Welcome to the Bluegrass Ireland Blog

For anyone visiting the BIB for the first time: details of its background and purpose can be found here; and some tips on using it are here. The easiest way to reach both is to click on the 'Welcome' label at the bottom of this post.

Athy Festival Launch Night, 22 May

The Athy Bluegrass Music Association will be holding a Festival Launch Night in Pat Dunne's Lounge, Athy, Co. Kildare, on Thursday 22 May at 9.00 p.m. (Pat is the brother of Albert Dunne of Albert Dunne Car Sales (Suzuki), the main sponsor for the Athy Festival.) Music will be provided by Woodbine and special guests.

Full details of this year's Athy Bluegrass Festival (10-13 July) can be found on the ABMA website.

Events at the Séamus Ennis Centre, Naul

The Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre, Naul, Co. Dublin, as well as being a good friend to bluegrass in the Dublin area, presents other forms of music, film, and drama. The Centre's programme up to 14 June can be seen here.

All performances are presented at the Centre, with doors open at 7.30 p.m. and the performance at 8.30 p.m. unless otherwise stated. Full details are on the Centre's website. For more information, contact the Centre by phone (+353 (01) 8020898) or e-mail.

Longford lineup: UPDATE

The lineup for the Seventh Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival (25-28 September 2008), first announced earlier this year, is now even bigger and better. The Americana side of the programme now includes:

Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band
Tony Trischka's Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular (see his award-winning album of last year)
Tom Russell
Don Rigsby
Pete & Joan Wernick
Carter Brothers Band
Lluis Gomez Quartet
Ranch House Favourites
Niall Toner Band
Woodbine
Ross Nickerson
Hungry Hill
Rough Deal String Band

Irish traditional music is represented by Altan, Dolores Keane, Barney McKenna, Gerry O'Connor, At the Racket, and Thom Moore & Seamie O'Dowd; others TBC. Full details are on the Festival website.

EWOB 2008 in pictures

Photos by Jan de Mooy

Information about the 11th European World of Bluegrass Festival which took place in Voorthuizen, the Netherlands, on 1-3 May, is on the festival website and the European Bluegrass Blog.

In addition, the original Bluegrass Blog carries fourteen excellent photos taken by Jan de Mooy at the festival venue in 't Trefpunt, Voorthuizen. They appear there with Jan's captions, giving full details of the performers shown. Above, the Niall Toner Band; below, perennial favourites at Irish festivals, 4 Wheel Drive (NL/D/BE).

Festival photos and videos on Bluegrass Now

Festival organisers, or even just camera buffs, should note the following news from Dee Hallett:

If you have photos from some of your festivals, or even video clips of festival sites, then Wayne Bledsoe, of the USA magazine Bluegrass Now, would love to hear from you. He says: 'Beginning in May we will become a E-Zine and we are very excited about all the new features we can provide to our readers. We will be adding audio and video segments to our features and regular columns. Also, unlike the print media, we will be able to add updates to the magazine daily.'

To contact Wayne, either visit the website or e-mail him.

RTE Radio 1 and Prison Love need YOU!

Mark O'Mahony of Prison Love (not forgetting their MySpace site) writes:

Howdy Friends,

We invite you to a night with the stars in RTE Studios (Sunday 25 May) to mark the end of 'International Bluegrass Music Month' on Niall Toner's 'Roots Freeway' radio show. The night will feature live performances from Ireland's premier bluegrass group, the Niall Toner Band; wandering Wicklow country cousins, Bray Vista; roots groover from Vancouver, Stephen Fearing; not to mention our good selves, Prison Love.

For free tickets to this great night of music, just e-mail Roots Freeway with your name, address, phone number, and number of tickets required (max 4 per person). More details here. Take care,

Mark

Cobblestone events, May 2008

Thanks to Orla Keeshan for news of forthcoming events in the Back Room of the Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin. Orla says:

The Back Room at the Cobblestone is here to present Dublin's finest roots, alt.country, bluegrass, folk rock, klezmer, funk, trad and more. We have live gigs 3-4 nights a week and traditional sessions in the main bar 7 nights a week. We want to bring music back to its roots, bring on the banjos, bodhráns, double basses and let them rock out. We have some nights worthy of a good old leg slap coming up... Next month we have the North Strand Klezmer Band, the Last Tycoons, Junah, the Candidates, the Old Yellers, the Desert Aces... Prison Love are on their way too.

The show scheduled for Friday 16 May, with The Show and Stone the Crows, has unfortunately been cancelled, but the rest of the Cobblestone schedule till 29 May can be seen here. The Cobblestone also hosts small theatre productions, CD & book launch nights. Seating 60+. *Concessions/advance booking by e-mail with no. of tickets, name & band in the subject title. Also e-mail for future listings with "mailing list" in the subject title.

Niall Toner composition on Grand theft auto 4

Press release

Songwriter Niall Toner is delighted to announce that a song of his is featured on the biggest-selling video game of all time, Grand theft auto 4, with sales in excess of $7 million since its launch on 29 April.

Niall's song is called 'The Real Reel', aka 'The Dublin 2-Step', and is played during the scene in an Irish pub in NYC. Niall composed the song in 1990, and recorded it originally as a single for release on the Irish market which never happened. Then, through a publishing deal with Bardis Music in Dublin and Crucial Music in LA, the song was pitched and accepted for inclusion in GTA4.

