Something to look forward to - and how!

Following upon the BIB post of 22 July, great news from mygrassisblue.com: preparations are in train to bring Tennessee's Seth Mulder & Midnight Run over for a tour of Europe in May 2022. Dave Byrne jr writes: 

It’s a while away yet, and of course we hope to get our Kristy Cox tour in before it, but in the midst of a year that we’d all rather forget, it’s good to have something to look forward to. These are exciting times for Midnight Run and we’re glad to be part of it.

Full bio details on the band, together with photos, videos, and discography, are here. To bluegrass-friendly event or venue programme directors who would be interested in hosting Midnight Run as part of their May 2022 tour of Europe - please contact mygrassisblue.com by e-mail. 

PS: See also this positive reaction from Bluegrass Today.

Editorial hiatus

The BIB editor will be out of the editorial chair on pleasure bent for a few days, starting tomorrow (Wednesday 29 July); so please keep sending in news, but don't expect it to appear before Tuesday 4 August at the earliest.

Omagh 2020 headliners (if only...) on TV

As a small but powerful taste of what we've missed through the loss of this year's festival season, the Appalachian Road Show (USA), who would have been headliners at Omagh in May, are featured on Bluegrass Today. John Lawless reports on a recent TV appearance by the band, with three video clips (also on YouTube), showing their two high-energy performances and an interview with Barry Abernathy. The photo above comes from the band's Facebook, where 187 other photos taken on that occasion can be seen.

Kenny Ingram, 19 Aug. 1952-26 July 2020

Thanks to Richard Thompson for sending the sad news that Kenny Ingram (left), one of the most experienced and respected banjo players in bluegrass music, died yesterday after suffering a massive stroke. A biographical feature by John Lawless, including three performance videos, is on Bluegrass Today. Messages of regret and condolence are appearing on Banjo Hangout.

The CV of 'Big K' included playing banjo for Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, Rhonda Vincent, and Larry Stephenson. The Dec. 2009 issue of Banjo News Letter included two features relating to him: an interview by Ian Perry, and an interview with Will Williams by Mitch Finley. Will Williams is the luthier who built twenty-five Kenny Ingram model banjos (a further banjo was assembled from parts by Greg Boyd). For banjo nerds, pages of correspondence about Kenny Ingram's banjos appeared on Banjo Hangout in 2011. 

Ian Perry wrote in 2009: '[...] while there are countless players who have reached an incredible level of virtuosity on the banjo, it seems fair to say that only a handful have really captured the subtle nuances of Earl’s sound. If you asked ten pickers, you would probably get ten different lists of the players they thought had truly learned to "play it like Earl", but one name sure to show up on every list is Kenny Ingram.'

Film your safe bluegrass jam, and win...?

Back on 3 June, the BIB reported how the Barcelona Bluegrass Jam had achieved a fulfilling meeting, under tight restrictions in a country that has suffered particularly badly from COVID-19. Bluegrass Today now announces that Pete Wernick and his Wernick Method Jam Class programme are launching a Safe Jam Contest, in which prizes of Pete's merchandise will be given for the best video of a bluegrass jam conducted in a safe and socially-distanced manner.

Full details, including prizes and how entries will be judged, are on the Bluegrass Today feature. Note that in the photo, the jammers are wisely playing in a bandstand, so the acoustics should be satisfying for them even with what looks like three-metres spacing.

One event goes ahead for 2020; another postponed to 2021

FOAOTMAD, the UK organisation promoting American old-time music and dance, announce that based on the Westminster government’s Covid 19 policy as of today (24 July), the FOAOTMAD Summer Camp will be held from Friday 7 Aug. till Sunday 16 Aug. on the dedicated event field at Croft Farm Water Park, Tewkesbury, Gloucs. GL20 7EE. Those attending will be relied on to comply with guidelines, which include (at present) a maximum of thirty people in the marquee at any one time, and a group size of six people - although others can be at a safe distance if there is no interaction. More details are on FOAOTMAD's Facebook.

