Picks for February 2009

Book: "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" by Amanda Foreman.  I know it sounds like a chick book, but it is replete with 18th century British politics and social mores, and is a fascinating window into not just the Duchess, but the wider world in which she lived.  She was a gambling addict and a fashion maven with an interfering and controlling mother.  Many of their letters survive and are reprinted in the book. I liked the film based on Georgiana,  ‘The Duchess’, starring Keira Knightley, but the book is far more satisfying and detailed.

Film: My daughters had been telling me for ages about ‘The Notebook’ and how much they liked it, and I had even bought a t-shirt for Chelsea’s boyfriend which said "ATTENTION LADIES:  I ENJOYED ‘THE NOTEBOOK’", but I hadn’t actually seen the film myself until I got on the Netflix train.  It was the first film that came in the mail, and I really loved it.  Okay, I didn’t stop crying for a couple hours after seeing it.  Okay, given the book pick above, and this film pick, I have to admit that I am in the embarrassing thralls of complete girliness.

Music:  I just returned from Scotland, where I filmed "Transatlantic Sessions" with my friends Phil Cunningham and Ali Bain, and the entire Scottish and Irish crew, and Jerry Douglas and Russ Barenburg holding down the American corner, and it was, once again, a sublime musical experience.  When they start in with the pipes and the bazouki and the accordion and the dobro—I just melt inside.  We were filming in an 18th century hunting lodge, sitting in a circle, and I didn’t want it to end. I did three songs with the lads in two days:  "Five Hundred Miles", "Motherless Children" and a song Phil and I wrote called "The Secret Life of Roses".  Look for it on the Ovation channel in the States, probably later this year.  I wish that experience came along more often.