When asked what this meant to a songwriter, Niall replied: 'This is the kind of break that every songwriter dreams about, and it's the biggest thrill of my writing career. It goes to show that you should never lose faith in a song you are proud of, and I hope it serves as an example to other writers who are waiting for a break. I would also have to say that this would never have happened without the hard work and dedication of two very determined publishers, Peter Bardon of Bardis Music in Dublin, and Tanvi Patel of Crucial Music in LA. Thanks, guys, let's get working on another one.'

Niall's new CD with his band, NTB3, which is his third all-original, all-acoustic project, is to be released on Avalon Records (AVCD006) on 25 May at Studio One in the RTE Radio Centre in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. For further information contact Niall at +353 (0)59-9157570/(0)87-2877299 or by e-mail.

Noreen Hunter

Tony Curran sends the sad news that Noreen Hunter, whose husband and musical partner John died last autumn (as reported on the BIB on 21 October 2007), died on the evening of Sunday 11 May.

Noreen's remains were taken to her home in Sixmilecross, Co. Tyrone. The funeral took place after mass at the Roman Catholic church in Beragh at 1.00 p.m. today, Wednesday 14 May. The family requested a bluegrass accompaniment for the service.

Further details will be made known as soon as possible.

Goin' across the sea

The editor reports:

I'll be absent during the period of the EWOB Festival (1-3 May) and for ten days after, mostly in bluegrass connections; so please continue to send in news and comments, but don't expect them to appear on the BIB till I get back, when they will go in as soon as possible. Our son Tim is minding the store, but that does not include editorial functions.

Westport Festival poster now out

Thanks to Uri Kohen for the above copy of the poster for the Second Westport Folk & Bluegrass Festival, in Westport, Co. Mayo, on the last weekend of June. See the Festival MySpace site for all details.

Blood Red Mountain Band: upcoming gigs

From the Blood Red Mountain Band's bio:

Formed in 2005, the Blood Red Mountain Band draw influence everywhere from Ryan Adams to Bonnie Prince Billy and have been described as ‘Arcade Fire meets Bob Dylan’. The eclectic line-up features no less than eight members, playing a vast array of instruments; Mark Flynn (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Martina Leonard (vocals, glockenspiel, melodica), Tracy O’Grady (fiddle), Joeby Browne (bass & backing vocals), Ian Devlin (lead guitar, charango, mandolin), Dave Keegan (drums), and the recent additions of Brian Duggan (trumpet) and Lindy-Sue Dredge (accordian)

The BRMB will launch their debut EP on 24 May and are busy planning a national tour. Upcoming dates are as follows:

May 9th: The Village, Wexford St., Dublin 2, supporting Modena City Ramblers (Italy). Adm. €15

May 22nd: Alfie's Bar, the Conrad Hotel, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2.

May 24th: Whelan's, Wexford St. - EP Launch. Guests include the Prairie Dawgs & David Hope. Adm. €12. Doors 7.30 p.m.

June 14th: Tumbleweed Love Sessions, the Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin

June 20th: Dolan's (upstairs), Limerick. With David Hope. Adm. €15

July 11th: Whelan's (upstairs), with Desert Aces. Adm. tbc

Visit the BRMB's MySpace site for more info.

Hear MerleFest - past and present

Colin Henry reports from Belfast:

I am not sure if everyone is aware that you can listen live this weekend to the MerleFest. Go to mvyradio.com and follow the link to the MerleFest. They also archive performances from this year and past years.

BIB editor's note: A link to mvyradio is on the MerleFest website. We also look forward to hearing some personal recollections of this year's MerleFest from Louis O'Dwyer on his return to Tullamore.

Kudos for Coastline Bluegrass Music Event

The Coastline Bluegrass Music Event in North Wales has not only been nominated as 'Favourite Bluegrass Festival 2007' by UKBluegrass.com - it is now listed in The Guardian newspaper as being among their 'Top Ten Folk Festivals for 2008'! The Guardian article can be seen here.

The third Coastline Bluegrass Music Event takes place on 6-7-8 June 2008 at Plas Uchaf Farm, near Llandudno Junction, North Wales LL28 5PD, UK. This year's lineup has a strong international element with G2 (current #1 European Bluegrass Band) from Sweden, and the Sons of Navarone from Belgium. For further details, see the Event's MySpace site. The Kevin & Geraldine Gill Band were among the headliners at the very first Event.

Skillet Lickers Revival at Drogheda, 30 April

Jim McArdle reports that the Skillet Lickers Revival (Jim, guitar; Mick Dunne, mandolin; Dick McGarry, banjo), who hold their 'Strictly bluegrass' sessions every Wednesday at Sarsfield's, Chord Road, Drogheda, Co. Louth, are playing a gig in Sarsfield's at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday 30 April as a Fringe event to the Drogheda Arts Festival.

Jim adds that the SLR have been playing plenty of gigs recently with pickups on all instruments (including autoharp) due to the lack of 'listening' pubs. They would welcome the chance to play all-acoustic for a listening and knowledgeable audience. Event organisers: contact Jim by e-mail.