Humbird – Drygate – Celtic Connections – January 16, 2026.
Written by celtic music radio on January 17, 2026
The anger was tinged with grief when Humbird’s Siri Unlind briefly mentioned her hometown of Minneapolis and recent events on the streets there, and the effect on her family and friends.
But she’s finding solace in her music and her chance to share it here at this powerful, absorbing and, at times, playful show as she’s funny as well.
In three-piece format, Humbird deftly conjure up different moods in the material. Cornfields And Roadkill, from current release, ‘Right On,’ has a chunky drive and edgy vocals while Plum Sky veers towards funk with rolling drums.
For the gorgeous album title track, Right On, the band offers a subtle mix with keyboards slipping in and out while Siri’s vocals are stunning as she sings: “I’m not mad but I should be / Since true love proved unlucky / I cast the dye, I stained my hands / On wrongful judgments and half-baked plans.”
The tone of the Right On album is, generally, grittily different from earlier folkier offerings and Siri has said it was part of the band’s evolution – jokily she has claimed they were in their ‘teenage years now.’
Child of Violence is a desperately sad song looking at the political atmosphere in Minneapolis. Siri creates a tension that drifts from poignant to stirring while questioning how things could be made to change for the better.
A new song still in progress, How Many, occupies the same territory with a repeated line of ‘How many candles in the night?’ reminding us of TV images we’ve all seen of late. The topic is dark but the performance never dips into gloom and that’s what make Humbird so appealing.
Song For The Seeds is the flowing, mellow and warming closer, and again Siri’s vocals are honest and gentle, the drums understated and the bass solid.
She says she likes to keep Humbird’s music interesting – at this 12-song show that’s been achieved and a whole lot more.
MIKE RITCHIE
