Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain, John Paul White, Tift Merritt, Dirk Powell, Jim Lauderdale, Eddi Reader

From the award-winning Pelicula/BBC TV series, the Transatlantic Sessions continue to revisit shared roots and forge new common ground between today’s finest Celtic and Americana musicians.

For well over a decade, The Transatlantic Sessions have been an annual closing highlight of Celtic Connections – before nowadays heading off on tour, to share its unique musical camaraderie around the UK and Ireland. The past year has seen the concept’s original instigators, Douglas Eadie and Mike Alexander – co-directors of the eponymous TV series –honoured with a Services to Broadcasting award from Hand Up For Trad, following on from their Good Tradition accolade at the 2010 Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Alongside dobro maestro Jerry Douglas, who again shares musical direction with Shetland fiddle legend Aly Bain, Stateside artists include: John Paul White, Tift Merritt, Dirk Powell, Jim Lauderdale and Eddi Reader.

Anchoring the show with Douglas and Bain at the helm, the regular all-star house band also features John Doyle, Danny Thompson, Michael McGoldrick, Russ Barenberg, John McCusker, Donald Shaw and James Mackintosh.