A bit of cheering up

First, the bad news for 2011: in the year of what would have been his hundredth birthday, Bill Monroe does not get a commemorative stamp from the US Post Office. The designs that will be printed can be seen here.

As if that were not enough, IBMA-award-winning guitarist Jim Hurst (who has played many times in Ireland either with the Claire Lynch Band or as part of a duo with Missy Raines) won't be here next month because there will be no Inishowen Guitar Festival.

Thanks to Sean McManus for showing us the best way to recover from this kind of news. Sean recommends going to YouTube to see the performances at last year's IBMA World of Bluegrass by Paul Williams, J.D. Crowe, and Doyle Lawson. We've followed his advice, and it works: this is how bluegrass is supposed to sound, and it is glorious.