For 2014 we established our featured artist slot. The idea behind this was to feature, over the course of the festival, work by an artist we felt had contributed so much to the music but had been slightly overlooked. Our first featured artist was the utterly amazing Joe McPhee. Joe was such a pivotal artist for Alasdair in his musical journey, with Joe’s embracing of all areas of music making as well as his deep connections to the U.S. civil rights movement and Jazz. Joe fully embraced his role at the festival performing on every day in some capacity. His appearance in shades at our extended Heatsick performance at Glasgow School of Art accompanied by Golden Teacher was one of the highlights of Counterflows’ many highlights.