Hen Hoose, Celtic Connections Glasgow review: 'a rare treat'
The Hen Hoose collective lit up the Tramway stage with a performance that was far from poultry, writes David Pollock
If this is the public face of the Hen Hoose Collective, we can only imagine what the intensive, six-day recording sessions for last year’s second album The Twelve on the Isle of Lewis were like. With 14 female and non-binary artists – a band of six, plus eight vocalists taking turns on solos, duets and multi-part harmonies – appearing at this special Celtic Connections reunion, the sense was of a bunch of friends having a great time playing music together.
The Lewis week was referenced fondly more than once, with Becca “Shears” Shearing describing the appropriately titled Out My Mind as emerging on the third day, “when we were most delirious”.
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The song demonstrated the varied beauty of the Hen Hoose project, with Shearing’s fluently soulful voice contrasting perfectly with Amandah Wilkinson and Sacred Paws’ Ray Aggs’ varied styles.
The most exciting songs generally had the most vocalists, like the mellifluous, Emma-Pollock-led Sirens Call My Name, with Tamara Schlesinger, Hen Hoose’s creator, and Carla J Easton alongside her and Inge Thomson playing flute in the background. Easton and Wilkinson’s rocky Rich (Katy’s in Space) was another highlight, with Easton taking sarcastic aim at Scottish promoters who don’t book enough female artists.
Also gripping were Promise, with Aggs and Djana Gabrielle’s husky voices floating together across the room beautifully, and For All I Care, which had Aggs and keyboard player/violinist Sarah Hayes fusing a clubby grind with folk melodies. The chance to hear sometime Delgado Pollock and the Vaselines’ Frances McKee duet on Ego Death was a rare treat.
Suse Bear, Lauren Macdonald and the powerfully-voiced Cariss Crosbie also served in the band, while Jill Lorean was a versatile secret weapon, stepping out to sing the shoegazing Catchfall, the “sexy” (she seemed mortified) Game of Two and the ballad Look Up, then duetting brilliantly with Shears on the raucous In Control. All involved formed a small choir for Blessings On the Day, the capstone of a concert clearly built on friendship, solidarity and generously shared talent.
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