As Lucinda Williams amply demonstrated in this very hall a week earlier, age is no barrier to rocking out. Indeed, many of the older musicians in the Celtic Connections family could show the young things how it’s done. Malian couple Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia have almost 50 years of musical experience to draw on and, along with their playful band, delivered a mighty hybrid of traditions which was light on its feet yet rich in tone.

In their hands, the Malian blues is nothing but life-affirming celebration, powered by Bagayoko’s sonorous guitar playing and the magnetic union of their voices, often in declamatory call-and-response. Their kinetic backing trio kept a peppy pace, layering on lithe polyrhythms and bursts of psychedelic organ to create an irresistible Afro-rock shimmy which summoned audience members to their feet.

Even the less hi-octane numbers were an invitation to sway and feel the desert vibrations. More and more joined the dance round the room’s fringes until the Tigger-like keyboard player, hip-bumping with Doumbia, encouraged everyone to their feet. Doumbia took a brief breather while the remaining band members punked it up with a lightning lysergic blues but she returned to exercise her top range on a beseeching ballad which developed into an ecstatic electro-pop odyssey. The non-French speakers in the room sang along as best they could to the heartfelt chorus of ‘Mon Cheri’ but all were united by the international language of joy. 

Reviewed at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of Celtic Connections; Amadou & Mariam play Gala, London, Friday 26 May.