On Monday 28th January 2013 Celtic Connections will host a special tribute night to folk legend Michael Marra at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Dundee singer-writer Michael Marra sadly passed away in October 2012. From his alternative national anthem Hermless to his majestic reading of Psalm 118 on Martyn Bennet’s Grit, Marra was a uniquely eloquent and vital presence in Scottish Music.

Artists appearing to pay tribute to Marra include Eddi Reader, Dougie MacLean, Pat & Greg Kane, Kris Drever, Riley Briggs (Aberfeldy), The Mackenzie sisters, John Spillane, The Hazey Janes, Chris Marra, all brought together by Musical Director Rab Noakes. There was also be a number of additional surprise guests on the night.
Donald Shaw, Artistic Director of Celtic Connections, said: “Michael was a unique talent and a pivotal figure in the Scottish folk scene. Marra has performed in almost every festival since the inaugural one in 1994 so we felt it was very important to pay tribute to the great man himself during the 20th anniversary year. Michael was someone who believed in the potential of future generations so in keeping with this, and Celtic Connection’s award winning education programme, proceeds from tonight's concert will go towards the Marra Family’s Appeal to start one of Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise Orchestras in Dundee.”
Other Artists have been added to the line-up

Since launching in October other names have also been added to the extensive 20th Celtic Connections Festival line-up including Martha Wainwrigtht, Altan, a debut of Roaming Roots Revue which is being billed as the Indie Transatlantic Sessions and Hothouse Flowers.

Martha Wainwright
Martha Wainwright will be recalling the recording of her fourth album Come Home to Mama on Tuesday 29th January 2013 at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. In 2010 Wainwright’s mother, iconic folk singer Kate McGarrigle, passed away shortly after the birth of Wainwright’s first child. Her fourth album was thus born of having to find immense strength out of utmost vulnerability.

Altan
Altan will be performing with special guests on Wednesday 23rd January 2013 at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Following their 25th anniversary album in 2009, recorded with the RTE Concert Orchestra, Altan returned to the source with 2012's Gleann Nimhe /The Poison Glen, their first studio offering in seven years.

Named for an actual beauty spot in the band's Donegal heartland - and also translating aptly and intriguingly from the Gaelic as the glen of heaven - it marries the immediacy and fervour of their classic early releases with the full breadth and depth of a quarter-century's traditional artistry.

Camaraderie and the craic have always been central to Altan's creative vitality, and for this special performance they've invited along some very special guests including Paddy Glackin, Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, The Friel Sisters and The Henry Girls.
Roaming Roots Revue with Amy Helm & Beth Orton

Billed as the indie Transatlantic Sessions, the Roaming Roots Revue takes its inaugural bow at the festival on Sunday 20th January 2012.  Drawing inspiration from Levon Helm's fabled Midnight Rambles - the intimate, star-studded hootenannies hosted by the late great Band co-founder at his Woodstock home - this unique gathering is curated by Roddy Hart and features Helm's daughter Amy, heir apparent to his giant musical legacy and herself a gifted singer-songwriter. They are joined by an Atlantic-spanning cast of contemporary artists who share Helm's rootsy independence of spirit and endless relish for music-making, performing a mix of their own material and some favourites from his back catalogue. Guests include folktronica pioneer Beth Orton, currently winning fresh acclaim for new album Sugaring Season; all-conquering post-trad trio Lau; the ever-bewitching Rachel Sermanni; hot new country-rock combo Corey Chisel & The Wandering Sons; Irish indie-pop chanteuse Gemma Hayes; Admiral Fallow's Louis Abbott, Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem fame and Glasgow's own Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire as house band.

Hothouse Flowers
Hothouse Flowers will be performing on Thursday 31st January at the Old Fruitmarket. Since their chart-topping success in the late 1980s, and while continuing to make albums as the muse moves them, Ireland's Hothouse Flowers have matured above all else into an awesomely great live band. Having started out as buskers in Dublin, when schoolmates Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin formed street-theatre duo The Incomparable Benzini Brothers - becoming a band with the addition of bassist Peter O'Toole, who's recently rejoined the line-up - they've never lost that freewheeling, in-the-moment dynamic, just as their music roams freely and instinctually across folk, soul, rock, blues and gospel territory.

Every gig responds to and builds on its particular occasion and audience, such that no two shows are the same - except in the universal euphoria they engender, as captured on the latest Hothouse Flowers release, the 2010 live recording Goodnight

Tickets available from here