FOAOTMAD also announce with regret that the Moniaive Michaelmas Bluegrass Festival in Scotland (which has put on a number of Irish bands in past years) has been cancelled for this year, but is scheduled to be held on 24-26 Sept. 2021. Bands already booked for next year include Nu-Blu (USA), Jeff Scroggins & the Scroggdogs (USA), Longway, the Vera van Heeringen Trio, Swamp Chicken, and the Often Herd.

Update 1 June 2021: We learn with regret that in the present state of travel restrictions, it has been necessary to postpone this year's Moniaive Michaelmas Bluegrass Festival to 2022.

Mountain Minor news for July 2020

Writer/ director Dale Farmer, heading the team responsible for The mountain minor, the film drama of Appalachian migration and old-time music, sends the project's latest newsletter. The film is receiving very positive responses from viewers, and screenings are serving to bring together members of the Appalachian diaspora communities in Northern cities. Kentucky Educational Television will be showing it tomorrow (Fri. 24 July), with an encore at midnight on Saturday. Other networks may be following suit.

The soundtrack of the film is finished and mastered, and liner notes and artwork are complete, so that if the CD is self-published it might be ready for release as early as September this year. More details, including reports on what members of the cast are doing now, and some tantalising hints on a future film drama set in 1939, can be seen on the e-newsletter.

Whelan's reopen, 10 Aug. 2020

Whelan's of Wexford St., Dublin 2, announce that they will be reopening as a bar and music venue on Monday 10 August, giving the highest priority to safety for staff, performers, and audiences. This will limit the capacity of the main venue to 88 (as against a pre-covid 450) with everyone seated at tables, and will put the initial emphasis on solo acoustic acts, trad, and folk. 

 Show announcements will begin next week as plans are finalised. Whelan's announce: '... the main thing is we are open for creativity. For people creating magic on our stage. [...] It’s not the ‘new normal’, it's the temporary finding your feet normal.'

Mark 'Clawgrass' Johnson on Deering Live TONIGHT (update)

The series 'Deering live', presented by Deering Banjos, will tonight feature Mark Johnson, whose 'clawgrass' style of playing has won him the approval of Tony Rice, his signature model Deering Clawgrass banjo, and the third annual Steve Martin Award for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music. He can be seen live on YouTube tonight (Thurs. 23 July) at the usual time of 6.00 p.m. EST. Send in questions for Mark by e-mail. 

Update 24 July: Deering posted yesterday on YouTube a six-minute tutorial by Hank Smith on playing single-string runs, incorporating the middle finger of the picking hand.

... and some of our most recent visitors

Thanks to Laughing Penguin Publicity for the news that Tennessee's Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, who toured Ireland at the beginning of this year (thanks to John Nyhan), have signed up as members of the artists roster of Billy Blue Records of Nashville, TN. Other artists on the label include Doyle Lawson, Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers, and Appalachian Road Show, indicating the high regard in which Midnight Run are now held. 

The photo above shows the band with Jerry Salley (extreme left) and Ed Leonard (extreme right) of Billy Blue Records. More information including bio details of the band and a nice photo - without masks - can be found on the Laughing Penguin press release.

News of past visitors and more from the Mother Country (update)

Darin & Brooke Aldridge, multi-award winners in the USA and recent headliners at Omagh, launched exactly a month ago (22 June) a new YouTube series, 'The Carolina sessions', which they host every Wednesday. Guests so far include Terry Baucom, Jason Burleson, Gena Britt, and Steve Dilling. The sessions can be found in the 'Uploads' section of the videos in their YouTube channel. More detail, plus an introductory video, are on this Morris Public Relations release.

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Mark Stoffel, German-born mandolinist with Chris Jones & the Night Drivers (USA), has released a YouTube video of his composition Shadowbands, inspired by the 2017 solar eclipse, as his debut recording for the Mountain Home Music Company. It was shot and assembled under lockdown conditions, with his former bandmate Gina Furtado (banjo), Irish musician Niall Murphy (fiddle), Josh Morrison (guitar), and Ross Sermons (bass), recording in different locations for a musically seamless result. More details are on this Mountain Home release. PS: Gina Furtado and her band, the Gina Furtado Project, have just released an impressive new video, 'The things I saw', which can be seen on YouTube and on Bluegrass Today.

