20 April 2011

News from Westport

From Uri Kohen, organiser of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival in Co. Mayo:

In recent weeks I was only reading the blog without posting any news; that is due to the fact that my dad has passed away.

My dad was a big fan of American folk music and Pete Seeger in particular; as I posted before, he had the privilege to pay host to Seeger in 1964 in Israel [see photo above: Uri's father introduces Pete Seeger to an audience].

My dad honoured me with the love for the music which I'm promoting in recent years. He was a dedicated reader of the blog.

On my return to 'normal business' I want to present to you three golden moments from the first Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival in June 2007. The first clip is taken from the very first gig of the festival; it was a production of the Electric Cave and paid a tribute to the legends of folk and bluegrass. Here are Tim Rogers and Mick Daly playing some classic tunes.

The second clip is taken from a session in the Sheebeen pub that set the sound for the wonderful night that followed. Among familiar faces you can see Dearbhla Ryan singing a classic number; she is now playing with Tim Rogers and the Clew Bay Critters, who will play on the main stage of this year's festival.

The last clip is the legendary Lee Valley String Band, the first big name to headline our festival.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ger Kenny from Pervege Free Films for documenting all this great music. In June this year we will celebrate our fifth year and we promise it will be another wonderful event. See you in Westport!

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home