The Often Herd come first at La Roche

The contemporary bluegrass band The Often Herd, based in Newcastle (UK), previously performed under the name 'The Kentucky Cow Tippers', and in June 2015 this configuration toured Ireland, playing at venues including the Red Room in Cookstown, the Cowboys and Heroes Festival in Drumcora, and the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival.

Last autumn, after they had reformed as the Often Herd (Rupert Hughes, guitar, vocals; Evan Davies, mandolin, vocals; Niles Krieger, fiddle, vocals; Sam Quintana, bass), the BIB published news of the Kickstarter campaign they launched to fund their debut EP. That was successful, and the latest step in their progress came last weekend when they came first of eight contestants in the prestigious European Bluegrass Band competition at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival on the edge of the French Alps.

Second and third in the contest were Red Herring (NL) (with Loes van Schaijk, author of a splendid book about bluegrass in the Netherlands, on bass) and The Fretworkers (NOR). A feature by John Lawless on Bluegrass Today includes a photo of the presentation, which is also on the European Bluegrass Music Association Facebook.