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No Depression magazine carries online an article by Abby Lee Hood, 'The new normal: bluegrass goes high-tech to survive COVID-19', on the strategies being developed by bands like the Henhouse Prowlers, venues such as the Station Inn, and institutions such as IBMA to counteract the global emergency.

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Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, America's answer to Wookalily, have a new album out, Better bitter. Review features on it are in No Depression by Steven Ovadia, and on Bluegrass Today by Lee Zimmerman.

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The Gold Tone Music Group announce that the Loop2Learn learning aid is now available on Android devices. Gold Tone also announce that they have acquired the brand name 'Mastertone', which is now applied to a select range of their instruments. This is great news for Gold Tone; for the rest of us, it means that when players modestly announce that they now have a 'Mastertone', there's no telling (without more information) what kind of instrument it is.

Brandon Lee Adams online concert, 25 July 2020 (update)

If you saw and heard Btandon Lee Adams (USA) on tour in Ireland last autumn with Johnny Staats (mandolin), you'll be glad to learn that he will be giving a live stream concert, with special guests, on this coming Saturday (25 July), starting at 8.00 p.m. EDT, on the Bluegrass Today Facebook and also on beyerdynamic North America Facebook.

If you didn't catch last autumn's tour, here's a chance to see and hear 'the only Tony-Rice-approved Rice-style guitarist' (in the words of John Lawless on Bluegrass Today).

Update 27 July: Part of the concert can now be seen and heard on Bluegrass Today.

Essential reading - Mygrassisblue.com

Dave Byrne jr, Doyle Lawson, Dave Byrne sr

The BIB editor writes:

When it comes to high-quality writing for hard-core bluegrass enthusiasts and by hard-core bluegrass enthusiasts, profusely illustrated with excellent photos, and on a website that's at all times a pleasure to the eye, anyone who seeks to match mygrassisblue.com has got a hard row to hoe.

We can't say enough good things about this website or, indeed, the team's Facebook - do give the latter a glance, even if only to see how many notable bluegrass artists had their birthdays last Saturday. Dave Byrne jr wrote some time back:

We’ve been using the lockdown to turn our attention to the online side of things, and we’re finally getting around to populating the site with our musings. Periodic newsletters, tour news, snippets from the road, bluegrass titbits, interviews, blog posts, and whatnot. Join our mailing list to receive whatever we can conjure up; good stuff whenever we conjure it.

They're doing a great job. Visit the site, sign up, and find out.

A new beginning

Thanks to Loudon Temple for the news that, after having been obliged to suspend his long-established Brookfield Knights agency owing to lack of support during this year's crisis (see the BIB for 8 June), he has opened another website, Beenandgoneanddoneit.com, dedicated to another of his enduring passions - travel writing. In fact, as Loudon explains,

... it was a travel-writing commission that took me to MerleFest in North Carolina the led me to set up and launch the music agency, so we've actually gone full circle!

The photo above comes from among the illustrations to Loudon's article on MerleFest, 'A natural high in the Appalachians of North Carolina', written at a time when Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs were both on the bill. This is just one of many articles on locations in several continents that can be read on Beenandgoneanddoneit.com. The image below, taken from an illustration by the late Alasdair Gray, is a further bonus.

BBN #90

The summer 2020 issue (no. 90) of British Bluegrass News, the magazine of the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA), is now out; as always, it's designed and produced to high standards, profusely illustrated with excellent photos, full of solid content, and worthy to stand beside any magazine in this genre. There are also, of course, reflections on the unprecedented cirumstances of this year.

