It's all over now

Scots musician Roddy Hart was the driving force behind the concert and he and his band - the Lonesome Fire - provided the backing band for this epic three-hour concert featuring everyone from Roseanne Cash to Laura Cantrell, Tim O'Brien, James Grant, Rab Noakes, Thea Gilmore, Nell Bryden and many many more.

Hart admits when he first touted the idea to Celtic Connections director Donald Shaw last summer, he envisaged a much smaller event - "maybe King Tuts or Nice and Sleazy" .

Instead he got the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - and a sell-out gig, with scores of fans prepared to stand in the circle just for a taste of the concert.

If the sound suffered because of the rapid coming and going of performers, it was overlooked by the enthusiastic audience, keen to hear old favourites given a new twist or more obscure numbers given another outing.

Stripped-down version

Eddi Reader is a surprise guest - not least on the eve of Burns Night with another gig in Ayrshire - guesting first on Tim O'Brien's blue grass version of Lay Down Your Weary Tune from the days of The Byrds.

Then a solo stripped-down version of Buckets of Rain from Blood on the Tracks.

English folk singer Thea Gilmore introduces a darker strand with the first overtly Scottish Connection - her version of Poor Immigrants (believed to be based on the Scottish folk song Tramps and Hawkers) not to mention a blistering version of Masters of War - its bleak lyrics still as relevant today as they were in 1963.

Then it's Jemma Hayes - one of the youngest contributors - with a lively version of The Times They Are a Changin.

Obscure numbers

Hart admits that getting artists to choose the more popular numbers was harder than it looked - most wanted to sing more obscure numbers or songs found on B sides.

Chris Drever restores A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall to a folk setting; Nell Bryden belts out a big band version of Just Like A Woman, complete with breezy Hammond organ, and Thea Gilmore and James Grant lead a blistering guitar heavy version of All Along the Watchtower.

It's hard to keep up with the pace now as Laura Cantrell launches into a country tinged version of I Threw it all away and Tommy Reilly tackles a song written before he was born - It Aint me Babe.

Rab Noakes takes to the stage alone for a bewitching rendition of The Mississippi and before we know it, it's 10pm and we haven't even seen the headline star - Roseanne Cash.

Series of encores

She doesn't disappoint - avoiding her father's classic 1969 duet with Dylan on Girl From the North Country, in favour of a return to the original ballad.

With a cold, she jokes she might sound a bit like either gentlemen.

Then it's a series of encores for all the musicians as they run through the hits - My Back Pages, Forever Young, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, I Shall Be Released and finally Like A Rolling Stone.

Everyone not already on their feet is now, and singing along.

The birthday boy may not have showed up himself but he missed one hell of a party!