A future Dublin bluegrass session?

Many of you will be aware of a question mark over the future availability and suitability of Rosie O'Grady's Pub in Harold's Cross, Dublin, for the weekly jam session which began in February 2005 and has been held on Friday nights in the Wooden Room upstairs ever since, with very few exceptions.

We have therefore decided to hold the last session at Rosie's on Friday 27 April. There will be no session on Friday 6 April (Good Friday), but we hope that those who have enjoyed the session during the past two years will come along on all the other Fridays between now and the 27th.

Possibilities of continuing the session at another location, on another day of the week, or in another format, are being considered. We will be glad of any suggestions and opinions on these points. Please send your views to

Gerry Fitzpatrick

Richard Hawkins

Danny McCarthy

Organising committee

A personal memo by Richard Hawkins is here.

New Bill Evans banjo DVD from Acutab

AcuTab Publications announce the release of their new Bluegrass Banjo Master Class DVD by Bill Evans. It aims to provide the most detailed grounding in bluegrass banjo currently available on DVD - both to set new pickers on the right track, and to refocus more experienced players on the basics: solid rhythm, big tone, and bluegrass drive.

In 140 minutes playing time, Bill's teaching ranges from how to fit and shape the picks, and optimal tone and volume production, through playing with straight time or with a bounce, practice with a metronome, good posture, and relaxation while picking, to the building blocks of effective playing - 21 essential licks, and 20 chordal exercises to develop familiarity with the neck.

More details are on the AcuTab website, including several screen shots and brief sample video clips. The retail price of US$35 includes a printed tab booklet. AcuTab products are also distributed by Mel Bay Publications, Inc..

Snakes alive! / KAM

Pete Lamb reports:

News from Galway... The Snakes appearing at Johnston's Hostel, Kinvara, on Saturday 14 April. Doors 8.30; €8.00. BYOB. Support from Pete Brazier and Mette Jensen. This will be only our second gig in about five months, for reasons too tedious to mention. The first was last Friday at the Crane Bar, Galway, where I'm pleased to say we went down like a... kick-ass country-rock band!

The Kinvara Area Music Collective (KAM) is a new collective, currently being formed by musicians in the Kinvara area, which was launched with a gig in the community centre about a month ago. This is the third gig presented by KAM. The Snakes will be furnished with the obligatory MySpace page shortly, where people can audition a couple of demo tracks. We are also playing the Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival in May and the Castlebar Blues Festival in June. Meanwhile.. Keep it country!

Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens for charity gig at Bog Lane Theatre, Ballymahon

The Ravens (Jonathan Toman and Dessie, Carmel, Danny, and Tom Sheerin) on stage at the Opry Centre, Nashville, TN, as presenters at the IBMA Awards Show 2006

Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens (voted # 1 Bluegrass Band in Europe '05) plus special guests The Rabbetts and Sarah McQuaid play a special fundraising gig for the Irish Haemophilia Society at the Bog Lane Theatre, Ballymahon, Co. Longford, on Friday 13 April @ 8:30 p.m. sharp. Doors 8:15 p.m. Tickets €15 on sale from GALA Country Shop, Ballymahon, now, or by reservation on 086-4072441, or from the band themselves. All proceeds from this gig will go directly to the IHS. There will also be a raffle on the night. Please support this very worthy charity.

Tom Sheerin (mandolin/fiddle player in the Ravens) and his wife Claire organised the gig, as the Irish Haemophilia Society is a charity that is very close to their heart. Tom's son suffers from haemophilia, so it was a natural choice of charity for them when they decided they wanted to play their hometown and donate all proceeds to a worthy cause.

BIB editor's note: The MySpace site for Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens has full dates for their US tour (5-18 June). There is also a MySpace site for Sarah McQuaid.

International display planned at Bean Blossom

A message from Jim Peva, friend of Bill Monroe and historian of the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park at Bean Blossom, Indiana:

Attention all bluegrass fans from outside the United States who have visited Bean Blossom:

We intend to develop an International display at the Bill Monroe Museum at Bean Blossom. If you have attended one or more of our bluegrass festivals and would like to be a part of this display, please mail a photograph of yourself, preferably not larger than snapshot size (we do not have the staff or equipment to process email photographs), stating your full name, country of citizenship, and the date or dates of your visit(s), to

Dwight Dillman
c/o Bill Monroe Music Park and Campground
5163 SR 135N, Morgantown (Bean Blossom)
IN 46160
USA

Foghorn String Band tour, 8-21 April

The highly regarded and well acclimatised Foghorn String Band from Portland, Oregon, begin a two-week tour of Ireland a fortnight from now. Full details (with running commentary) are on their schedule; the dates are given below.

