shadowspar

Brought to you by my discovery of the Transatlantic Sessions.

If you put a bunch of skilled, motivated people in a room together with a minimum of structure and organization, you can witness some amazing results. In tech we get a hackathon or an unconference. In music we get a jam session.

The Transatlantic Sessions are a project of BBC4 Scotland that brings together folk musicians from both sides of the pond. They've been called "the greatest backporch shows ever", and it shouldn't come as much surprise to see Celtic and American trad musicians gel so well, given the amount of crossover in the styles' origins.

Unfortunately the BBC site seems to be kind of shite when it comes to actually describing or showing what the whole thing is about, so instead I give you some starting points to browse on Youtube. There's a lot of really, really amazing music to be found.

• The Making of Transatlantic Sessions 4
• The Neck Belly Reels - Sharon Shannon with Gerry O'Connor & Jim Murray
• TS5: Sarah Jarosz with Alison Krauss - Run Away
• Set of Reels - Aly Bain, John McCusker, Mike McGoldrick, John Doyle
• TS4: Russ Barenberg - Pleasant Beggar
• Oganaich Uir A Rinn M'fhagail (O Noble Youth Who Has Left Me) - Julie Fowlis
• TS4: Jerry Douglas - Glide