I headed west to Glasgow with my good gig-buddy Slash Vaseline to see someone a little outside our usual choice of bands, the excellent Molly Tuttle, who was performing as part of the Celtic Connections festival.
Slash (SV), an “auld goth” is one of my closest pals of nearly 40 years and we must’ve been to hundreds of gigs together. We went to the same school, then band mates & flatmates in the late 80s, and his love of live music is still as strong as mine but his appetite for chaos and mischief is second to none.
After queuing twice to get onto Glasgow's old Pavilion Theatre (we didn't realise the balcony queue was separate from the stalls queue) we trekked upstairs to what seemed to be Glasgow's smallest bar, where ceiling to floor isn’t much more than 7 feet high and with beer in hand, we abseiled down incredibly steep balcony steps to our seats, just in time to see Molly Tuttle take to the stage for an amazing solo set.
Molly didn’t have her usual full band, but a stripped-back lone guitar filled the venue just fine getting off to a great start with her recent album opener, the excellent, She'll Change. The pace didn't let up until her mellowed-out version of the Rolling Stones, She's a Rainbow, and then back into some more lightning fast, intricate finger-picking tunes to dazzle the crowd. Her interaction with the audience with anecdotes about previous Celtic Connections appearances was as engaging as getting everyone to join in by providing the whistling parts. And the mention of late night/early morning sessions and fish and chips was a reminder of how long it had been since she last played Glasgow. Although as a vegan, she conceded to not having had the fish (two suggestions Molly, battered mushrooms or pizza crunch – you’ll thank me later!). She took us from El Dorado to Dooley's Farm, then off on a trip with Jefferson Airplane and a medley swaying into White Rabbit from one of her own. As a solo performer this was a 10/10 performance, and I can only hope she comes back to Scotland very soon with her full five-piece band for a headline show as 45 minutes of Americana’s finest I wasn't enough.
As the main reason we were there was to see Molly, we decided to leave after her set and check out a few of Glasgow's rock bars. We found a few new ones as well as a few familiar haunts, like MacSorleys on Jamaica Street which as always, also had live music on. We missed our planned train back east as we stayed to hear the full set from local band Deep River, but they were worth it and played a likely set of tunes to keep the bar bouncing. Molly Tuttle is touring with Tommy Emmanuel and have another few gigs left this month before leaving the UK - I'd recommend you go see this show while they're still here if you have the chance, they won't disappoint!
Fantastic review FD, superb summary of Molly‘s set,. the pavillion is a great if somewhat quirky venue, keep the blogs coming ❤️ SV