The Highland Sessions Series – in its Gaelic-presented version Comhdhail Cholm Cille (= “Columba Sessions”) – was filmed in 1995. Coming as it did after the first two series of Transatlantic Sessions in which director Mike Alexander developed his uniquely intimate, award-winning approach to recording music and music-making for television, The Highland Sessions differed from its predecessors in two important respects: there was no North American element; and the singing languages were almost exclusively Gaelic (Irish “Gay-lick” and Scottish “Gah-lick”).

The Highland Sessions was thus, and as intended, an informal celebration of the links between the Scottish and Irish Gaelic traditions. But in the course of two weeks at Strathgarry House near Killicrankie in the Perthshire Highlands, it became clear to everybody – performers and production team alike – that what we were creating was also something genuinely historic: a re-discovery and sharing of unities centuries older than the divisions of relatively recent history and politics.But hey, let’s not go overboard here! There is in this somewhat belatedly released DVD of the Highland Sessions series as much joy as seriousness, as much in the way of fun as musical brilliance. Gaelic passion doesn’t always have a straight face.