Paul McKenna Band prepare to play Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall for Celtic Connections 2024 with a single release

National World - LocalTV

We spoke to Paul McKenna, frontman of the Paul McKenna Band, on playing Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall as part of this year’s Celtic Connections programme and releasing their latest single a rendition of Dougie MacLean’s Solid Ground.

Transcript

00:00 So we're a band from Glasgow, we're all based here, I'm from here, and we've been a band

00:07 since 2006.

00:08 And yeah, we play our original songs and traditional music as well.

00:15 Celtic Connections is coming up.

00:17 Tell me a wee bit about that and tell me what you're involved in.

00:21 So, yeah, it's always a good way to start the year.

00:25 It's always been a big part of our year.

00:27 Yeah, I think I've played at every Celtic Connections for the last probably 15 years

00:33 or something like that, unless I've not been here.

00:36 The band, we've got our own show in the new auditorium in the concert hall on the 25th

00:44 of January, and I'm also playing in a concert on the 19th of January, and it's a celebration

00:51 of John McLean.

00:52 So I'm looking forward to both.

00:55 It's one of the biggest festivals of folk or world music in the whole world, I guess.

01:04 Definitely the biggest winter festival at this time of year as well.

01:08 So I think it's hugely important for Glasgow, it's a big part of the year, and it's always

01:16 great to be involved.

01:17 We've got a new single coming out on the 26th of January, and it's a song that was written

01:21 by Dougie McLean, who's a wonderful singer and songwriter from Scotland, and the song's

01:27 called Solid Ground.

01:28 And it's just a song that we've always loved, and we decided to put it on our new EP, which

01:35 is going to be coming out in the spring.

01:38 I think this is the first single that we're releasing that isn't an original song.

01:41 Usually if it's an older song or if it's a newer song, I'll bring the song to the band.

01:47 I'm from an Irish background, so Irish music was always part of life growing up, and it

01:53 just seemed like a natural progression to go into that as a musician.

01:58 The traditional music, folk music is important to us, although we like to push the boundaries

02:06 where we can.

02:07 Playing in the Royal Concert Hall is always pretty special, being from Glasgow, and growing

02:12 up and going to lots of different things in the Concert Hall, it's always pretty special

02:15 when you're on that stage.

02:19 So that's a pretty special place for me.

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