This issue's cover story is on Midnight Skyracer (see the BIB for 19 June), interviewed by editor Chris Lord, who also plays banjo for The Vanguards. Andy Mackenzie contributes a very solid article on problems and solutions in sound enhancement for acoustic instruments; and nearly a quarter of the issue consists of 'Tab Corner' by Jack Baker, with plenty of bluegrass history, two of the nicest photos of Bill Monroe on stage I've ever seen, and tabs for various instruments of 'Roanoke', 'New Camptown Races', and 'Grey Eagle' - which, like its fellow fiddle tune 'Tennessee Wagner', is about a racehorse.

Miller and O'Brien release 'Walking home to Wexford'

The BIB editor writes:

Thanks to John Lawless and Bluegrass Today for the news that bluegrass singer/ songwriter Milan Miller and the omnicompetent Tim O'Brien are releasing today a single, 'Walking home to Wexford', about a man who lands at Rosslare and - lacking the train fare to get to Wexford town and his Annie Claire - walks there along the River Slaney. We must try that some time. The song can be heard on Apple Music and iTunes and bought on Milan Miller's website; a video with the first verse is on the Bluegrass Today feature and also on YouTube.

BG75 memories from Thierry Schoysman

Our good friend Thierry Schoysman (left), who operates the Bluegrass in Belgium website, has already visited Ireland several times, including playing banjo with the premier Belgian band Rawhide at Omagh in 2013; coming over to hear the Greg Blake Band in 2018 and the Special Consensus in 2019; and playing mandolin with the Sons of Navarone at the Shannonside Winter Music Festival in January this year.

Thierry has now contributed some of his bluegrass memories to #5 of Bluegrass Today's 'Moments in bluegrass BG75' series, in this feature by Richard Thompson.

'Spirit of Greyfox' online festival STARTING TODAY

Compass Records announce that the Spirit of Grey Fox virtual bluegrass festival kicks off today (Thurs. 18 July) at 4.00 p.m. EDT and continues through this Sunday, 19 July. Featuring both new and iconic archival performances, the festival will be hosted by Jerry Douglas, Ron Thomason, Sierra Hull, and Joe Newberry. The schedule includes a set by Galway's We Banjo 3 at 6.45 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

More details are on the Compass Records e-newsletter and a full schedule is on the Festival website.

Update 24 July: the IBMA reports that the Festival had 265,000 viewers visiting, and raised $25,000 for the IBMA's Trust Fund COVID-19 Relief.

The Hoot - workshops and more from Oldtime Central

THE editors of Oldtime Central (OTC) have just issued their last e-newsletter before their first (online) festival, The Hoot (see the BIB for 24 June), which takes place next weekend (24-26 July). The Hoot has a powerful lineup, with workshops on banjo by Jake Blount and Brad Kolodner; on fiddle by David Bragger and Susan Platz, Craig Judelman, Emily Schaad, and Tricia Spencer; on guitar by Rachel Eddy and Howard Rains; and on harmonica by Seth Shumate.

The latest articles to appear on the OTC since the last newsletter comprise a two-part feature on rhythm bones playing - part 1 by Timothy Jones and part 2 by Dom Flemons.

Deering Live with David Holt, 16 July 2020

The series 'Deering Live', presented by Deering Banjos, will feature David Holt live on YouTube tomorrow night at 3.00 p.m. PST (California time), which should be 11.00 p.m. BST. Regular attenders at Omagh festivals will remember David and his Lightning Bolts band as headliners some years back. You can send in questions for him to answer by e-mail, with the title 'Re: Deering Live Featuring David Holt'.

Last week's 52-minute episode of 'Deering Live', centring on the wide ProPik range of picks, which Deering acquired in February this year, can be seen now on the Deering blog.

Randy Wood: the lore of the luthier just out

Bluegrass musicians and fans have always paid great attention to instruments and to skilled makers and repairers, and over the last fifty years independent luthiers have grown greatly in numbers, skills, and reputation - see, for instance, the issues of the Fretboard Journal.

Daniel Wile, musician and writer, has now written the biography of Randy Wood, 'repairman to the stars' (and also operator of Randy's Pickin' Parlor in Bloomingdale, Georgia): Randy Wood: the lore of the luthier, published by the University of Tennessee Press at $29.95 in paper or PDF format. More details, including availability of autographed copies, are on this press release.

