49 f
Stalwarts Jerry Douglas and Danny Thompson M
Bain tells me. “Funny thing isn’t it? You need a big band to create the atmosphere but the tunes that people remember are obvious- ly something else. So halfway through the night [to take an exam- ple from the live show], we’ll get Michael McGoldrick to play something very beautiful on the pipes, maybe with a wee touch of fiddle or harmonium.”
cGoldrick, the Anglo-Irish flautist and piper pro- vides me with one of my favourite interviews in collaboration with new house band member, Matheu Watson, a 22-year-old whose multi-instru- mental skills (and hairline) suggest a man of con-
siderably more years. Together they make a funny, sweary dou- ble-act who sum up beautifully what the Transatlantic Sessions mean to them.
We’re introduced via Watson’s deadpan humour when I sug- gest to Bain that, given the location, they should do a version of the traditional Loch Lomond (“You take the high road, and I’ll take the low road…”). “You’d think we have to put it somewhere,” replies Bain, being non- committal. Watson is less restrained. “You can put it in the bin with all the other shite songs like that!”
But after that abrasive start, he is soon waxing lyrical about
the Sessions. “For my generation particularly, this programme is like Mecca for quality music. Lots of people would see it, all the playing’s brilliant, it sounds fucking great, the quality of every- thing is really high. A lot of people would cite it as the pinnacle. When you’re in the place, it’s challenging and all of these things, but it feels to me more like a holiday now. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but there’s a sort of peace under it all.”
McGoldrick agrees. “I found that when I was here the very first time. I remember everybody was calm after the take, there was no ‘yeah, that was a brilliant take!’ And I had to believe in myself to say I must have done OK, because nobody’s turned around and said, ‘You were shite.’”
Watson continues: “I couldn’t put into words what it means to get a chance to sit and play music with everyone that’s here, and I mean everyone that’s here, not even just the music – the guys who work on the camera, the guys who work on the sound crew. There is not a sniff, a grain, a hair of shite at all. One of the brilliant things this show does is, you have someone like Danny [Thomp- son] who’s like 50 years older than I am. There’s a lineage to it. A show like this makes this North Star; it makes this point where people like Aly and Jerry bring together people who they deem to be in the game. It gives each generation that comes into contact with it a focal point. When you talk to people, maybe of Danny’s generation or a bit younger, they talk about this sense of isolation. This sort of programme makes it way, way, way more accessible.”
The first episode of Series 6 is due to air on BBC Scotland on Sunday 22 September, followed by a repeat on BBC Four on Friday 27 September, although dates are subject to change after we go to press. The DVD is released on 12 November. And rumour reaches my ears that a seventh series has been commissioned. Long may it run.
www.whirlierecords.com F
Photo: John MacKinnon
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84