Transatlantic Sessions (Pelicula Films Ltd for BBC Scotland, BBC4 and RTE) brings together the best of Nashville, Ireland and Scotland in a format developed by director Mike Alexander that affords, in the words of one critic, “a unique insight into the sheer joy of making music”.
Star performers featured in previous series include Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Nancy Griffith, Iris Dement, Joan Osborne, James Taylor, Guy Clark, Ricky Skaggs, Paul Brady and John Martyn.
Beyond their UK and Irish television platforms, Transatlantic Sessions are released on DVD, in CD selections and via commercial download by Edinburgh-based Whirlie Records.
In recognition of the contribution Transatlantic Sessions has made over the years to the development and
appreciation of traditional music, Mike Alexander and producer Douglas Eadie received The Good Tradition trophy at the 2010 BBC Radio Two Folk Music Awards.
For the new series of six half-hour programmes, Pelicula chose the Lodge On The Loch Hotel whose panoramic views out from the famously bonnie banks of Loch Lomond made it a truly inspirational location where top vocal and instrumental exponents of the Americana and Celtic traditions came together to rehearse and play with no audience except themselves and an all-star house band. As with previous series, music co-directors were Nashville’s Jerry Douglas and Shetland’s Aly Bain.
With Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas once again at the helm and a fine gang of Scottish and Irish musicians, series 5 raises the bar by recruiting its first blues musician, Eric Bibb, and a superb cast from the bluegrass world Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Alison Krauss, who of course moved into different territory when collaborating with Robert Plant. Sessions director Mike Alexander keeps things simple, allowing no technical tricks nor fancy movements to come between the viewer/listener and the music. That way the richness of the music and the skills, fun and passions of the musicians and singers come direct, maybe as close as it s possible to get to live music. Once again this unrivalled
Filmed and recorded in 2009 at the stunning location of Glenlyon House, Perthshire, Scotland.
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