Connections with Robert Plant, Wainwright Sisters and more

IF music truly be the food of love,thenanorgyisabouttoget under way in Glasgow this week.

Across 18 days, Celtic Connections is bringing together 2,500 musicians in more than 300 events across multiple genres of music, with an emphasis on folk, world and roots.

The festival first got toes tapping immoderately back in 1994, when it promised warmth in January and duly delivered an aural heatwave. The opening act was Wolfstone, and other bobby dazzlers included Dick Gaughan, Dougie McLean, The Chieftains, Boys of the Lough, Finbar Fury andtheBattlefieldBand.

Last year’s highlight was the opening concert, Nae Regrets — Martyn Bennett’s Grit, an orchestral reworking of the last studio album by the late, great exponent of Celtic fusion.

This year’s opening concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall will be The Carrying Stream, celebrating 50 years of the Traditional Music and Song Association. It features Sheena Wellington, Barbara Dickson, Kris Drever and Mischa Macpherson.

Beyond that, there are too many great names to mention. OK, a few: Frazey Ford, The Wainwright Sisters, Robert Plant (part of a tribute to singerguitaristBertJansch),Bwani Junction and They Might Be Giants.

You might fancy the giant party planned to mark the 70th birthday of Shetland fiddler Aly Bain and his 30 years of performing with regular buddy Phil Cunningham.

It’s all about collaboration, not just between artists but between countries, and this year the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France takes centre stage as the festival celebrates France as partner country for 2016.

Among all the fiddling, strumming and ululating, there’s talking, too, not least at the book launchofScotlandandthe Easter Rising, in which writers and academics consider events in Dublin 100 years ago.

Celtic Connections director Donald Shaw said: “This year we celebrate anniversaries and the Auld Alliance. We have a lot of amazing concerts.” Indubitably so, sir.

Week Ahead

Celtic Connections runs from January 14-31. www. celticconnections.com