Syne of the Times
Royal Concert Hall
★★★

Delgres
Drygate Brewery
★★★★★

SCOTLAND always sees in the New Year in style and my own head was testament to that on January 1. But it didn’t feel like 2019 had truly begun until the opening of Celtic Connections, with the comforting knowledge that this wonderfully eclectic celebration of the traditional genre and its impact across the musical world will continue until the start of next month.

The world-famous festival opened with a taster session of its sheer breadth at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall. Kin and the Community, a film made by Uist musician Padruig Morrison, brought this year’s guiding theme — the handing down of tradition — to the fore.

With just a handful of musicians providing a live accompaniment, it was a little underwhelming as kick-offs go. True, the numbers gradually swelling on stage made for a nice effect but, patient as I am, I had to sympathise with the high-profile figure I saw slipping out after the first half.

The festival’s international partner this year is Galicia, the least recognised of the seven Celtic nations. And the opening night’s pace picked up when folk orchestra SonDeSeu came on stage. Their traditional gaita bagpipes and visually spectacular hurdy gurdies offered the trad ear a sound  both familiar and refreshing.

Flautist Mike McGoldrick, accompanied by two nieces who had clearly picked up his distinctive performance tone, provided perhaps the strongest enactment of this year’s theme, the  acclaimed trad musicians accompanied by up-and-coming talent establishing a pattern for the evening.

The “rolling army” of Hadhirgaan, the ensemble of musicians from Kirkwall Grammar School, were accompanied by alumni since gone on to older, if not higher, pursuits.

They offered a haunting musical tribute to the eight men who died in the Longhope lifeboat disaster and, ahead of the 50th anniversary commemorations of the tragedy, it was a powerful reminder that the arts can offer way more than the platitudes we can expect from politicians on such occasions.

It’s not just skills and fond memories, after all, that are inherited. The Guadaloupe-New Orleans band Delgres showed in their more intimate set the following night at Drygate Brewery that scars, and indeed anger, are passed on too.

In a barnstorming set, the charismatic trio offered a soulful tribute to their namesake Louis Delgres, who led the resistance to the reoccupation of the Caribbean island and the reinstitution of slavery. Another number, Mr President, ends with the refrain: “Fight, struggle, combat, survival.”

And there was a powerful tenderness on display in Pardone mwen, introduced with a conversational sermon on the difficulty of asking for forgiveness or offering it.

The crowd was initially rather reluctant to get to its feet but by the end of the set Delgres had us singing along in Creole and jiving for an encore.

The long Glasgow nights were suddenly looking a lot brighter.