Sun. 8th: Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Co. Dublin. 7 or 8 p.m

Mon. 9th: Colfer's, Carrick-on-Bannow, Co. Wexford

Tues. 10th: 'in the pub owned by the Irish band Danu', Dungarvan, Co. Waterford

Wed. 11th: Baltimore, Co. Cork

Thurs. 12th: Roundy Bar, Cork city

Fri. 13th: The Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin

Sat. 14th: The Cherry Tree, Walkinstown, Dublin 12

Sun. 15th: [private]

Mon. 16th: Village Arts Centre, Kilworth, Co. Cork

Tues. 17th: Kane's Bar, Ballferriter, Co. Kerry

Wed. 18th: Briggs Bar, Ballyferriter, Co. Kerry

Thurs. 19th: Moving Stairs, Boyle, Co. Roscommon

Fri. 20th: Crusheen, Co. Clare

Sat. 21st: Crane Bar, Galway city

Sick and Indigent Song Club in concert

Thanks to Gerry Fitzpatrick for news of two Dublin shows in the next seven days by the Sick and Indigent Song Club:

Wed. 28 March: the Last Chance Saloon, 'a night of original olt-time country, roots and folk music' at Toners bar, Baggot St., features this month I Draw Slow, the Sick and Indigent Song Club, and Will & Collum. €5; doors open 8.00 p.m.

Sun. 1 April: Whelans, 25 Wexford St., presents the Sick and Indigent Song Club with the North Strand Klezmer Band. 8.30 p.m.

Badbelly Project on TG4, Sunday 25 March

Press release

Multi-instrumentalist Tom Hanway (Longford) and harmonica player Mike O'Connor (Limerick) appear this Sunday on TG 4, performing an original composition, for the highly acclaimed documentary series 'Ceird an Cheoil 2'. The programme will be aired on Sunday night, 25 March, 10 p.m., and again on Tuesday 27 March, 7.30 p.m.

Better known as the Badbelly Project, their special segment was filmed late in the evening in the programme's Belfast studio after a harrowing 8-hour road trip, following a cancelled Galway-Belfast flight due to gale-force winds and torrential rains. This inspired the title to their original bluesy breakdown, 'Long road to Belfast'. TG4 producers have compared the unstoppable duo to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

This programme is devoted to the harmonica. The series focuses on top craftspeople and musicians in Ireland, with performances and interviews from leading players, revealing their passion and love for their individual instruments. This series can be described as an exploration of beautiful crafts accompanied by the traditional music from Ireland and beyond. The Badbelly Project were selected by the TV producers specifically for their traditional American (non-Irish-traditional) musical approach.

The harmonica (or mouth organ) is an instrument normally associated with blues music, but has emerged in recent decades as a particularly admirable addition to the traditional Irish music session, thanks to a small handful of players. This programme looks at harmonica-maker and maestro player Brendan Power, and we hear performances from John and Pip Murphy, Mick Kinsella, Rick Epping, the Badbelly Project, and many more.

Earl Brothers tour Ireland & Scotland, Sept.-Oct.

Thanks to Darach McGrath for the news that the Earl Brothers from San Francisco (no relation to Uncle Earl) - a four-piece band who list the Stanley Brothers and the Ramones among their influences, and have made a name for themselves with their use of the old single-mike technique - are scheduled to tour in Ireland and Scotland between 26 September and 14 October 2007. The tour is being handled by the UK agency Brookfield Knights. Further details as soon as they become available.

The band, consisting of Bobby Earl Davis (banjo, vocals), John McKelvy (guitar, vocals), Larry Hughes (mandolin), and Rob Mellberg (bass), also have a MySpace site.

Sometymes Why in Ireland, 13-27 May

Some kind of a treat is coming in May for Irish fans of Uncle Earl or Crooked Still - a fortnight's tour by Sometymes Why, a three-woman band consisting of Kristin Andreassen (vocals, guitar, harmonica, glockenspiel, piano, cymbals, tambourine), Aoife O'Donovan (vocals, guitar, ukulele, piano, glockenspiel, tambourine, cowbell), and Ruth Ungar (vocals, guitar, ukulele, fiddle, glockenspiel, high hat).

Andreassen and O'Donovan played in Ireland last year, as guitarist/dancer for Uncle Earl and vocalist for Crooked Still respectively; Ungar is (among many other things) daughter of Jay Ungar, composer of 'Ashokan farewell'. Their website says: 'Sometymes Why is a mesmerizing trio of modern-day sirens. Their vocal intensity, sparse arrangements, and passionate lyricism whirl into the air and cut a cyclone's path through the heart'. We see no reason to dispute this. They also have a MySpace site. Details of the tour will be on the calendar as soon as possible.

