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REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk
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VARIOUS ARTISTS Transatlantic Sessions 3, Volume 1 |
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The Transatlantic Sessions concept started off quite a few years back; I’m not sure of its exact provenance, but I do remember the involvement of Aly Bain and several of my favourite performers from folk, bluegrass and country appearing in a joyous coming-together of musicians and singers in a convivial location, in a series of six wonderful half-hour shows that were tucked away on BBC Scotland (and thus unviewable in England), then repeated on BBC2 in a wilfully erratic time-slot. Not having even a VCR at the time, I only ever managed to get access to indifferent copies of some of the programmes via a relative, but what did survive has been treasured for many years, and I’ve always regretted the continued non-availability of those shows on CD or DVD for – unless it’s a case of rosy-tinted memory – there was a tremendous buzz, a real sense of atmosphere of joyful discovery about those early sessions. Then, a few years later, came a Series 2, which again presented the cream of musicians and singers from Nashville, Ireland and Scotland, which actually got issued on CD by Iona in the end. Series 2, despite some grand individual moments, never eclipsed what I saw of Series 1 for me, but I was still glad to have the music on record. Then last autumn, as part of BBC Scotland’s commitment to Highland 2007 (a year-long celebration of Highland culture), along came Series 3, which brought more of the same in that it reaffirmed the earlier series’ staked claim to being “the greatest backporch shows ever”, with this time if anything an even greater diversity of talents. |
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