It was a full on sunny day, a rarity that brings out even more people and gives those outside benches some use.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Glasgow City Chambers had been highly recommended to us by different locals and we got an inside tour today. \u00a0It\u2019s on George Square, which is a few doors down from our stay. \u00a0One of the its claims to fame is \u201cmore marble than the Vatican\u201d which turned out to be based on having a full three story marble staircase whilst the Vatican stairs are only 2.5 stories. \u00a0The building has been used as stand-in for the Vatican in a few movies.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for the photos tomorrow.<\/p>\n The City Chambers was built during the Victorian period of the 1880s in the Beaux Arts style. The tour was a nice way to get inside and look around. \u00a0We have mentioned the popular use of domes and this gave us the inside view for a couple of them. The free and informative tour offered us the chance to look across George Square from higher up and also to see adjacent buildings better. If you\u2019re ever in Glasgow and have a bit of time check the tour out.<\/p>\n You can get some good views out the window of the St. George\u2019s square from their upper floor windows.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Now for our musical night out.<\/strong><\/p>\n Great seats again for Carlos Nunez, three rows from the stage and nearly center.\u00a0 <\/span>The stalls (as they call the floor seating area) appear to be full as do the side seating areas and center balcony.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Having seen Carlos\u2019 music on YouTube clued us in that parts of his performances would be exciting and the chatter in the crowd was full of anticipation. The English accent person setting next to us had seen Carlos 11 times. As we were leaving, I heard a Welsh accent, and of course, some Galician accents as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was another over the top performance Carlos and support Celtic Sea were amazing and what truly great musical support it was.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He was asked to create a soundtrack of all the Celtic nations for the Brittany Ferries company who ferry folks over to all the Celtic shores.<\/p>\n The band, here back by some of the members of the Scottish Youth Pipe Band.<\/p><\/div>\n So, he brought his musical collaborators over for the show and presented the story of the Celtic music from the earliest manuscript found and ancient carvings or the Lyre. Moving on down through time with explanations of how the muisic and instruments changed and were shared among the groups.\u00a0 <\/span>Again we got to hear bits of music move all the Celtic musical landscapes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Click me for a larger view if you\u2019d like.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Then he brought out Karen Matheson to sing a few songs in Scots Gaelic. If you don\u2019t know who Karen is, she is the singer for the band Capercaillie.\u00a0 <\/span>Who we were had unbelievable luck to see live on the Isle of Skye on their 20th anniversary in 2004, which is another story to tell sometime.\u00a0 <\/span>After a few beautiful tunes she leaves the stage and he brings out master fiddle player Natalie McMasters from Nova Scotia who plays the fiddle music of Cape Breton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m also clickable for a larger view.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Natalie fiddled up a storm with the band to cheering crowds moving all over the stage. She then tells us it has also been 20 years since she last played at Celtic Connections and in that interim she married and had seven children (all of whom play music).\u00a0 <\/span>One of which appeared on stage to play piano for her next tune. She then left the piano and she and her mom did some step dancing together. They also left the stage when their parts were done and the band continued on their own for a bit longer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n At some point the band was playing a rousing set they were joined by the skirl of a large host of highland pipes. Unnoticed by those of us down in the stalls, we had become surrounded by young pipers. The audience reaction with howls of surprised delight was incredible. The pipers finished their song and later ended up on stage and were introduced to the audience ( seen in photo above).<\/span><\/p>\n At various points, the musicians were all over the stage no one missed out on any of the players due to their location in the hall. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And here that blurry item being tossed across the stage and being handily caught by another musician was a small accordion.<\/p><\/div>\n There were a number of songs of remembrance dedicated to loved ones passed throughout Celtic Connections. But, there was a special set tonight dedicated to the great Celtic musicians who are now missing from the stage having passed over the last few years. Including\u00a0 <\/span>Paddy Maloney (pipes) and Sean Keane (fiddle) of the Chieftains, those most recently in 2023, Liam O\u2019Flynn (pipes) with Planxty, Shane MacGowan (singer) Pogues, and Sinead O\u2019Connor.\u00a0 <\/span>The set included one of the support members from Ireland (whose name I unfortunately did not get with all the cheering) belting out The Foggy Dew in the style of Sinead (which is my favorite version of the song)<\/p>\n In the end, all the guests came out for a few more rounds of music, and finished up in Carlos style by having the audience stand and join pinkies and swing them forward and backwards to the music in Galician dance style.\u00a0 <\/span>Then the guest musicians joined those on the floor and were invited to join their pinky train around the huge stall area, finely ending at the stage. It was a large group that joined the counted out movements of the train.