Various Artists
Album: Transatlantic Sessions 6 (Volumes 1-3)
Label: Whirlie
Tracks: 13+13+14
Website: http://www.whirlierecords.co.uk

The highly acclaimed Transatlantic Sessions franchise just runs and runs, and in the opinion of many fans just gets better and better. Certainly the quality of the music-making is always guaranteed to be unstintingly high, there's always a frisson in the air around the artists, who are clearly inspired by both the beautiful location for the sessions and the bonhomie of their fellow-performers (and indeed the whole production team). The very latest series of Transatlantic Sessions was broadcast barely a year ago in the UK, although Scottish TV viewers had been able to enjoy these six half-hour programmes quite a while before that. It's amazing how the team keeps the TS franchise so fresh, and although much of this will be down to the performers themselves who are so obviously getting off on the craic, all that enthused, energised vibe of the sessions, the "spirit of place" will undoubtedly have a lot to do with it also. For Series 6, the crew moved off to a new location, the spacious, airy Lodge On The Loch by Loch Lomond-side, a venue which has clearly revitalised the musicians even more (not that there was any sense of them getting stale in the magnificent fifth series).

Having already heartily endorsed the purchase of the Series 6 DVD release here a few months ago, it now remains to consider the three companion CDs, the release of which has been staggered over the past year or so (hence the delay in the appearance of this review). The presentation of these take-home goodies follows the tried-and-tested format of its predecessors, and of course also the clear, unfussy and visually attractive house-style, and their sound quality is predictably excellent, beautifully detailed and yet with enough bloom to convey the sense of spacious acoustics (many of the individual selections utilise a larger ensemble and could easily have become over-cluttered, but this is never the case). I may need to mention at the outset that - unlike the audio CD counterparts of previous TS series - the three volumes comprising Series 6 contain no extra material from the sessions. However, following the usual practice, the individual musical items have all been re-sequenced in order to maintain a maximum listenability shorn of the visuals. I've always applauded this practice in the past, and there seems no reason not to do so once again here, as the balance of tempos and contrast in expression (and the spread of artists) achieved across the board and within the compass of each of the individual CDs are heard to work demonstrably well.

The customary (obligatory) cherrypicking exercise will give an indication of the wealth of talent and high calibre of the session performances. Pick of Volume 1 has to be the majestic opening Shetland Set, whereas later highlights of that same disc include Aoife O'Donovan's gently barnstorming Bright Sunny South and Ewan MacLennan's fine composition Whistling The Esperanza, while Teddy Thompson's catchy opus Don't Know What I Was Thinking proves mildly irresistible. Moving on to Volume 2, once again the opening instrumental showcase (prominently featuring Messrs Douglas and McGoldrick) is predictably stunning, whereas amongst the vocal items we encounter such gems as Mary Chapin Carpenter's Transcendental Reunion and Karen Matheson's Chi Mi Bhuam. Volume 3 also kicks off with an artistic high point - Cara Dillon's delightfully skipping rendition of Bright Morning Star - then, by way of a vigorous Feat-style On A Monday courtesy of Jerry Douglas and a delicious He Gradh, Ho Gradh from Julie Fowlis, moves on to its climax, a pipe-dominated set headed up by maestro Allan MacDonald.

I may be in danger of voicing a minor heresy here, but (for the first time in TS history) I think that on balance I prefer the TV shows' running order to that on the audio CDs. CD3 in particular leaves me a touch underwhelmed. This may well be a mildly unfair comment, and I stress it isn't automatically to be taken as a negative, but all the same, the general impression remains that Series 6 as a whole is at a slightly lower voltage than some of the previous series. I also find myself suffering from a certain degree of over-familiarity with some of the material chosen for performance, whereby I don't always consider these new session renditions as necessarily adding anything fresh to the reinterpretation process. Sure, there's always a certain extra frisson where artists of this calibre interact and combine their talents, and there's never any lack of commitment on the part of the artists themselves, but … is it that as time wears on we're all getting a little blasé, so much more familiar (too much so?) with songs and tunes that are now becoming session staples and to some extent entrenched as repertoire standards? It's a difficult point to address, especially as everyone concerned gets so much pleasure from the singing and playing, and there's still definitely no hint of routine about the actual performances. Nonetheless, TS6 will I'm sure still satisfy the series' legion of loyal followers, and provide a convenient catchup mechanism for those who've thus far unwittingly missed out.

David Kidman