The glory of a good jam

An important feature of the Omagh festivals for some years now has been the McAuley Lectures delivered by Professor Jack Bernhardt of North Carolina. This year's first lecture continued the series of interviews with Rodney McElrea of Omagh, one of the most important country music record collectors on this side of the Atlantic, and a genuine national treasure. The second lecture introduced the members of Bluegrass Experience from North Carolina, including the legendary Leroy Savage and Fiddlin' Al McCandless. They represented the college-educated generation of the 1960s and '70s, who brought into bluegrass new material from rock and pop sources, and played it in the classic bluegrass style to which they were dedicated.

After hours in the Park hostel, there were nightly jams of hair-raising intensity with the members of Bluegrass Experience, the Malpass Brothers, the Lovell Sisters, Sunny Side, Broken Strings, the Rough Deal String Band, and others. Pavel Handlík, guitarist and lead singer of Sunny Side, did a great job of leading the bluegrass jams. Professor Bernhardt, who is a bluegrass journalist of great experience, comments:

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the jam sessions at the residential center. Some amazing talent, and generous, too, offering room for everyone to shine... I noticed early on how welcoming and encouraging Pavel and Tommy [Edwards, lead guitarist of the Experience] were, especially with the younger pickers. Because of this and, of course, the superb quality of the music, those were some of the most enjoyable jam sessions I've ever witnessed.