Celtic Odyssée – Celtic Connections – City Halls – January 25, 2026

Asturias: Rubén Bada
Brittany: Elodie Jaffré, Liam Roudil, Yann Le Bozec
Cornwall: Annie Baylis
Galicia: Xabier Diaz
Ireland: Zoe Conway
Isle of Man: Isla Callister
Scotland: Calum Stewart , Ali Hutton, Lauren MacColl, Sophie Stephenson, Kathleen MacInnes
Wales: Jordan Price-Williams

The fourth edition of Celtic Odyssée first launched in 2022 as part of the Lorient Interceltic Festival. Scottish musician and composer Calum Stewart was artistic director.

It’s an old axiom that talented players can always quickly find common ground to come together as a musical unit and nowhere was this more true than in this mélange of Celtic musical cultures.

First off, the band: the central core of this 14-performer extravaganza was MD Calum Stewart (uillean pipes), Liam Roudil (guitar), Rubén Bada (bouzouki), and Yann Le Bozec (double bass). Ali Hutton (pipes & whistle) also joined them from time to time, as did all the other artists.

These musicians provided a mighty sound throughout the night and credit is due to Cameron Stewart for imposing an excellent musical balance over the whole show.

Highlights:

I was impressed by Sophie Stephenson’s Scottish stepdancing – which is in itself a bit of musical history that was nearly lost to us till its re-importation around 1992 from Cape Breton via descendants of Scottish settlers. Sophie’s style made its Scottish identity clear via flowing hand and arm movements common to other native Scottish styles. In the second half, Sophie excelled in a stirring puirt à beul set by Kathleen MacInnes with a crisply tapped call and response section with Xabier Diaz on tambourine.

On the subject of tambourine, it’s widely regarded as a very basic type of percussion – indeed, often as a child’s toy. In Xabier’s hands, it’s practically an orchestra – as he amply displayed in his two solo spots, along with his distinctive and melodic vocal abilities.

Elodie Jaffre is an artist I hadn’t encountered before this, but I shall certainly be checking out her music in future. An excellent voice and strong stage presence made her contributions a delight to listen to.

There were four mighty fine fiddlers on stage too: Ireland’s Zoe Conway performed a lovely take on her own composition An Fáinne Bán/Aurora Borealis – which she has recorded with Julie Fowlis, Lauren MacColl’s Lady Isabella showed off her amazing technique with some high-speed pull-off left-hand plucking, Annie Baylis boosted the ensemble with her playing and also did a marvellous singing spot featuring Piw a’n Deur/Who Cares? and Oll An Dra/Hunters moon (both from her album Oll An Dra), and Isla Callister similarly did a great job with the ensemble as well as a toe-tapping solo set of Manx Jigs.

Let’s not forget the ‘cello, which seems to be finding its way into more and more trad spaces. From the Vri band (whom I had really enjoyed at a Welsh showcase Celtic Connections concert a few years back – go see them!), Jordan Price-Williams contributed to the ensemble spots and also sang Cainc Sain Tathan/St Athan’s Way, which he described as “an ox-driving song from Glamorgan”. Once heard, Jordan’s voice is never forgotten as it soars smoothly to heights that the Beach Boys could only dream of.

The concert proper finished with the entire crew backing Kathleen MacInnes in an uplifting version of Soraidh Slàn Le Fionnairidh/Farewell to Fiunary, but, of course, there was an encore, Calum Stewart’s own composition, Schottishe Kerlou. This was followed by a standing ovation. A fine end to a great evening of music, song, and dance.

BOB LESLIE

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