'My kind of town' video from the Special C. (update)

The Special Consensus, 2020 model: (l-r) Nate Burie, Rick Faris,
 Greg Cahill, Dan Eubanks

Thanks to Bluegrass Today for the news that our longtime friends in Special Consensus have just released a second video from their latest album Chicago Barn Dance, and this time it's of their stunning all-instrumental version of 'My kind of town', the paean to Chicago made vocally famous by Frank Sinatra and many others. Watch it on John Lawless's Bluegrass Today feature, or on YouTube. Chicago Barn Dance is nominated for Album of the Year and Collaborative Recording Event of the Year, and the band are nominated for Entertainer of the Year in the 2020 IBMA awards.

Quote of the month

I'm reading a wonderful book about early jazz [...], and there's a comment by Joe Oliver, 'King' Oliver, one of the earliest hot bands in New Orleans, and he was talking about the dynamics of a jazz band, and the key word is texture - it's all about texture. I could say that about our conception of string band music. The other thing he said, and this is a paradox in a way, is that all the instruments of the band blend together to create that texture, one sound; but on the other hand, you hear each instrument separately...

Bill Dillof of the Canebrake Rattlers string band, interviewed in the Old Time Herald, vol. 11, no. 3 (Feb.-Mar. 2008)

BIB editor's note: This - combined with a feeling of 'this needs to be done now' - is also what I like most in a bluegrass band. It's exemplified in the classic Flatt & Scruggs band, and in bands from the Washington and Baltimore areas in the 1950s and '60s.

Late news (and we mean late)

The BIB editor writes:

Relying on what is shown on the website and Facebook, the BIB has been assuming that the 13th Ardara Bluegrass Festival, scheduled for next weekend (17-19 July 2020), was still likely to take place. We now learn that it was cancelled some months ago. It may be time for the BIB to stop pretending to be a news medium...

Athy Bluegrass Festival 2003 lives again TONIGHT amd TOMORROW

Thanks to Tony O'Brien, organiser of bluegrass festivals and weekends at Athy, Co. Kildare, since 1998, for this news:

As this would normally be the Athy weekend, I will post a 45-minute video tonight and a two-hour video tomorrow night at 9.00 p.m. of the 2003 Festival on my Facebook page to mark the weekend.

So, anyone interested in a virtual bluegrass festival - get yourselves a takeaway, a few beers, or a bottle of wine and re-live Athy Bluegrass Festival 2003.

No connection with bluegrass

In memory

Sgt S.L. 'Mac' Bain, pilot
Sgt G.C.G. 'Todd' Hawkins, observer*
Sgt G.A. 'Geoff' Allison, wireless operator/ air gunner

Crew of Blenheim IV R3606 of 107 Squadron, 2 Group, RAF Bomber Command
Shot down and taken prisoner in northern France on 10 July 1940 (first day of the 'Battle of Britain')
107 sent six aircraft on this operation against airfields, and lost five

* = navigator/ bomb aimer

'Deering Live' episode #13

The series 'Deering Tech Live', presented by Deering Banjos, will from now on be known as 'Deering Live' and will appear live on YouTube, so there is no need to view it on Facebook or Instagram as with the previous twelve episodes.

Today Jamie Deering, Jamie Latty, and David Bandrowski from Deering will be talking about the wide ProPik range of picks, which Deering acquired in February this year. Questions can be sent in as comments on YouTube. As usual, the episode will air at 3.00 p.m. PST (California time), which should be 11.00 p.m. BST.

Top of the hill coming from April Verch

April Verch (CAN) announces that her new album for children, Top of the hill, is due for release on 24 July, and is now available for pre-order. The inspiration for the project arose during lockdown; April writes:

Nothing has been as constant throughout my life as family and music, and both have seen me through the best and worst of times. I felt called to create music that would appeal not only to children, but that might connect generations.

Seven of the ten tracks are original compositions, and the cover artwork is by April. More details are on her e-newsletter.

