Sometimes I think, in the end, only the voice truly matters. Dress it however you wish, zhuzh it up with textural condiments: cool electronics, warm strings, harsh noise, romantic rhythm, ambient atmospherics. It’s all decoration. The human voice is what we respond to most fervently and instinctively in popular music. This – far from infallible
Keith Bruce four stars ON the evening that Royal Conservatoire of Scotland student Michael Biggins became the first pianist to win BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the year, in the competition’s 21st year, Celtic Connections provided an object lesson in just how far roots music can take you in the space of a song. The starriest name on the bill was that of Rhiannon Giddens, out of South Carolina, now domiciled in Ireland, and here singing movingly in Italian with her new partner in life and in music, Francesco Turrisi, as well as from the songbook of Sister Rosetta Tharpe – a valued resource at this year’s festival. Recorded at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the duo’s selection of material was as on point as all Giddens’ work: heartbreak, death and transition, alongside the hope of survival.