Transatlantic Sessions at Symphony Hall: a Review

A bit of a jigsaw puzzle, this. The  commendable Transatlantic team of 16 musos doesn’t seem to believe in programmes or brochures.  So a glorious touch of a shambolic identity parade in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall to figure out who is who by way of review for this one.  

The crew of acoustic and Celtic singers and instrumentalists are led jointly by Shetland fiddler whizz, Aly Bain, and dobro picker, Jerry Douglas, who has 14 Grammy gongs to hang on his belt. After that, it was a wonderful guessing game for this classy ensemble of Gaelic, Appalachian and country music specialists.

We fortunately found a tour manager who picked up a scrap of paper with a setlist of sorts that she let me take a snap of (see above). No last names just cryptic hints  such as  ’Shawn/Would You Go With Me..’’ or even more intriguingly  'Tunes/The Wishing Tree…’  

Ahh well, the trials and tribulations of a reviewer. 

Nevertheless, musician after musician filled the big, beautiful hall with cross-Atlantic licks and rhythms that stretched from Hebridean reels to Texarkana cowboy swing. It was remarkable to hear links between accordion riffs from Lerwick and a Merle Haggard outlaw lament from  California oilfields.

What I can report is the Suzy Bogguss has a voice like a ringing bell with her C&W songs, The Secret Sisters (Lydia and Laura Rogers) played it all with a southern smile and Daoiri Farrell filled his schtick with Dublin drinking songs.

All a pleasure. And once you had a sort of a scorecard, so nice to put names to such fine voices and instrumentalists who have gone from strength to strength since their beginnings on late night BBC 4 twenty years ago.

And if you like the sound of this, here are some other shows coming up at Symphony Hall that might tickle that fancy of yours. We can't promise there'll be quite like this performance though.