Wayne Taylor & Appaloosa at Kilworth, 1 Oct. 2019 (update)

Thanks (as on many occasions in the past) to Des Butler for his report and photos:

Well, the 1st of October, International Bluegrass Day, has come and gone. I chose to celebrate by attending the Wayne Taylor & Appaloosa concert in the Arts Centre in Kilworth, and what a great night of bluegrass music this was. On entering the Arts Centre a display to mark the day was on view in the foyer [below] showing photographs of the great bluegrass musicians over the decades and many excellent books to browse through on all matters bluegrass.

At 20:15 hrs the band came on stage, and what a performance they gave for two-and-a-half hours with a fifteen-minute break. To a practically full house they gave great renditions of a lot of the old classics from the repertoire of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Osborne Brothers as well as some of their own material which was excellent.

Their performance was flawless (as was the sound) and they blew the audience away, as was demonstrated by the standing ovation they achieved after giving two encores. Their close harmonies and great musicianship had to be heard to be believed.

Having been attending bluegrass festivals and concerts now for the best part of thirty years and having attended live performances of Earl Scruggs, Tony Trischka, Béla Fleck and other renowned banjo players I would have no hesitation in saying that the banjo player with this band, Donnie Little [left], would hold his own with any of them and could grace the stage with the best, likewise their mandolin player. The band was a joy to listen to and were solidly entertaining.

After their on-stage performance they retired to the hostelry across the road from the concert venue and continued to jam for over an hour, even playing requests from some of the patrons present. A truly great evening's entertainment and a great celebration of bluegrass this entire performance was, and it has to be said that John Nyhan must shoulder the blame again for bringing this great bluegrass band to our shores and providing a fitting celebration for the day that was in it.

BIB editor's note: See also Denis McCarthy's comment on this post, below.

Musicians, l-r: John Nyhan, Emory Lester, Wayne Taylor, Donnie Little