Celtic Connections If the Song Changes

There’s little dispute that Scotland’s burgeoning cultural health in the last 20 years, across virtually all art-forms, has been closely tied in firstly with the final devolution campaign, and since then the gathering momentum towards 2014’s independence referendum. With issues of identity, allegiance, nationhood and democracy brought sharply into focus, the arts have been arguably the central and most fruitful arena in which to explore them, while also debating the very nature of culture itself.

How would independence impact on Scotland’s cultural evolution? Without the last few centuries’ central rallying-point for resistance and self-definition, would we be artistically richer or poorer? To discuss these questions, with reference to other countries’ experience, an international panel of musicians and cultural commentators includes Lesley Riddoch, author of Blossom: What Scotland Needs To Flourish; Icelandic singer-songwriter Benni Hemm Hemm; Québébcois musical godfather Yves Lambert; and some other weel-kent faces from the music scene.

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