Bluegrass from the Eternal City

Danilo Cartia

Thanks to our good friend Danilo Cartia, the moving spirit of bluegrass music in Rome and neighbouring regions of Italy, for two YouTube video links.

For three years now, Danilo has organised the Italian Bluegrass Meeting as part of the annual Acoustic Guitar Meeting in Sarzana. The first video is about this year's Italian Bluegrass Meeting, held in May. The second shows one of Danilo's compositions, 'Ridge', being played on the main stage at the Acoustic Guitar Meeting 2015 by Danilo with three master musicians from America — Emory Lester, Mark Johnson, and Russ Barenberg.

Danilo also organises the monthly Rome Bluegrass Jam. He and his partner in music and life, Letizia Sampaolo (guitar, autoharp, vocals), attended this year's Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival, where they had a long Saturday-evening jam in McGing's with Galway's Old Town Rounders. A photo from the jam can be seen on the BIB for 21 July.