Kelsey Waldon – support John R Miller – Cottiers – Celtic Connections – January 22, 2026.

The most celebrated citizen from Monkey’s Eyebrow in Kentucky packed in a whole load of spirited country honky-tonk warmth and joy into this dazzling and uplifting hour-long set.

KELSEY WALDON, buoyed gloriously by her superb band The Muleskinners, delivers her honest-to-goodness, heartfelt songs in her Kentuckian drawl honestly and with bags of style, and smiles.

On previous visits to the city she appeared solo – including a Celtic Connections’ date two years ago that saw her support Margo Price – so this appearance with a dream band is a moment to savour.

Ghost Of Myself from latest album ‘Every Ghost’ – her sixth studio release – is a solid, heavy duty starter pushed along with rampant fiddle and sterling pedal steel. She focuses on her love of her life as a musician, despite its problems and obstacles on Let It Lie. As the pace is cranked up, she sings: “Thousands of miles for a few good damn shows / And in spite of everything, that’s what I love the most.”

From 2019’s ‘White Noise, White Lines’ the title track is solid gold while Kentucky 1988 from the same album is a declaratory, rollicking, swaggering four-minute burst of vibrant, perfectly raw goodness. Kelsey favours low-key intros to some of the songs and on the absolutely knock-out High and Mighty, the impressive Cooper Dickerson on pedal steel hints at Will Ye Go Lassie Go? to emphasise, no doubt, Kelsey saying that the Scots feel like ‘her kin.” It’s a clever touch.

Tiger Lillies, dedicated fulsomely to Kelsey’s grandmother, is just one of those all-time, ace country songs. It’s twang filled and soaring, poignant and flowing. And this terrific band – unfussy Junior Tutwiler on guitar, freestyle Erik Mendez on bass, an expressive Blakeley Burger on fiddle, understated drummer Michael McLaughlin, plus Dickerson’s lush pedal steel – again embellishes it with sincerity, care and no little precision.

The now tee-total Kelsey explores the depths and loneliness of addiction and the fight to save yourself on Falling Down from ‘Every Ghost.’ Here she delivers it boldly but gently and the end result in this converted 19th century church is kinda spiritual: “Liquored up, spinnin’ round / And I don’t know how to get out / Who’s gonna help me up now / Cause I keep on fallin’ down” she recalls in one verse.

A thoughtful song writer and a top notch performer Kelsey is only going to get better and better. Being greedy, another half hour’s worth of songs would not have been a hardship.

Support JOHN R. MILLER is superb with well-crafted tracks he delivers with a laconic attitude. His two albums to date – ‘Depreciated’ and ‘Heat Comes Down’ – are crammed with introspective and revealing tales. Basements, from ‘Heat Comes Down’ in this set, is absolutely brilliant, revealing efforts to make it as a musician: from describing practice sessions in mates’ basements and beyond, his deadpan attitude fits the song so well. Unfettered, his lyrics paint clear pictures as he sings: ‘Got a little older, dilated in the woods / Fancied myself some philosopher, but I was only ever good / At washing dishes at the cafe, playing bass out on the weekends / Sleeping ’til noon every day and never calling back my friends.’

The West Virginian, accompanied here by excellent guitarist, J. Tom Hnatow, says a new album is imminent – great news.

MIKE RITCHIE