High Country hits the half-century

(L-r) Jim Mintun, Butch Waller, Larry Cohea, Bob Waller,

Glenn Dauphin, Tom Bekeny

John Lawless announces on Bluegrass Today that in the coming month the supreme hard-core California band High Country, led by mandolinist Butch Waller, will notch up fifty years of music since the band was founded. Bluegrass fans in this island will want to raise an appropriate glass: High Country took part in the early years of the Athy festival (1991, 1993), and last played at Athy in 2008. Time for another visit?

A writer in Bluegrass Unlimited magazine is quoted: '...One of the lonesomest, hard-drivingest traditional bluegrass bands alive... High Country manages to be fresh and exciting without even the merest nod to modern music.' No exaggeration. 'Montana cowboy' has been one of the BIB editor's favourites since High Country sang it at Athy in 1991, when Sunset on the prairie was their latest album. Their more recent recordings can be seen and ordered here.