22 July 2020

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.

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