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Five days in, 39 concerts and 18 workshops down, and six of the seven Celtic Connections shows personally attended by your covert correspondent have ranged from excellent through outstanding to transcendently unforgettable. As was widely predicted, nothing so far has quite approached the magic summoned last night by the unique vocal genius that is Bobby McFerrin. Whether deploying his enraptured audience as rhythm section or backing choir, at times almost literally playing the crowd like a huge collective instrument, such was his skill at cueing our responses, or jamming delightedly with his surprise Scottish guests (Eddi Reader, Angus Lyon and Ruaridh Campbell, and the Grace, Hewat & Polwart trio), he transported both the human voice and the art of performance into an utterly different dimension.

It already seems a long time since last Thursday's opening concert (especially after a full weekend of Festival Club shenanigans), but its worth reiterating once again what a hugely exciting and rewarding triumph it was, with the True North Orchestra building on Celtic Connections' previous folk/classical collaborations not least in its choice of personnel, many of whose hybrid talents had been cultivated by those same past projects and charting genuinely new creative territory. After a second gig at Perth Concert Hall on Saturday, conductor Greg Lawson, violinist with the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and a member of Balkan/klezmer band Moishe's Bagel, was seen and heard letting off some serious steam the next night, playing with the latter at the club, having risen brilliantly to perhaps the biggest challenge of his career so far.

Galician piper Carlos Nuñez earned a hero's welcome back after an extended absence from his beloved Glasgow, where he made his UK debut at the third Celtic Connections in 1996, becoming a regular fixture of the line-up until the debacle of his cancelled opening concert ten years later. Memories of that calamity were emphatically overwritten by his cast-of-thousands spectacular on Friday (well, a cast of about 40), including the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland and percussion troupe Rhythm Wave, as well as Nuñez's usual quartet and two Brazilian guests, highlighting the historic musical links between Galicia and Brazil explored on his latest album, Alborada do Brasil

Forging a whole array of new connections in the same direction was Shetland fiddler Chris Stout's Brazilian Theory (watch video here). Stout first got into Latin music as a regular guest with Salsa Celtica, before meeting the three São Paulo musicians featured here on rabeca (a rustic Brazilian fiddle), soprano sax, guitars and double bass, alongside Stout's four regular accompanists via the British Council-sponsored Orquestra Scotland-Brasil project in 2003. Having guested at both the True North Orchestra shows, as well as playing this year's first Celtic Connections education concert and sundry ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ sessions since the Brazilians arrived last Wednesday, they were sounding thoroughly warmed up and run in by the time they performed at the City Halls on Sunday, at once immaculately polished and fluidly relaxed, despite the ambition and complexity of their music.

Also on my weekend's menu was a terrific New Voices premiere, Ceol Mor/Little Music, by Lewis-born singer-songwriter, piper and guitarist Iain Morrison (formerly of Crash My Model Car), with as stirring a set of roots-rock songs as youre ever likely to hear, all based on traditional piobaireachd melodies. The totally butt-kicking double bill of Louisiana's Red Stick Ramblers and New York trio Hot Club of Cowtown cooked up a delectable contemporary brew of vintage influences and virtuoso musicianship.

It should be understood that the aforementioned Festival Club fatigue arose from exhaustive and selfless researches into exactly how it was working in its new home at the Art School. Pretty swimmingly, seems to be the prevailing consensus, despite the obligatory smattering of folkie moans over anything new and different. Be warned, though: with it only running Friday to Sunday - which at this moment feels like quite a relief, tickets for the remaining two weekends are already at a premium.

Your obedient agent, signing off.