Prison Love on RTE website

Prison Love will perform tracks from their forthcoming third album at the Voodoo Lounge, Dublin, on Friday 30 March, supported by MO7s and The Lungs. Admission is €12 on the night.

Worth noting for other bands and event organisers: the show is featured here on the RTE entertainments website.

Stockport bluegrass venue well under way

Tom Travis's new bluegrass and old-time music venue at the High Lane Conservative Club, High Lane, Stockport, Cheshire (one of the closest parts of England to this country), is up and running. Tom reports:

We have a show on the first Friday of each month. I opened the venue with my own band, the Tom Travis Bluegrass Incident, on 2 February, we had the New Essex Bluegrass Band on 2 March and, encouragingly, the audience is growing swiftly. The Britannia Bluegrass Band have dropped in from Liverpool on both our shows so far and done some great sets.

In case any of your members are coming over for Easter, we have Baker's Fabulous Boys appearing on Good Friday. Doors open at 7.30 p.m. and tickets cost £8. They have world champion and virtuoso banjo picker John Dowling in the lineup now, so there's an extra treat to look forward to.

Festival calendar on EBMA website

Thanks to Olaf Gläsmer, the EBMA website now carries an up-to-date and user-friendly list of bluegrass and old-time festivals throughout Europe during 2007. The festivals are shown in chronological order - each with its title, the town and country in which it takes place, its website address, and brief notes on important aspects.

This list, which will be kept updated, replaces a list drafted in 2004/5 as an aid to promoters and tour organisers. The new list should be a major resource for anyone interested in bluegrass and old-time music in Europe. NB: only festivals with websites are listed at present.

Olaf Gläsmer, of Magdeburg, Germany, is well known as 'the Grassroots Philosopher', guitar- and mandolin-player and singer. Olaf reminds us that for those in Germany, or interested in the German scene, Rudi Vogel, of the band BluNa, is hosting the blog Blograss (to which the European Bluegrass Blog now has a link). Rudi has been assisting the exchange of information and news on bluegrass in Germany and the rest of Europe for many years.

NTB on screen and in the flesh

Thanks to Niall Toner for news of the current 2007 Niall Toner Band schedule, on which the first date is tomorrow (Wednesday 14 March): a 9.30 p.m. show at Mick Murphy's, Ballymore Eustace. All dates now available are shown on the BIB calendar.

The recent photo above shows the NTB with Mr Campbell Bodels of Bunclody, Co. Wexford, on his seventieth birthday. Niall says:

He's one of our biggest fans, and we had made him a promise to perform for his 70th. In the event, he was seriously ill, so we played in his house for the occasion. The photo shows him in his pyjamas! He's a retired truck driver with a very colourful past, and I wrote 'Bodels Blues', on the Mood swing CD, as a tribute to him. He's very fond of instrumental country/bluegrass, and once spent a couple of hours sitting in a rented car outside Doc Watson's house in Deep Gap, NC, without ever disturbing the incumbent.


'Didn't anyone bring a mandolin?' - Niall Toner on guitar and Roland White (ex Country Boys/Kentucky Colonels, Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys, Country Gazette, Nashville Bluegrass Band, etc.) on bass, in the Nashville home of Barry & Holly Tashian

More recently - the NTB backstage with Kenny Rogers, for whom they played support at the Point Depot, Dublin, and the King's Hall, Belfast, in October 2006. On the left, Kelvin Busher (string bass), standing in for Dick Gladney on these two shows. Photo by Faiz Farrelly.

Bluegrass Wales: update

Bluegrass Wales was founded by Andy and Nadine Highfield, who are also BBMA area representatives for South Wales. As well as being a news medium, Bluegrass Wales carries features of general interest - for instance, an article on the history and technical aspects of the single-microphone setup, a subject which is also covered in detail from the basis of the experience of the New Essex Bluegrass Band on their website.

Wales is also the part of the UK nearest to most of Ireland, and promoters in both Wales and Ireland should note the possibilities of filling dates for bands touring in either country. Andy and Nadine can be contacted by e-mail or 'phone: +44 (0)1239 881334.

Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens announce U.S. tour

Ravens in flight: Jonathan Toman, Tom Sheerin, Dessie Sheerin, Carmel Sheerin, Danny Sheerin

Press release

Irish bluegrass band Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens will tour the U.S. this summer. The band is currently finalizing their second album with multi-Grammy-winning Nashville producer Bil VornDick, who also signed them to a publishing deal. 'Very rarely do you get a chance to work with a family band of three brothers and a sister as the lead vocalist. There is something about family bands and their harmony that can raise the hairs on the back of your neck. They have the European flair in their music that is so appealing', said VornDick.

