IBMA news

In the 2017 set of IBMA awards, John Lawless of Bluegrass Today received a Distinguished Achievement Award; read more here. The BIB offers special congratulations on this award, for without the encouragement given by John Lawless back in 2005, and the example of the original Bluegrass Blog founded by him and Brance Gillihan, it is unlikely that a Bluegrass Ireland Blog would ever have come into existence.

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Limerick woman speaks out

The keynote address given at IBMA WOB 2017 by Rhiannon Giddens was one of the most talked-about events of the week. It can be read in full here, and a twenty-four-and-a-half-minute video of her delivering it can be seen and heard here. She will be in Dublin, performing at Vicar Street, on 25 November.

[Update 23 May 2018: The transcript of the address is no longer on the IBMA website. Nor is the video, but that can still be seen on Vimeo, via the link above.]

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The deadline for applying for the 2018 IBMA Leadership Bluegrass (LBG) course is 31 October; all the details are here. As anyone who has been on it can testify, it's a potentially life-changing experience.

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The dates for next year's IBMA World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, are Tues. 25th-Sat. 29th Sept. 2018.