Returned home a few days ago from another annual visit to Transatlantic Sessions in Gateshead and had a great time as usual.
The name of one of the performers rang a bell, Tatiana Hargreaves, and I remembered Mark had mentioned her a few times on his British Grove Broadcast a year or so ago when he played some of her music. She was playing fiddle with Allison de Groot who played banjo. They played a wonderful blue-grass set, which we enjoyed very much.
Another great performance was from Amythyst Kiah, who had an amazing voice and she sang a selection of folk and blues. Also Hot House Flowers frontman, Liam O'Maonlai was excellent, after a rather slow start, but ended on some very rousing songs, which I loved - so did the audience! The thing about Transatlantic Sessions is that it is really great to be introduced to artists for the first time, as happened on this occasion. Two other fine performances were from Karen Matheson, who I've seen many times before, and Martha Wainwright.
The house band were fantastic, as always, with lots of musicians we are familiar with, including John and Mike and John Doyle, Phil Cunningham, Aly Bain, Donald Shaw and Jerry Douglas.
A good time was had by all!
