Bending the Strings receive Leinster Entertainers Award

Thanks and congratulations to Bending the Strings for this news:

Earlier in April we reported that Bending the Strings were in line to receive an award from the Leinster Entertainers Awards as voted by listeners of KFM radio for 'Best Bluegrass Album of the Year' for their album All keyed up.

The band were very excited to be receiving this award and they felt very honoured to have been able to represent the Irish bluegrass scene with the award. But on the day of the award, things were not going according to plan. Guitarist Vinny Baker was hit by a bad virus and was confined to bed. It seemed that while the band would still collect their award, they would not be able to perform on the night as they were short a member.


But help was at hand!! - in the guise of long-time friend of the band and all-round great bluegrass musician, mandolin wizard Gerry Madden, who came to the rescue. Gerry travelled all the way from Waterford to the Killashee Hotel in Naas, Co. Kildare, to play with Martin Cooney and Moyra Fraser [see photo above] at the Leinster Entertainers Awards concert and enabled the band to perform at the event. He did a Trojan job on the night, and the band went down a storm at the event. Vinny was devastated to have to miss the concert, but was eternally grateful to Gerry for having stood in for him at this extremely short notice.

Bending the Strings (with Vinny) along with KFM's top DJ Liam Kett at the station

The band are really proud of the progress this album has been making for them. The title track of the album had received tremendous airplay from KFM and indeed from our national station RTE Radio 1, in particular on the Ronan Collins show and John Creedon's show. The album also got extensive airtime on BBC's Radio Ulster and was the featured album of the week on Hugo Duncan's daily radio show on BBC Radio Ulster. It also received a lot of attention from the UK BBC Radio 1 and got great exposure in the UK, and in light of that the band intend to re-release the album All keyed up in the UK with additional tracks to increase it from its original 12-track album format to a new 16-track album. This will include new artwork and packaging. Bending the Strings have a short promo tour lined up in the UK in July of this year and will be doing a number of gigs at London's bluegrass venue, the Green Note Cafe.

Bluegrass festival time will soon be here, and Bending the Strings look forward to meeting their friends and followers at most of the festivals where they will be performing. At a number of the festivals they will be doing 5-string banjo and bluegrass guitar workshops also; so come along and see us, we look forward to your company.