A Pan-Celtic gathering of talents

Celtic Connections will host a stellar gathering for Harvest, the opening night concert in this year’s festival, combining major names from the Celtic heartlands with the up and coming youngsters of the Fèisean movement. Capercaillie’s DONALD SHAW is the man behind the project, and explains what it is all about.

HARVEST is a bit of a long winding story! I guess it began a couple of a years ago when I wrote an article shouting my mouth off about how amazing I found the current renaissance in traditional music at grass roots level with young folk. I had taught at a couple of Fèis, and was really impressed with the kids, but one thing I thought was missing was some more recognition of music from our Celtic cousins, particularly from Brittany, Galicia and Asturias – Ireland was fine.
 

Donald Shaw with some of the young people involved in the Harvest project

By that time I had started to write a piece of music for a recording I was thinking of doing, which was very influenced by Galicia and northern Spain. I've been a big fan of the Breton and Spanish bands anyway, and I’d worked with a number of great musicians from those parts over the years.
 

In the meantime, though, Colin Hynd, the director of Celtic Connections, had heard about it, and he came to me and asked if I would like to do something with the project for the festival. I initially planned to get together a few musicians from each of the regions that I had worked with over the years, and then add 15 or 20 of the best young Scottish musicians to that line-up.
 

Colin was keen to make it a bigger project, though, so it has grown a bit from that initial plan. Musically it hasn't changed much, but it’s now got a much bigger ensemble. There are about 25 established names from Scotland, Ireland, Brittany and Spain, and about 75 young players from around the country, mostly from the Fèis movement. Fèis Rois have helped to coordinate all of that, which has been great.
 

When it was put to me in that form I honestly wondered if we could find that number of kids able to meet the challenge of playing some of the music I was writing, but I have to admit that I have been totally blown away by both the number and the high standards of young musicians that are out there, and the flexibility they have shown when we have run through the music.
 

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