picture does leave a little something to be desired, is my first attempt at Fish Pie. Sounds kind of weird huh? It tastes great though; it is basically haddock that has been baked in milk which is then mixed with butter, parsley, and a few other ingredients to then be topped with a layer of mashed potatoes and cooked until it gets a little brown on top. I thought the recipe didn't sound to difficult and that I would be able to have it on the table in well under an hour - wrong. I accidentally bought haddock that had not been de-boned thus resulting in twenty minutes or so of foul language while picking through the fish after it had been baked - oh well, the dish tasted good enough that it was worth missing the first act tonight.

Right after dinner we were of to see the show.

This is the first band we caught. They went by the name of the Dead Beat Club - unfortunately we missed the beginning of the act so we do not know where they are from. They were quite good, the lead singer (sitting wearing the trucker hat) had a deep, raspy, throaty voice that really harmonized nicely with the tambourine playing female vocalist. Other instruments included a harmonica player, a keyboardist, and a mandolin player; the mando guy really added some flavor to the music.

These two played under the name of the guitar player, Alex Hodgson. This was a pretty cool act, the guitarist had a great sense of humor and liked to tell jokes between songs. Probably the funniest thing that we heard was a story about a guy who works at one of the monuments in Edinburgh finding a 'wee poo' on the top step of the monument after closing one night and rather than carrying it all the way down the stairs to dispose of it decided to throw it out the window at the top of the monument, at which point it landed on a floodlight. Upon leaving work that night the man was said to notice something that looked like the Batman symbol being shown on the monument - the best part was that the guitar player took this story and wrote a song about it, I must say I never thought I would laugh so hard at a song about 'poo.'

Ryan Young is probably one of the most impressive acts that we have seen so far, I doubt that he could be much over 14 years old and was a positively amazing fiddler. He did three sets of tunes, a few of which he had written himself, the music coruscated throughout the room. Literally amazing playing; we think he might have won BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year in 2006 (this is yet another concert in the Celtic Connections Festival) - and if he didn't win last year he should have!

Last and, in my opinion, least we have CAL. Cal is the guitar player at front and center, apparently his band mates think he's so cool that they decided to just name the band after him. But really, this guy was so full of himself it was almost scary - he threw guitar picks out to the audience after they finished playing (something I thought reserved for bands like AC/DC). The music was not bad, but not spectacular either - think Steve Millar-esque with Pick Floyd style synthesizers all while maintaining a near extreme level of Scottish nationalism. It felt as though Cal might have felt a little bit more at home in the mid 80s than in the new millennium. They did have their moments though, the song that got me was one that sounded eerily like poison and which the chorus ran 'your my Scottish rose in the heather without a thorn' - it would have been even more funny if they had meant for it too be humorous but unfortunately I don't think that was the case. One more thing that Trish felt I should relate about the evening occurred when these guys were on stage, but as she can probably tell it better than I can here she is:

Well... there was this odd women and her four daughters there having a picnic of junk food. The mother was definitely trying to be more of a friend than a mother and was really irritating all through the show with the food paper wrappers and trying to get her daughters to pay all sorts of attention to her. But then it was Cal's turn to hit the stage. She sent the girls off to sit in chairs (as others had left the room due to Cal's noise.) It was then that we noticed that her shirt was sooo low that the "girls" were about to jump out with any fast movements. (And she wasn't a slight woman by any means, which meant there was even MORE cleavage.) Next thing we knew she was just a few feet from us, up against the wall, shaking her groove thing. One of the daughters even came up to her, and good old mom sent her back to her seat. We think she was trying to find a new daddy for her girls.

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Danny Kyle Open Stage

Saturday, January 20, 2007

We went to the Open Stage night of the Celtic Connections tonight. They are held every night of the festival and after tonight we may attend all the rest! The performers at the Open Stage are all competing for guaranteed slots in next year's festival, so they are spectacular. You have to apply to even be considered to play. Each night has five acts and the six best out of all the nights go on to the final night of the festival and to next year's festival. You can actually listen to the open stage (from noon - 2pm Michigan time) and parts of this year's festival and previous years as well. Here is the link to listen.

This was the first singer of the night. He had written his own songs and is from Aberdeen. He was very clear and his ballads were lovely. Sadly, we do not know any of the performers' names at the moment as the Celtic Connections website takes down everything that has already happened. If I figure it out, I will let you all know.
This was a great band from the Isle of Mull. The guitar player/vocalist and the drum player were both young boys and the guy playing the double bass/vocalist was the guitar player's dad. They were wonderfully upbeat and we can see them going on and being wonderfully famous one day.
This couple (I think) were from Perth and were a HUGE change from the upbeat band previous. Mike and I were talking later about the hippies that never realised the earlier 60's were gone (seriously.. the hair... the clothes.. the music... it was sad.) We felt like we should have been in some dark and broody coffee house, all dressed in black, with berets on (black of course), Mike with a little goatee, me with short dyed hair, smoking cigarettes and snapping our fingers at the end of every set. All while drinking espresso of course. Needless to say, it wasn't our favorite. Nor anyone else's judging by the talking during the music, the frequent smoke breaks, and the wandering gazes.
These girls were from Edinburgh and were a wonderful bluegrass duo. I am sure that you can tell, they both played the banjo and sang some very nice ballads. At the end they did a great bluegrass rendition of Elvis' That's All Right Mama. It has surprised me how many bluegrass bands are playing in the Celtic Connections festival. But they are all about the roots of music, and bluegrass is part of the roots of music. There are quite a few bluegrass bands from the states playing this year that are supposed to be spectacular, but we decided not to see them as its easier to hear that live in the US than Celtic music is.

This was an amazing five person band, none of who could not have been over 18 years old. The two girls on the end played the fiddle, the girl on the very end also sang. The boy in the center played the guitar, flute, and sang. The boy in the black played the drum thing (Mike says it was called a bodron) and sang. The boy on the end played the flute, piccolo, and some other wind instrument. They were GREAT and hopefully we will see them at the final show of the festival. I have a video of them playing, but have no idea how to upload videos onto blogger (and am not willing to pay to do it.)

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Opening Day -- The Torchlight Procession

Tonight was the opening night of the spectacular Celtic Connections Festival that will be going on through out the next few weeks here. There was a torchlight procession of spectators led by a piping band. There was also another in the middle of the crowd. It was wonderful to hear the piping bands in full force and see all the people there to support them. And thankgoodness there was no rain! Musicians from all over the world descend on Glasgow during this festival and surprisingly enough, the tickets are quite cheap. Mike and I both love music, so we are incredibly excited about this festival. AND every night there is an open stage night that is free. Each night there are 5 slots and the viewers pick the best act. That act gets an automatic slot in the next years program. Apparently there have been many an act that started here and have gone on to become famous musicians.