Track Dogs in Ireland, 8-10 Feb. 2019

L-r: Robbie K. Jones, Garrett Wall, Howard Brown, Dave Mooney

Devotees of the much-missed Johnny Keenan Banjo Festivals will remember Robbie K. Jones, who played cajon with Lluís Gómez's Barcelona Bluegrass Band, sat in with Jerry Douglas and Tony Trischka in 2006, and was back every year that the festival lasted.

Thanks to Robbie for the news that his own group, the Americana band Track Dogs (IRL/GB/USA), who toured in Ireland earlier this year (see the BIB for 11 Mar. 2018), will be back for a flying visit in early February next year as the start of an extensive tour in these islands. The band has just released a track featuring the up-and-coming bluegrass band The Barefoot Movement, whom they met at Folk Alliance International in Kansas City. 'The trip', Robbie writes, 'was so influential that we named the subsequent album Kansas City out groove.'

Robbie includes this link to the track, his original song 'Gonna get my way'. And the Johnny Keenan festivals have left a mark on it - Robbie writes: 'As a result of so many banjo-infested visits, I ended up playing one myself, and it’s in this track as well.'

Based in Madrid, the Track Dogs are Garrett Wall (guitars, piano, uke, vocals) of Dublin, Robbie K. Jones (cajón, banjo, vocals) of Vermilion, Ohio, Howard Brown (trumpet, piano, percussion, vocals) of Sheffield, and Dave Mooney (electric & double bass, uke, vocals) of Wicklow. Their dates in Ireland will be:

Fri. 8th Feb.: Tea Room Sessions, Brewery Lane Theatre, Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary
Sat. 9th: The Barrel Venue, McHugh's, Drogheda, Co. Louth
Sun. 10th: Tally Ho, Longford town

[note that the venue for 9 Feb. has been changed since this post was first published]

Plenty of the Track Dogs' music is on YouTube. The following links are to (in varying degrees) bluegrass-influenced tracks by the band on Spotify: 'Raise your head', 'Bon Scott, he rocked', 'All roads lead me to roam', 'The wrong man', and 'Orion sees'.