The European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA) voted Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens the #1 European Bluegrass Band in 2005, and they represented Europe recently at the International Bluegrass Music Association's World of Bluegrass conference that was held at the Nashville Convention Center this past September.

Carmel Sheerin & the Ravens have scaled new heights in the past year and performed on the international scene, at a level most bands in this country could only aspire to. In America, this band is being mentioned in the same breath as artists such as Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent, and Tim O'Brien. This is mainly down to the unique sound of Carmel on lead vocals and the band singing clean harmonies throughout. The forthcoming album consists of a lot of the band's own material, and some collaborations with top American and Irish bluegrass songwriters, including Tim O'Brien (IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year & Song of the Year Winner 2006), Charlie McGettigan, and Niall Toner.

Carson Cooper

The Bluegrass Blog carries the sad news that Carson Cooper died on Thursday 8 March, having suffered for some time from liver cancer. Carson is known to Irish bluegrassers from his appearances on two successive 'Bluegrass on the Walls' festivals in Derry with the fine band Appalachian Trail, of which he was a founder member and banjo-player for over twenty years.

David and Linda Lay, who were guitarist and lead singer/flatfoot dancer respectively with Appalachian Trail on their visits here, report: 'He was the owner of Cooper’s Morrell Music in Marion, VA, and was instrumental in bringing back the "one-mike" system [as used by Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver]. He was one of the best sound men in the business... He has a son, Kevin, daughter Susan, grandchildren, and brothers and sisters.' A tribute by Doyle Lawson also appears on the Bluegrass Blog. Some years ago Carson contributed helpful advice to Bluegrass Ireland on using the one-mike system.

The Lays are now in Springfield Exit, together with David McLaughlin, who played at the 1995 Athy Festival with Lynn Morris, Marshal Wilborn, and Josh Crowe.

For mandolinists - and others

There's a cheerful tribute to Bill Monroe (and other notable mandolinists) by two of the best on the instrument, Jethro Burns and Red Rector, on YouTube - in which the Father of Bluegrass himself appears.

And you'll also find there links to some great footage of Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys on TV shows in the '50s, '60s, and '70s; and tremendous banjo by Butch Robins. It goes on...

Dick Glasgow of Causeway Music adds:

When I read your piece for your mandolin-playing readers this morning, I wondered if they might perhaps also be interested in the UK's Mandolin.org website. The link below might be a useful introduction to the site.

I recently posted all these YouTube mandolin video links on the Forum & I reckon some of your mandolin-playing readers might enjoy browsing through them.

Prison Love at the Cherrytree tonight

Psssst!!

We're breaking out this Friday to play music from our upcoming album, in a newly refurbished 120-seater upstairs venue: the Cherrytree Pub, Walkinstown roundabout. Bus it there from Trinity College: 50, 56a, 77, 77a. Door 9.00 p.m., €13 or €10 by emailing paul@musiclee.ie. Hope you can join us,

Prison Love

(see us also on MySpace.)

Gary Ferguson and Dave Miner tour, July 2007

Gary Ferguson and Dave Miner will be touring in Ireland for a second successive year, arriving on 12 July and leaving on 30 July. Confirmed tour dates as they stand at present are on the BIB calendar; Gary (guitar, lead vocals) and Dave (resonator guitar, vocals) are available for bookings from Sun. 15 to Tues. 17 July and Sun. 22 to Wed. 25 July. Fine songs (predominantly written by Gary), fine singing, and expert instrumental work - what more do you want?

Chris Newman at Irish harp festival, 24 June

Cathal Cusack reports that An Chúirt Chruitireachta, the International Festival for Irish Harp, will be taking place from Sunday 24 June to Friday 29 June 2007 at An Grianán, Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. This ranks among the top international harp festivals and focuses on the ancient traditions of harping, allied instruments, and song from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Full details can be seen on the festival website.

Why do we mention this? Cathal points out: 'The opening concert has Chris Newman (guitar) and Máire Ní Chathasaigh (on harp) - their website is here. The programme is mostly Irish harp but they often include swing or American fiddle tunes. Anyone in any doubt about whether this has any interest to bluegrass people can view a YouTube grab of Chris and Steve Kaufman tearing through Doc Watson's "Nothing to it". Just in case you don't know, Chris is the one in the flowery shirt!'

BIB editor's note: This link also puts you within reach of some videoed jams with David Grier, Herschel Sizemore, and others, not to mention many other possibilities. After watching an excellent video on how to wash a cat, I realised I may have gone too far...