Shetland music celebrated at Celtic Connections

Shetland’s unique musical culture and heritage will form the backbone of a series of events at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival.

One of the islands’ leading musicians, Chris Stout, has been tasked with putting together a programme including four concerts and a dance, under the banner ‘Shetland 550’. “And that’s just the official stuff”, as the fiddler and composer points out.

The wide range of artists and forms represented seems a fitting way to mark five and a half centuries of belonging to Scotland. And, while it may seem a somewhat daunting task, it is one that Chris is relishing.

He says the programme, on the festival's opening weekend, tries to trace Shetland’s musical history and “tell the story about where we have come from and what is going on in the here and now”.

“It’s an amazing place and we have such a strong, identifiable tradition that we’re all really proud of, yet at the same time it’s a complete melting pot. We’re able to hold our heads up and look at our influences on the outside world and its influence on us. Shetland is such a coming-and-going kind of place and always has been. It’s a really rounded body of music that we’ve got to present; it’s fantastic.”

Reflecting that two-way exchange of ideas and influences, Chris has handpicked some of the cream of Shetland’s present crop and sprinkled in a few external ingredients of no little renown. They include guitarist Martin Taylor, classical and gypsy jazz violinist Seonaid Aitken, Orcadian singer-songwriter Kris Drever and islander Kevin Henderson’s international fiddle trio Nordic Fiddlers’ Bloc.

“A big part of what we wanted to do was to showcase the breadth and depth of the talent of Shetlanders, but also represent people who have had a place in Shetland or been an influence on our music,” Chris explains.

Banjo and mandolin player Lewie Peterson, a well-known figure on the Shetland music scene, has helped put the programme together. He says the aim is to provide audiences with a “positive snapshot” of Shetland music and life – including the chance to learn about the roots of the traditions and “the little influences Shetland has made beyond our shores”.

“Where we come from and our shared history impacts on our culture, but I hope we can demonstrate how good folk music is about community, friendships, sharing of skills and a cross-pollination of styles and influences,” he says.

Lewie plays with Shetland bands Vair and The Revellers and is one of the Shetland Folk Festival organising committee. He often finds himself being asked about the culture by visitors, and this prompted him to “look a bit closer to home to the origins of our music and why it sounds the way it does”.

“I love studying the connection between place, history and the art produced out of it all,” he says. “It has been fascinating discussing ideas with the likes of Chris on how to represent that in concert form. There were almost too many ideas to begin with – there are so many great musicians and artists and so many potential angles to take.”

There could scarcely be a better platform to bring some of those angles to a wider audience than Celtic Connections, and a primetime Saturday night show at the cavernous Royal Concert Hall on Saturday 22nd January.

The ‘Shetland 550: Norn Voices’concert will feature contrasting and compelling singer-songwriters Jenny Napier Keldie, Freda Leask and honorary Shetlander Kris Drever, as well as innovative Fair Isle singer/accordionist Inge Thomson.

The fiddle contingent will be well represented in the form of the barnstorming Fiddlers’ Bid, Catriona Macdonald and Nordic Fiddlers’ Bloc, while Lewie and cellist Abby Hayward will also appear.

Unfortunately, some of the Shetland 550 concerts, including ‘Schenectady Calling’ which would have celebrated the singular legacy of legendary Shetland guitarist ‘Peerie Willie’, were cancelled due to pandemic restrictions. However, much of the programme is going ahead with some of the concerts featuring in the festival's digital offering.

Isles-born saxophonist Norman Willmore, whose playing encompasses free jazz, Nordic and Appalachian folk, is also involved. He will be playing on Sunday afternoon’s Old Fruitmarket concert ‘A Peerie Foy’.

Chris describes that concert as “a beautiful thing” and “in some ways the most traditional” of the festival offerings. A “foy” is a contemporary equivalent of what is known outwith Shetland as a traditional house ceilidh, incorporating music, stories and poetry.

It places the work of Shetland dialect poets Christie Williamson and Christine de Luca, who write in their native tongue and translate others’ work into it, side by side with the islands’ “most ancient music and its most modern”.

Chris explained: “The concept [of the foy] is four traditional Shetland fiddlers playing all traditional music … as well as honorary Shetlander Catriona McKay on harp, with Norman on saxophone.”

That is perhaps a fitting way of demonstrating that Shetland’s long musical legacy shows no sign of letting up.

• This blog post was updated, 21st January 2022, to reflect the changes made to the programme.

Explore Celtic Connections' Shetland 550 programme.