\u00a0 <\/span>They played one more long set for the cheering crowd and away they all went, hopefully not for another 20 years.<\/p>\n We are starting to wind down our trip, it\u2019s hard to believe that tomorrow\u2019s show with Alan Stivell will be our last night in Scotland.<\/p>\n Then our posts will be coming from Iceland, for next three nights of snowy adventures.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today is the birthday for my grandmother, mother, and cousin Karen. While my gran and mom are gone, I\u2019m sure Karen is out and about celebrating like they all used to do, all together on some fun adventure on their birthdays and raising a glass in each other\u2019s honor. \u00a0I thought of all of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" \u00a0<\/p> Today is the birthday for my grandmother, mother, and cousin Karen. While my gran and mom are gone, I\u2019m sure Karen is out and about celebrating like they all used to do, all together on some fun adventure on their birthdays and raising a glass in each other\u2019s honor. \u00a0<\/span>I thought of all of them a good deal today as we rambled about on our forays around the city. I sent Karen a birthday text as I drank my new favorite drink, hot chocolate with a shot of whisky in it.<\/p> It was a full on sunny day, a rarity that brings out even more people and gives those outside benches some use.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p> Glasgow City Chambers had been highly recommended to us by different locals and we got an inside tour today. \u00a0It\u2019s on George Square, which is a few doors down from our stay. \u00a0One of the its claims to fame is \u201cmore marble than the Vatican\u201d which turned out to be based on having a full three story marble staircase whilst the Vatican stairs are only 2.5 stories. \u00a0The building has been used as stand-in for the Vatican in a few movies.<\/p> The City Chambers was built during the Victorian period of the 1880s in the Beaux Arts style.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> The tour was a nice way to get inside and look around. \u00a0We have mentioned the popular use of domes and this gave us the inside view for a couple of them.<\/p> The Free and informative tour offered us the chance to look across George Square from higher up and also to see adjacent buildings better. If you\u2019re ever in Glasgow and have a bit of time check the tour out.<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_2669\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] \u00a0<\/p> Now for our musical night out.<\/strong><\/p> Great seats again for Carlos Nunez, three rows from the stage nearly center.\u00a0 <\/span>The stalls on the floor appear to be full as do the side seating areas and center balcony,\u00a0<\/span>with more people coming through the entry ways into the theater.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Having only heard his music on CD or YouTube videos of parts of his performances we knew it would be exciting, the chatter in the crowd was full of anticipation. The English sounding person setting next to us had seen Carlos 11 times, as we were leaving I heard a Welsh accent, and of course some Galician accents as well.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> It was another over the top performance Carlos and support Celtic Sea were amazing and what truly great support it was.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> He was asked to create a soundtrack of all the Celtic nations for the UK ferry company who ferry\u2019s folks over to their shores.<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_2646\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"] So, he brought his musical collaborators over for the show and presented the story of the Celtic music from the earliest manuscript found and ancient carvings or the Lyre. Moving on down through time with explanations of how the muisic and instruments changed and were shared among the groups.\u00a0 <\/span>Again we got to hear bits of music move all the Celtic musical landscapes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_2657\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"] \u00a0<\/p> Then he brought out Karen Matheson to sing a few songs in Scots Gaelic. If you don\u2019t know who Karen is, she is the singer for the band Capercaillie.\u00a0 <\/span>Who we were had unbelievable luck to see live in Sky on their 20th anniversary in 2004, which is another story to tell sometime.\u00a0 <\/span>After a few beautiful tunes she leaves the stage and he brings out master fiddle player Natalie McMasters from Nova Scotia who plays the fiddle music of Cape Briton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u00a0<\/p> \u00a0<\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_0474-1024x768.jpeg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_0449-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a>The openers were a husband and wife act featuring Hannah Rarity\u2019s singing. Her voice had a great range and her songs were well chosen for it. They played a nice mix of her own compositions and traditional Scottish ones including those of Robert Burns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n You can get some good views out the window of the St. George\u2019s square from their upper floor windows.[\/caption]<\/a>The openers were a husband and wife act featuring Hannah Rarity\u2019s singing. Her voice had a great range and her songs were well chosen for it. They played a nice mix of her own compositions and traditional Scottish ones including those of Robert Burns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> The band, here back by some of the members of the Scottish Youth Pipe Band.[\/caption]<\/a> Click me for a larger view if you\u2019d like.[\/caption]