Celtic Connections: Rab Noakes with Mick Hanly @ The Tron Theatre

It's a game of two halves here as a pair of distinctive but very different singer-songwriters gets the stage to themselves for an hour each. Mick Hanly kicks off and wisely chooses to concentrate on the very best tracks from his outstanding Wish Me Well album. It's a lovely collection of melodic and heartfelt songs, as he spins childhood yarns from his native Limerick, alongside poignant looks at death and humorous accounts of being drunk and missing your train in rural France. A little brushing up on his stage presence and he would be a real class act. Rab Noakes somehow manages to project a throaty country voice from a small, skinny, bespectacled Scotsman, but his songs aren't quite up to the standard of Hanly's. Instead, he favours a more bluesy sound which, alongside his spirited guitar playing, makes for a pleasing if uninspiring set. [Paul Greenwood]