Glasgow, Scotland - The Celtic Connections music fest continues Thursday, January 19th, with well known Celtic acts, new talents and British jazz.

Program:

01.00pm Iain Anderson in conversation
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater St, G4
£1 - tickets available from the Box Office

Daily talk with BBC Radio Scotland presenter Iain Anderson featuring discussion with interesting local and national figures and musical interludes from festival performers. Today’s talk features Scottish-based composer Sally Beamish.

02.30pm Celtic Music Radio Live
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Exhibition Hall
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
Free

05.00pm Danny Kyle’s Open Stage with Gibb Todd
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Exhibition Hall
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
Free

Hosted by Danny Kyle’s good friends Gibb Todd and Liz Clark, the Open Stage is a chance to see new musical talent as they try to win a coveted support slot at next year’s festival – and all absolutely free!

06.00pm Festival Folk with Sheena Wellington
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater Street, G4
£1 - tickets available from the Box Office

Festival personalities talk informally about their life and career in music, followed by the chance to ask any burning questions.

07.30pm Horse with support Hayley Hutchinson
The Garage
490 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£15 - tickets available from the Box Office

Although Horse McDonald’s singing continues to defy description – “a voice like the ocean” was one critic’s attempt, while others have likened her to the great Stax or Motown divas – there’s no disputing its greatness. Back in 1990, her debut hit “Careful”, from her bestselling first album The Same Sky, went down in the annals of the top Scottish pop songs ever, later resurfacing on the dancefloor via a 1998 remix by Brothers in Rhythm. The past few years have been among the busiest and most fruitful of Horse’s career, as she’s juggled projects ranging from orchestral collaborations to unplugged tours, meanwhile recording a diverse succession of consistently rewarding albums. Tonight’s full-band show celebrates the launch of “Same Old, Same Old”, her first single release in many a year, taken from her forthcoming album Red Haired Girl. This latest batch of songs reveals a renewed vigour in Horse’s writing – a fresh chapter to add to an already classic back catalogue.

07.45pm Songs of Scotland, The Isle of Lewis
hosted by Ishbel MacAskill
Universal Folk Club
Sauchiehall Lane, G2
£8.50 – tickets available from the Box Office

A new venue for 2006, the intimate Universal Folk Club brings together the great tradition bearers of Scottish Song, with each evening throughout the Festival dedicated to the unique musical characteristics of a region of Scotland. Representing the Isle of Lewis for tonight’s session are Murdigan MacDonald, and Calum & Shaunie MacMillan.

08.00pm The Solo Piping Concert
Hosted by John Wilson with Chris Armstrong, Stuart Liddle, William McCallum, Angus McColl and Iain Speirs.
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Strathclyde Suite
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£12.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

08.00pm Peatbog Faeries meet Gráda
The Arches
253 Argyle Street, G2
£14 - tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: Gráda (08.00-09.50pm) Peatbog Faeries (09.10-10.30pm)

08.00pm Julie Fowlis and Jenna Reid
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater Street, G4
£12 - tickets available from the Box Office

Jointly comprising one-third of the brilliant young band Dòchas, fiddler Jenna Reid and Gaelic singer/multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis are now forging ahead with parallel solo careers. This double-header show will feature solo sets from both artists, finishing up, of course, with a few tunes together.

08.00pm Sophie Bancroft Band and Colin Steele Quintet
Tron Theatre
63 Trongate, G1
£12.50 - tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: Colin Steele Quintet (08.00-08.50pm) Sophie Bancroft Band (09.10-10.00pm)

Sophie Bancroft grew up in a musical family. Her parents were semi-professional jazz musicians and brothers Tom and Phil Bancroft have become two of the top jazz musicians and composers in Scotland. As a young child, Sophie has strong memories of falling asleep to the jazz bands that would play at her parents’ numerous musical parties, and an innate musical sense was born.

After a musically rebellious teenage era, at the age of 17 Sophie expressed her desire to be a jazz singer to her father. He promptly sat her down and played her his favorite albums by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Astrud Gilberto and she started singing regularly with the family band. Edinburgh was full of an exciting generation of young jazz musicians at this time and Sophie soon formed her own bands, developing her skills alongside Brian Kellock, Colin Steele and John Rae to name but a few, and receiving much acclaim from the press.

Sophie was then invited to collaborate with west coast electronic band Spylab, signed to Guidance Records in Chicago, to produce the highly acclaimed CD This Utopia. Their collaborations have subsequently been used on major TV series such as HBO's Six Feet Under and VH1's Bands On The Run.

Sophia has recorded and released three more albums – Miles Away (1999), Modern Love (2003), and Hot And Cold (2005).

Colin Steele has been playing professionally since 1987. After three tours with Hue and Cry and appearances on Top Of The Pops and Wogan (amongst many other TV shows) he decided that the world of pop was definitely not for him. So he moved to France for two years, and then on to London to study jazz at the Guildhall School of Music. He returned sporadically to Scotland to work with the innovative and groundbreaking modern jazz outfit, The John Rae Collective, which also included Brian Kellock and Phil Bancroft. After finishing college he spent four years traveling throughout Europe, returning to Edinburgh in 1996.

Throughout this time he has enjoyed working in many different idioms, from straight ahead jazz through to funk, Latin and dance music. Because of this diversity in interests, he set up the extremely successful live music club, Midnight Blue. He ran the club for two and a half years at the legendary Edinburgh venue Café Graffiti, until the venue’s enforced closure. He also developed a show A Tribute to Chet Baker for the Edinburgh festival with singer Cathie Rae.

Colin's first album Twilight Dreams was released in 2002 on Caber Music and received universal acclaim (Guardian/Observer Album of the Week, Guardian Top 5 Jazz CD's of 2002 etc). Twilight Dreams immediately established the characteristic uplifting and open feel of Colin's music, that is now very much his signature. This is fully evident on his follow up release, The Journey Home which shows a real development in Colin's individual skills and the bands overall cohesion in a range of new material that goes further down the folk tinged contemporary mainstream paths that they set out on in their triumphant debut.

10.00pm Late Night Session
Universal Folk Club
Sauchiehall Lane, G2
Free

Informal music session.

10.30pm Festival Club with Gibb Todd
The Holiday Inn - City West
Bothwell St, G2
£7.50 - tickets available from the Box Office

The best late-night club in the city, this is the place to keep the party going after all the gigs are over. Rub shoulders with world famous artists as they make special unbilled appearances alongside the best newcomers. And Doris Rougvie hosts the House of Song in the Cabin Bar.