“Thanks for turning out for a band you have probably never seen before,” announced the Canadian banjo virtuoso Leonard Podolak. The Duhks have not played in London for 12 years, and Podolak explains they are only here now “because we are en route from Australia to Celtic Connections in Glasgow, and it was cheaper to stop off and do a show”. He and singer Jessee Havey then led the band from a country ballad by Beth Nielsen Chapman to a furious set of jigs and Amadou & Mariam’s Malian ballad Je Pense a Toi.
The Duhks (pronounced “ducks”) are that musical rarity: wildly eclectic, impressive musicians and enormous fun. They started in Winnipeg in 2001, and went on to notch up a Grammy nomination. But then Havey left “to try my hand at dating, but I ended up collecting material for my standup comedy routine”. She follows this with the self-written, sad and thoughtful waltz Suffer No Fools.
After a two-year hiatus, the band re-formed with a new lineup. Podolak and Havey are now joined by Swedish fiddle player Anna Lindblad, Québécois acoustic guitarist Colin Savoie-Levac, and New York percussionist Kevin Garcia, who have continued the group’s varied musical tradition.
Their first set ended with a stomping Cajun treatment of an Appalachian song and a ballad about death, while the second switched between klezmer and Irish fiddle tunes to country rock and gospel. There were impressive individual performances, but Podolak was the key figure. He delivered simultaneously subtle and stomping clawhammer banjo work, leading the audience through a furious singalong that referenced his contribution to the Cecil Sharp Project in 2011, and even using his body as an effective percussion instrument. Bookers for summer festivals should take note.
• At the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, for Celtic Connections, on 16 January. Box office: 0141-353 8000.