Pilgrim St release Ash Into gold dust 10 July 2020

After months of cancellations and enforced inactivity, it's good to learn of a genuine new event on the scene here; so thanks to Eugene Donegan for the news that Pilgrim St, based in Navan, Co. Meath, will release their debut album Ash into gold dust this coming Friday (10 July). It will be on sale from that date from the band's online shop, and available later for streaming.

The image below right shows a gift card, also available from the band's shop. Thanks also to Eugene and the band for the following press release:

Irish band Pilgrim St crown a two-year run of sold-out theatre and festival shows with the release of their long-awaited debut album – Ash into gold dust – this July.

A democracy in the best sense of the word, Pilgrim St’s sound - influenced by bluegrass, old time country, and folk music from home and abroad - is based around a stunning selection of songs written by the band’s three songwriters, whose different styles blend beautifully.

Witness Peadar Farrelly’s gorgeous 'Never gets old' (the first single from the album) nestling alongside Eugene Donegan’s bluesy 'Hurt people hurt people', Eoin McDonnell’s beautiful mandolin-led instrumental 'Go dtí sin' and Brendan Kelly’s brilliantly cinematic opener 'Ballad of Anton Dunne' and you’ll start to understand why the band has built up such a ferocious live reputation over the last couple of years.

Ash into gold dust was co-produced by the band with their long-time live sound engineer Mark Cahill at Crookedwood Studios in County Meath and is available on CD from the band’s web store at https://www.pilgrimst.com/shop.

Ask any member of Pilgrim St to list their influences and the responses will more than likely be very similar: any of the grittier characters from Appalachian old-time, bluegrass, and the folk canon from both sides of the Atlantic. They might single out Springsteen (particularly in Seeger sessions mode), Hank Williams, or Woody Guthrie, but if you expect them to play some sort of Americana mish-mash, you’d be mistaken. For running deeply through the band’s core is that unmistakably Irish phenomenon, a gift for rousing tales and stirring choruses - hearts wide open and going for broke - just like those loveable predecessors The Pogues or The Saw Doctors. Pilgrim St have become one of the hardest-working and best-respected bands on the Irish circuit since they first formed four years ago, winning solid approval for their true-grit passion and delivery in theatre and festival venues including Vicar St and Electric Picnic.

Pilgrim St consists of Peadar Farrelly (guitar, vocals), Eugene Donegan (banjo, vocals), Eoin McDonnell (mandolin, vocals), Francis McGinn (bass), Mark Lynch (dobro), Brendan Kelly (accordion, vocals) and Cathal McQuaid (fiddle).

Contact Eugene Donegan: e-mail, tel. 087 6258275

Highlight Review for Special C. in July 2020 BU

Congratulations to the staff and contributors of Bluegrass Unlimited for the magazine continuing to appear despite this year's global crisis. The July 2020 issue may look slim, but all that's missing are (understandably) festival adverts and the personal appearance calendar; all other normal features are present and as good as ever.

The review section includes Cup O' Joe's album In the parting; Chris Goertzen's book American antebellum fiddling, which should clear up myths on tune origins; Aaron Jonah Lewis's album of Joe Morley compositions, The Mozart of the banjo (see the BIB for 24 May); and a Highlight Review rating for the latest Special Consensus album, Chicago Barn Dance, which (the reviewer concludes) 'presents one of bluegrass music’s most enduring bands at their big-shouldered peak'.

By the way, Greg Cahill, leader of the Special C., was featured on the cover of the June 2020 Banjo News Letter and interviewed inside by Ned Luberecki.

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No Depression magazine lists the new albums by Jake Blount and Sarah Jarosz among its ten 'favourite roots music albums of 2020 (so far)'.

Michael J. Miles online concert this Friday (10 July)

IN his latest e-newsletter, Michael J. Miles (USA) - the man who showed that Bach could be beautifully played on the clawhammer banjo - announces that he will be among the artists playing in an online streaming concert this coming Friday (10 July) to raise funds for Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, where Michael has taught for many years. The concert will also mark the launch of his new CD, Mississippi River suite. You can tune in online, where there are more details.

