Celtic Connections: Beth Nielsen Chapman @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

It's not often that a concert experience can be described as spiritual. Not in the ecclesiastical sense, mind, but something truly uplifting that can evoke laughter and tears through music, lyrics and the strength of the human heart. By drawing heavily on the death of her husband and her own battle with illness, Beth Nielsen Chapman delivers an array of beautiful songs that transcend country, folk and rock and become meditations on life, loss and survival. It's probably fair to say that she has had more acclaim as a writer than as a recording artist in her own right, but anyone who can successfully incorporate the word "centrifugal" into a pop chorus deserves your attention. And then, just when you think it's all been done, she wheels a thirty-strong choir onto the stage to help her sing hymns in Zulu and Hebrew, before launching into Stevie Wonder's 'Sir Duke'. Utterly compelling, utterly remarkable. [Paul Greenwood]