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Karine Polwart's Scottish Songbook

,Barbican Hall
Karine Polwart singing and playing an acoustic guitar on stage

Explore the diverse and brilliant traditions of music-making from Scotland, as folk musician Karine Polwart and friends celebrate the eccentric spirit of songwriting.

The music of Scotland has always had a renegade soul, even in its poppiest modes. Karine Polwart is joined by bandmates Steven Polwart and Inge Thomson, plus Graeme Smillie, Calum McIntyre and Louis Abbott of Admiral Fallow, tracing this tradition from the 60s to the present day. Eighties classics from Deacon Blue, The Waterboys and Big Country sit alongside the stadium balladry of Biffy Clyro, while absurdist poet Ivor Cutler rubs shoulders with the electro-pop of Chvrches and the immaculate song craft of John Martyn.

Karine says, ‘To me, these are songs of resilience and resistance, cries of despair and dreams of something better. They’re pop songs, but also love songs to people and places we all recognise. They totally fill my heart up’.
 

Tagged with: Contemporary music

Start time: 8pm

Approximate running time: two hours and twenty minutes including interval

Please note all timings are approximate and subject to change

Produced by the Barbican

Read the programme

‘a mighty celebration which bounced between giddy veneration and daring reinvention.‘
Teddy Jamieson, The Herald

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