Celtic Connections New Voices: Luc McNally

 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 18/1/2026

 Celtic Connections New Voices: Luc McNally

Guitarist Luc McNally is one of those essential people in the trad music scene, a skilled journeyman musician who is liable to pop up as an accompanist, in a session, in a ceilidh band, or indeed as a band member in previous New Voices projects. Here he was given the opportunity for his own place in the spotlight.

Following the trend of recent New Voices he opted not for a long-form composition but for a platform for a collection of songs, largely on themes of identity and existential challenges. We were three songs in before McNally spoke to the audience, but with titles like ‘What a Time to Be Alive’ and lyrics such as ‘the world is pressing down on me/ I can’t bear it’, the direction was fairly clear.

A Roy Harper-ish song about enjoying a state of ‘flow’ (the concept famously elaborated by the psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) in a secluded spot by Loch Lomond brought out tastefully deployed electric guitars by McNally and Heather Cartwright, his fellow guitarist and backing vocalist. It was also the occasion for a nicely judged double bass solo by Brodie Jarvie. One of the pleasures of the gig was the space afforded to the members of the band to solo on occasion, including at the very start of the concert when drummer, Steven Henderson was given the opportunity.

One of the stand-out pieces was not a song but a slow air (‘you can’t have folk gig without a slow air,’ quipped the host), a beautiful melody titled ‘You Were Very Lucky’, which was followed by a song the title of which I unfortunately didn’t catch because it had an epic quality to it with a plangent melody and a lush string arrangement, played by a string trio comprising Charlie Stewart, Laura Wilkie and Rufus Huggan.

Hopefully this hour of beautifully crafted songs with their literate lyrics will be recorded before too long.