Day 01 ~ Monday, January 12, 2009

Cape Breton had a snow storm last night. We started our first day of this adventure with shoveling to get out to the airport. Luckily, the snow was fluffy and light and wasn’t much work.

If you’re reading this from an area that doesn’t get much snow, there are many different varieties. It can be wet and heavy, icy or really light and fluffy. We get our fare share of all types.

Celtic Connections is a massive festival. It’s a reunion for the many musicians. It is considered to be a sister festival to Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours. Many strong cultural links have been built over the years.

Our flight left Nova Scotia to Newark, New Jersey for a quick stop before heading to Glasgow. Mary Jane Lamond , Wendy MacIsaac (fiddle) and her guitar accompanist Chris Corrigan, were traveling on the same flight. Sleep is always a good thing when traveling on the red eye flights. The four hour time difference really can be tricky. So far so good.

Rehearsal at Celtic Connections

Day 02 ~ Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Glasgow arrival….7:00AM. It was really dark. The days are very short compared to home. We managed to get all our luggage. Yay!! The Central hotel was nice enough to let us check in early as well. Everyone had a breakfast and we met up with the rest of the Cape Bretoners, Jerry Holland, J.P. Cormier, and Kim Fraser. Ashley MacIsaac will be arriving Tomorrow.
We had a nap and a lovely meal at the Urban Bar and Brasserie. The award winning restaurant is well worth checking out while in Glasgow. The staff was top notch!

We meet fiddler Iain MacFarlane (Blazing Fiddles) in the lobby of the hotel and met went over to the HorseShoe Pub for a few stories. Good to see ya Iain.

Day 03 ~ Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Today we went to the Royal Concert Hall for sound check and rehearsals for the concert. This year marks the 250th Anniversary of Robert Burns, Scotland’s historical bard. This year’s theme is “The Home Coming” and many events will be planned throughout the year. The opening concert for the festival will reflect the strong ties between Cape Breton and the Old Country.

We met with the Scottish musicians, Corrina Hewat, Dave Milligan, Phamie Gow (descendent of famous Scottish Composer Neil Gow), and Gaelic singers Norrie MacIver and Sineag MacIntyre, and Margaret Bennett. Ashley MacIsaac also arrived for rehearsals jet lag and all. We were planning a finale with all the talent which takes a little organization. It seemed to be coming together.

After practice we ran into Dan Stacey, fellow Canadian fiddler and Ottawa Valley step dancer. His flight was delayed in Glasgow because of fog. You never know who you will see in this town.

Day 04 ~ Thursday, January 15, 2009

The show day was very relaxed. Stewart did interviews for BBC news, as well as Gaelic TV (translated of course but were still working at it.) The opening show at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall was being taped for T.V. Very exciting!

The Concert Hall is quite large and was filled with a lively bunch. All the performers did an amazing job. Ashley finished the first set with a rousing rendition of “You Take the High Road and I’ll Take the low road”.

After the show, we went to a reception to say hello to some other musicians and organizers of the festival. Our good friend, fiddle Liz Doherty and her husband Jim Woods (accordion, bodhran) were over from Ireland for the weekend. Celtic Connections seems like a reunion for our friends. Good Times!

Opening concert at the Royal Concert Hall

Day 05 ~ Friday, January 16, 2009

Another rainy day in Glasgow, but it’s much warmer than Cape Breton at this point. It was -19 degrees Celsius and -27 degrees Celsius with the wind chill. We had some of UK’s famous Indian food. Everything seems a notch spicier than Indian in Halifax. Even the mild had a bit of heat. Tasty!

We watched Cara Dillon and Sharon Shannon in the evening. The show was great. Sharon had huge band with here and a few guest to boot, including here sound tech who was a great singer. It’s nice to see a show sometimes. It doesn’t happen very often with this crew.

We made our way back to the festival club and played around 1:30am in the morning. There was a really good crowd that danced like wild all night! The festival club closes at 4:00pm. If you plan to go, take the next day off work!

Day 06 ~ Saturday, January 17, 2009

Today we went back to the Urban bar and Brasserie because the food was so good. As we walk into the restaurant, the waiter said he saw us on the news. We had a great lunch.

Some of the gang met up with Finn and Hamish Moore, bagpipers and makers. After the short meeting, we made our way up to the Concert Hall in the rain. We had some coffee; bought some CD’s and made our way into the Concert Hall to see Bela Fleck. He has a new film and CD coming out about Africa and this was his first trial concert. It was absolutely amazing! He melded the music of different parts of Africa with Scotland and Ireland.





Day 07 ~ Sunday, January 18, 2009

Our bus arrived at 6:20am. As we gathered outside of the hotel, we got to meet Bela Fleck. He was catching the same flight and was head to play with Winton Marsalis for Barack Obama’s Inauguration. He mentioned that he never met Winton before and was very excited. Bela was a really nice guy. We flew to Newark and were delayed because of the weather. We eventually made it to Halifax but the weather was terrible so we spent the night. It was 1:00am

Day 08 ~ Monday, January 19, 2009

Arrived home safe and sound!