Transatlantic Sessions
Usher Hall - 06/02/23
Originally a TV programme, Transatlantic Sessions, visiting Edinburgh for the first time, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a short tour, taking advantage of the presence at the same time of a large number of the cast at Celtic Connections. The principals – Aly Bain (fiddle), Jerry Douglas (dobro and lap steel), Phil Cunningham (accordion), Donald Shaw (piano) and James Mackintosh (drums) – have largely remained throughout, joined by a rotating cast of guest musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, sharing musical ideas and expertise.
Beginning with their signature, a slightly ragged ‘Waiting for the Federals’, the show wasted no time in introducing the first of the three main singers of the evening, Amythyst (sic) Kiah, who began rather unpromisingly with a poppish number. Its meaning and content remain a mystery with, as so often happens, the guitar cancelling out any detail in the vocal. Her second song, accompanied by banjo, fared much better, and offered a better framework for Kiah’s big voice. ‘Darling Corey’, the tale of a fiddle-playing, moonshine-making tough gal was paralleled in an old-timey tune about a fiddle-playing, pipe-smoking witch played by the outstanding American duo of Alison de Groote and Tatiana Hargreaves, who offered tight banjo and fiddle and harmonies, and some impressively ‘outside’ soloing by Hargreaves.
The beauty of the format is that each performer or unit gets just one or two numbers. If there’s anything that’s not to your taste it’s likely that it won’t be long before something will be. Liam ó Maonlaí is an intense singer, the theme of his impassioned ‘Working on a Chain Gang’ picked up by his compatriot John Doyle’s take on Ewan MacColl’s ‘Tunnel Tigers’. Martha Wainwright’s ‘Going Back to Harlan’ had something of its composer, her aunt Anna McGarrigle’s vocal quality, while Karen Matheson’s famously pure tones did more than justice to ‘I Will Set My Ship in Order’, learned from the late guitarist, Tony Cuffe. These are musicians whose sources are as impeccable as their performances.
Other highlights were an outing for Michael McGoldrick’s uillean pipes on a haunting Phil Cunningham tune which was also a vehicle for Aly Bain’s distinctive touch. Bain’s slow airs are the acme of his playing. There are few that can match that almost vocal quality he brings to these tunes.
A long first half was followed by a second half of similar length and format. Highlights included a set of fiddle classics from the band, played with a lightness of touch which is something of a hallmark of the bands that Shaw and Cunningham put together. No matter how many musicians are on stage it never sounds cluttered. The evening concluded with the enigmatic ó Maonlaí starting to sing what sounded like convincing sean nós, that highly decorative old style of Irish singing, which turned into a tongue-twister with the participation of the whole band and the audience. A polished evening of top class musicians which scaled the heights without ever, at least on this occasion, quite reaching the summit.