Double award for 4 Wheel Drive at EWOB 2006

The Ninth European World of Bluegrass (EWOB) Festival took place on 25-7 May in Voorthuizen, the Netherlands, its permanent location, under the auspices of the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA). The full EBMA press release on the EWOB Festival and the many other events of EWOB 2006 can be found on the EBMA website or here.

In this year's professional band awards at Voorthuizen, the title of #1 European Bluegrass Band 2006 went to the Mideando String Quintet (Italy), a vividly original acoustic music group whose talents have carried them a long way from the parameters of classic bluegrass. The #3 place went to a solid, crisp bluegrass band, again from Italy, Bononia Grass. But the #2 place went to 4 Wheel Drive (Netherlands), a favourite with Irish audiences since their appearance at the 2001 Athy Festival, from which they went on to win the title of #1 European Bluegrass Band 2002. They also gained the #1 place in the 2006 Audience Popularity Awards, and will therefore be appearing at the Athy Festival (together with other dates in Ireland in mid July; see the BIB calendar) with the well deserved rank of a multi-award-winning band.

The #2 place in the Audience Popularity Awards went to the Blue Grass Boogiemen (Netherlands), whose many visits to Ireland began at the Dunmore East Festival in 1997; they will star there again this August. Their new CD, released earlier this year, is enthusiastically reviewed in June issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. The #3 place went to Rawhide (Belgium), who in your editor's view deserved an award long ago for their musicianship, powerful vocals, sense of humour, and ability to hold an audience's attention.

This year's EWOB Festival was the first to feature two bands from Ireland, both of whom earned enthusiastic receptions. Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens (Ireland), #1 European Bluegrass Band 2005, will represent Europe at the IBMA's World of Bluegrass Fan Fest at Nashville, TN, in September 2006, where they'll also be showcasing at the Business Conference and beginning work on recording their second CD; while the energy and joie de vivre of Prison Love made a big impact in the twenty-minute set plus encore which all European bands receive.

Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen (USA) headed the bill with a show that was the nearest thing to seeing a bluegrass legend reincarnated. Randy sings very like his father Charlie, plays more lead guitar, and presented a programme almost entirely composed of classic Country Gentlemen material, which revealed how innovative the Gents really were; much of it would still be considered avant-garde for a bluegrass band today if the Gents had not done it thirty or forty years ago. The Festival audience, however, had a particularly warm welcome for the Hunger Mountain Boys (USA), a duo in the style of the 1930s and early '40s, with spirit, wit, and uncompromising attitude. I can see a lot of their 'Nashville Keep Your Hands Off My Country Music' T-shirts being worn at IBMA week in September.