Glasgow’s making the right connections

Starting on a sombre note, the festival marks the beginning of World War I centenary commemorations with a reprise of a 2012 sellout show at the Royal Concert Hall (Friday, 7.30pm).

Far, Far from Ypres presents WWI songs from a Scottish perspective, with trench tunes and home-front anthems curated by big names including Barbara Dickson and Phil Cunningham.

Colin McIntyre, a.k.a Mull Historical Society, is playing at The Arches on the same night (7.30pm), and it promises to be an emotional one too, as it’s the first live performance of 2001 debut album Loss, in full — inspired by the death of his father.

Raising the mood for Sunday, Northern Lights play the Mitchell Library (8pm) and showcase the Commonwealth theme with their multicultural line-up.

The band features six musicians from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Scandinavia, and their sound straddles folk, classical, traditional and avant garde.

Elsewhere there’s Buika — a flamenco singer and Latin Grammy award-winner — at the Royal Concert Hall on Tuesday (7.30pm), and Greek-Cypriot singer Alkinoos Ioannidis, who teams up with Scottish vocalist Karine Polwart at the City Halls on Thursday (9pm).

The Celtic Connections festival club runs at Walkabout throughout (Wed-Sun) with acts fresh off the stages of elsewhere, and sustenance aplenty to keep everyone going until the end of the month.

For ticket info — and everything else happening this week — visit www.celticconnections.com.