Woodbine at Omagh - with a new look and sound

Fans of Woodbine will be glad to hear that the band will be part of the 25th Annual Bluegrass Music Festival in the Ulster American Folk Park at Omagh, Co. Tyrone, next weekend (2-4 Sept. 2016). Woodbine's leader Tony O'Brien announced a week ago on the band's Facebook:

We look forward to playing the Folk Park once again, and it's the start of a busy period for us between now and the end of October. More details on further shows to follow.

Woodbine's banjo-player at Omagh will be Evan Lyons of Co. Tipperary (the photo above shows him at Tipp FM Radio three weeks ago). At 16, Evan is already a dazzling player and an accomplished stage performer who has often sat in with Woodbine and many other groups - today he's at the Dunmore East festival with the Dublin Bluegrass Collective. Simply by replacing the BIB editor at Omagh,* he'll have brought down the average age of the band by about twenty years, and it'll be worth seeing the other effects of this injection.

The photo below, taken at this year's Sore Fingers Week in England, shows the bluegrass banjo class taught by Greg Cahill of the Special Consensus (whose next tour in Ireland will be in the new year). Greg is seated in the middle, and Evan is kneeling at right.

*No drama here - the editor has a commitment for next Friday that meant he couldn't guarantee to be available for Omagh. He looks forward to being back with Woodbine for the busy period mentioned by Tony.

Greg Cahill's class at Sore Fingers 2016