Last evening my beloved and I attended the funeral of a friend, Joe Kleeman, who had played bass in the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for many years. Pretty much the whole celebration was music. The Choir of Bethel Lutheran Church, where Steven Mager is music director, was supplemented by a group of SLSO musicians, including Concertmaster, David Halen.

Perhaps because of the music, and perhaps because I am still reacting to the death of Doc Watson, I came home in a mood to listen to something; but instead of classical music I decided to watch a DVD I have had for a while of the first series of Transatlantic Sessions, organized by fiddler Aly Bain for the BBC back in 1995.

I had got the DVD because one of the songs on it had disappeared from YouTube. I had posted “Maiden’s Prayer” here long ago, from the sixth program in the BBC series and told a story about the supposed origin of that fiddle tune. Some time after I posted it, the tune disappeared into the void of closed accounts. But last night I watched and heard it again. In fact, I watched two thirds of the Transatlantic Sessions DVD before giving in to sleep.

Among wonderful things in this music are several performances by Iris DeMent, including “Our Town,” the music from the last episode of Northern Exposure, Jay Ungar’s “Ashokan Farewell,” in whicn Ungar and Bain lead what amounts to an entire fiddle section, and many performances by DoBro player, Jerry Douglas, who plays throughout. You’ll hear him on this Performance of Jolie Blonde, together with Michael Doucet, Ricky Skaggs and others.

One YouTube comment declares this song to be the author’s “favorite waltz in all the world.” “[D]on’t you Cajuns call this the Cajun National Anthem?” he asks. I don’t know that it’s my favorite waltz, but I love it a lot, enough that I just ordered the second season of Transatlantic Sessions from Music Scotland. One of Joe Kleeman’s daughters wrote of her dad that he would listen to Mahler, take a sip of his drink and exclaim, “God, this is beautiful!” It’s a long way from Mahler to “Jolie Blonde,” but as I watched Transatlantic Sessions and sipped some reasonable bourbon, I felt like toasting Joe.

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