O2 ABC, Glasgow, 23 January 2011

HAZY Recollections started nearly a year ago as a bi-monthly get together in Glasgow to explore that musical space where folk, roots, jazz and indie overlap, or to give it another name, Nu-folk. Shaking off the constraints of traditional genre-ism, it’s a place where experimentation, innovation and traditional musicianship are equally celebrated.

Boston band Joy Kills Sorrow opened the show

It’s a very pleasant way to spend this second Celtic Connections Sunday afternoon, relaxing on sofas and stools in the smaller of the ABC’s venues, a lounge bar with a small stage attached. The aptly named Joy Kills Sorrow from Boston, Mass., open with a mesmerising set inspired as much by The Beatles as by the bluegrass they grew up playing. Boston was the destination of many Irish emigres, as bassist and chief tunesmith Bridget Kearney’s name hints at, and the band’s kinship with the current Scottish nu-folk scene is palpable.

The afternoon ends with the Staves, three sisters who share with Elton John, who also comes from Watford, the knack of crafting a catchy tune and singing it rather beautifully. They begin with an arresting a cappella tune accompanied by sharp fingersnaps and manage to grab the entire room’s attention and hold it.

But the heart of the afternoon, at least for this reviewer, is the set by Iain Morrison and Daibhidh Martin. Morrison, who cut his milk teeth in the piping tradition of the Western Isles before going on to indie success with Crash My Model Car, is a musician who could well claim to be one of the original pioneers of Scottish Nu-folk, were he at all interested in that kind of thing.

Martin, accompanied only by an imperturbable cellist and Morrison’s guitar, breathes lyrics in the inimitable accents of Lewis and stills the room. Morrison curls over the microphone and tears his songs straight out of his heart; it’s hard to keep a dry eye during “Angel Wings in the Closet”. The presence of most of the Hidden Lane Choir in the audience helps considerably when he asks for vocal help on a chorus. “You are the only one”, sings the audience. It’s true – there is only one Iain Morrison.

© Jennie Macfie, 2011

Links

• Celtic Connections