Transatlantic Sessions Again
Biggest Brother and I can’t get enough of the Transatlantic Sessions, called “the greatest back-porch shows ever.” We’ve even taken the time to calculate how much it would cost to purchase all the DVDs and a region-free DVD player (a small fortune). In the meantime, we content ourselves with watching (and re-watching and watching again, because you can’t just listen to) the clips available on YouTube. I posted a list of these last October, but since we’ve added many favorites since, Biggest Brother asked me to prepare an updated index. Here it is!
Special favorites are marked with a star, but they’re all good!
Glide (recording)
The Kansas City Hornpipe / Jarlath’s Tune
O Noble Youth Who Has Left Me ✩
Sail Away Ladies / Walk Away Ladies
Shove the Pig’s Foot a Little Bit Further into the Fire
Sophie’s Dancing Feet/ Andy Brown’s Reel ✩
The Transatlantic Sessions were first introduced by Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and American folk musician Jay Ungar in the early eighties. Since then, four sessions have featured the best folk musicians from both sides of the Atlantic. American dobro player Jerry Douglas, Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon, Cajun singer Michael Doucette, Irish flautist Michael McGoldrick, and, of course, the peerless Scottish fiddler Aly Bain—these are among the many exceptional musicians you will encounter. Read my previous post The Transatlantic Sessions for a bit more about this wonderful project. You can watch an entire episode from the third session HERE.
Watching these musicians play together (and they are playing, rather than performing) has humanized music for me—in the best sense that it can be done. These musicians are doing more than producing sound—even beautiful sound—from strings and buttons. The sense of community and individuality, of discipline and artistry, and of serious fun is so apparent in these clips, that now I can’t hear any music without imagining the people rather than the instruments.
American dobro player Jerry Douglas performs with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain during the filming for Transatlantic Session 3.
Friday, May 20, 2011