47 f Across The Pond
The Lodge Hotel at Loch Lomond is full of musicians and singers as they convene for another Transatlantic Session. Christopher Conder does fly on the wall.
“J
ust enjoy the show,” was the advice from my contact at Whirlie Records when I went to see the Transat- lantic Sessions at the Royal
Festival Hall in London. “There will be time for interviews when you go up for the recording, and anyway, they’ll all just tell you the same thing about how won- derful it is!” Well, I did get backstage and snatch some time with the performers, and she was right.
“Danny Thompson had plied me with
tales of the Transatlantic Sessions for a long time. I was just thrilled when I got asked to be a part of it,” said Eric Bibb. “I just can’t imagine a better scenario to work in. I get to work with my favourite musicians, and I get to invite my pals and I get to invite people who are maybe more famous than the rest of us who have heard about it and are going ‘Can I be on that show?’” chipped in Jerry Douglas. “Some- thing in my head always takes me back to being a wee boy and watching those peo- ple on the telly, your heroes. And then you
find yourself on stage with them and there’s no better gig really in the world. I was sitting listening to everybody step up to the microphone tonight and say, ‘It’s such a pleasure to be here.’ But I under- stand why nobody can stop themselves from saying it because it is… it’s a total joy,” added John McCusker.
The Transatlantic Sessions were con- ceived in the early ’90s by Shetland fiddler Aly Bain with Mike Alexander and Mark Littlewood of Pelicula Films and producer Douglas Eadie. As well as his successful career with Boys Of The Lough, Bain had been making a name for himself as a TV presenter of such seminal music shows as Down Home (1985), Aly Bain Meets The Cajuns (1988) and The Shetland Sessions (1992 and ’93).
The idea of the original Transatlantic
Sessions was a simple one that has been replicated many times since – get the best folk-rooted North American musicians they could find to join the finest players from Ireland and Scotland in a beautiful
highland location, and film the results. Bain’s co-musical director for that first series, broadcast in 1995, was a fellow fid- dler, Jay Ungar from New York. Guests included Mary Black, Iris DeMent, Emmy- lou Harris, Guy Clarke, Dougie MacLean, Dick Gaughan, Donal Lunny, Phil Cunning- ham, Kathy Mattea, John Martyn, Martyn Bennett and Kate McGarrigle. Poignantly, the last three have all died too young in the intervening years. The latter came with her sister Anna and her son Rufus Wainwright, then in his early 20s and enjoying his television debut.
Many of the performances in that first series have achieved almost mythical sta- tus, not least Mattea duetting with Martyn on his May You Never. Bain reminisces fondly about it. “It was a lovely spot when he’s singing with Kathy Mattea and she never takes her eyes off him for one sec- ond. She stares straight at him all the way through the song, because she just loved him and she couldn’t believe she was singing it with him.”
Photo: John MacKinnon
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