We're almost spoilt by the range and quality of music that's available - but only a select few gigs make the 'A-list': the performances so exceptional and uplifting in terms of musicality and technique that they burn brightly and undiminished in memory long afterwards. This sequence dovetails three groups of performers who provide this quality in different but complimentary ways, with fiddle and hurdy-gurdy playing at its heart.

Late Junction at Celtic Connections will, I surmise, miss two groups which appeared during the first week of the festival : the Quebecois 'Le Vent du Nord' and the Parisian Gypsy /Kletzmer 'Les Yeux Noires'. Both gave performances, respectively at the Tron and the Arches - and later at the festival club, which were high voltage displays of superb musicianship and virtuosity, infecting audiences with rare delight: definitely A-list.

The sequence begins with a version of the Breton ballad 'A la Claire Fontaine'played by Le Vent du Nord and ends with the contrasting Gypsy/Kletzmer 'Hora de Mina'from Les Yeux. Between the two, Duncan Chisholm provides a calmer interlude with a rendering the gaelic air 'Chro Chin t-Saile' (Return to Kintail) - memory of another A-list gig in Tobermory a few years ago.