Schedules of Michael's one-time-only workshops for banjo and fingertstyle guitar are on the e-newsletter.

News from the Mother Country

Charlie Daniels (photo: Tennesseean files)

Thanks to Uri Kohen for the sad news that Charlie Daniels, the most prominent, flamboyant, and controversial fiddle player in country music, died early today after a stroke at the age of 83. He joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 2008 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016.

Born and raised in North Carolina, he absorbed bluegrass among other musical influences, and could play banjo and mandolin as well as fiddle and guitar; his many achievements included being Bob Dylan's guitarist of choice on three albums. A full obituary by Dave Paulson and Matthew Leimkuehler appeared today in the Nashville Tennessean.

Update 10 July: The funeral service is being held today at Murfreesboro, TN, followed by private burial at Mount Juliet, TN. John Lawless gives details on Bluegrass Today.

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Thanks to Ed Bowes of Virginia (see the BIB for 23 June) for the news that the online instruction programme of the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV, is now under way. Ed reports:

We have already watched a couple of the classes and they were very good. One was on swing drumming and the other on Cajun fiddle. Both were surprisingly relevant to banjo or any other instrument. The classes will be up on YouTube and available until sometime in early September.

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Also from West Virginia: a fifty-seven-minute video on YouTube since last September, 'In tune: a community of musicians', in which the Augusta Center and many other aspects of traditional music and culture are mentioned. Near the end there is a stunning clip of Hazel Dickens singing a cappella 'Hills of Galilee' (which she sang in the 1987 film Matewan). You can also hear her sing the whole song here.

A future recruit for Special Consensus

Congratulations to Rick and Nicole Faris (Rick is known to audiences over here for playing mandolin, and more recently guitar, with the Special Consensus), who have a new son, Kent, born last night. Full details, with photos and a solid message from Rick, are on Bluegrass Today.

News from Oldtime Central: The Hoot and much more

THE editors of Oldtime Central (OTC) announce in their latest e-newsletter that they are still hard at work advertising and preparing for their first (online) festival, The Hoot (see the BIB for 24 June), due three weeks from now. Registration is now open, and they supply the following links to The Hoot:

Workshop descriptions and concert schedule
Workshop Registration
Facebook Event

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The following articles have appeared on OTC since the last newsletter:

Katherine Jackson French: Kentucky's Forgotten Ballad Collector

Sourwood Mountain: Oldtime Fiddle Lesson with Craig Judelman

African Americans in Oldtime Music: 10 Resources for Learning the History of the Music

Online Old Time Banjo Festival Part 2: an Interview with the Organizers

BIB editor's note: The 'ten resources for learning the history of the music' are well worth exploring in detail; fiddlers in particular should learn something.

An invitation to Banjoland from We Banjo 3

Galway's We Banjo 3 extend a heartfelt invitation to their fans to join them in a new community space, Banjoland, with a choice of five levels of support for the band, each with its corresponding range of benefits and access to instruction on Irish music, Irish culture, and much more.

You can also see We Banjo 3's invitation delivered in person by all four members of the band on video, above and on YouTube.

Europe's oldest bluegrass festival keeps on going!

Congratulations to our fellow bluegrassers in the Czech and Slovak Republics, who held Europe's oldest bluegrass festival this summer for the forty-eighth time while festival schedules elsewhere have been in ruins. The Banjo Jamboree, founded in 1973, took place at Čáslav in the Czech Republic on the weekend 19-20 June 2020, with eighteen bands taking part, including several (G-runs 'n Roses, Blackjack, Sunny Side) who have played at Irish festivals.

The board of the Bluegrass Association of the Czech Republic confirmed (just a week before the date announced for the Jamboree) that in accordance with the lifting of offical restrictions, a gathering of up to 500 people would be allowed, and the Jamboree would be organised as normal with extra provision for health safety. Video footage from Čáslav can be seen on YouTube.