Beyond the Tagus river

André Dal is the moving spirit of bluegrass music and 5-string banjo playing in Portugal. For years now he has been seriously afflicted by incurable focal hand dystonia in his picking hand; but he has responded with energy, inventiveness, and adaptation (as described by Tom Nechville in this article in the Dec. 2018 Banjo News Letter).

As André's latest move to present bluegrass to Portugal, earlier this year he began preparing an instrumental album, Beyond the Tagus river, to display the character of the music. He brought in many musicians from abroad who had become his friends. The genesis of the project is told (in Portuguese and English) on his Facebook. The musicians taking part (above left) come from Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, the USA, Canada, Japan - and Northern Ireland.

During March the pickers were individually featured day by day on Andre's Facebook (and thence on the European Bluegrass Music Association's Facebook), and on 15 March it was the turn of Reuben Agnew (above right) of Co. Armagh, Cup O' Joe, and Pet Yeti. Congratulations to André, Reuben, and everyone who has taken part in Beyond the Tagus river.

© Richard Hawkins

'Deep river' from Rick Faris

More news of Rick Faris, who after eleven years with the Special Consensus (including several tours in Ireland) has launched a vigorous solo career. Stephen Mougin's Dark Shadow Recording label announces the release of Rick's new single 'Deep river' from his forthcoming album The next mountain.

Rick wrote the song in conjunction with the award-winning songwriter Mark 'Brink' Brinkman, and recorded it with Laura Orshaw (fiddle), Russ Carson (banjo), Harry Clark (mandolin), Zak McLamb (bass), and Shawn Lane (harmony vocals). More details are on the Dark Shadow press release and on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. The song can be heard on Bluegrass Today and on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

5th Jens Kruger masterclass

The fifth banjo masterclass presented by Jens Kruger for the Deering Banjo Company was delivered tonight and can now be watched (71 minutes) on YouTube. The subjects of this class are musical structure and chord movement.

Deering also provide this link to the wide range of banjo music and tutors in their stock.

© Richard Hawkins

A video treasury of old-time and bluegrass music

Oldtime Central (OTC) published last week a feature by Brian Slattery of Connecticut, 'Capturing the magic', about the tireless work of musician and videographer Dave Wells, born in eastern Kentucky, who has (over nearly thirty years) recorded hundreds of hours of music at Galax, Clifftop, and other festivals from musicians who were, or became, the best of their generation. The videos - or at least a very large number of them - are now on his YouTube channel.

© Richard Hawkins

Industrial strength bluegrass out today (26 Mar. 2021); livestream concert TOMORROW

On 29 Jan. the BIB reported on the forthcoming issue of a book and an album both commemorating bluegrass from the southwestern Ohio area, which played an important part in the development of the music.

The book is Industrial strength bluegrass: southwestern Ohio's musical legacy, edited by Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison and published by the University of Illinois Press in their 'Music in American Life' series; the names of the editors and publishers are strong recommendation in themselves. The album, under the same title, is being released today (26 March) by Smithsonian Folkways. and in a major feature on Bluegrass Today (in which all sixteen tracks of the album can be heard in full*) John Curtis Goad gives a comprehensive and warmly favourable review of it, culminating with the words:

I could probably talk about this album, the artists it pays tribute to, and the artists who perform on it, for days. This right here is the kind of music I grew up listening to, and what I still prefer personally today.

East Public Relations, who today publicise the album, also announce a special one-day-only livestream concert to mark the release, featuring Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, The Isaacs, the Caleb Daugherty Band, and Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers, all of whom are featured on the album. All-access tickets ($14.95) can be bought here.

*The tracks could be heard in full this morning, but since then the player has been changed to give 30-second samples instead.

Update: An introductory video by Joe Mullins, with evocative views of historic venues in Dayton, OH, is on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

New single from Seth Mulder & Midnight Run (USA): update

The BIB reported earlier this month that Seth Mulder & Midnight Run (almost our most recent bluegrass visitors from the USA) had joined the artist roster of Mountain Fever Records. The band have lost no time in bringing out their first single on the label: 'One more night', which can be heard on SoundCloud and via John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. A video of the band performing it live, last autumn for the IBMA, is on their Facebook.

Update 30 Mar.: Mountain Fever Records announce that 'One more night' is being released today, and give some details from Seth Mulder about how the song came to be written.

© Richard Hawkins

'Tallest Man on Earth' on Deering LIve TONIGHT

Deering Banjos announce that multi-instrumentalist and singer/ songwriter Kristian Matsson from Sweden, known professionally as 'The Tallest Man on Earth', will be featured tonight on Deering Live at 7.00 p.m. BST. Lauren Murphy interviewed him for the Irish Times in 2013 and reviewed his album Dark bird is home in 2015.

© Richard Hawkins

Benny Martin, 1928-2001

Saturday 13 March was the twentieth anniversary of the death of Benjamin Edward 'Benny' Martin of Tennessee, one of the most influential of bluegrass fiddlers. He began playing on stage and radio before he was 10, and in his late teens composed and recorded 'Me and my fiddle' (which Irish audiences will have heard performed by Joost van Es of 4 Wheel Drive). He subsequently played with Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff, Johnnie & Jack, Kitty Wells, Don Reno, and Flatt & Scruggs, before becoming a Grand Ole Opry member as a solo artist.

Like his friend Scotty Stoneman, he suffered from alcoholism, which may have contributed to the health problems of his later life. Much more detail is in Gary Reid's biographical article for the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, into which Benny was inducted in 2005 - the third fiddler to have been inducted in his own right, after Chubby Wise (1998) and Kenny Baker (1999).

© Richard Hawkins

Bluegrass springtime in the Black Forest: postponed again this year

The BIB editor writes:

Earlier this month the publicity office of the city of Bühl, near Baden-Baden on the edge of the Black Forest in south-west Germany, announced with regret that the 18th International Bühl Bluegrass Festival, postponed last year, will not be held this coming May. Under present Covid restrictions, events of any kind are prohibited and hotels, restaurants, shops, concert halls, theatres, cinemas, and even offices are closed, with no prospect of reopening to allow planning a festival this year.

The festival was started, and is fully funded, by the city of Bühl. It has become the main springtime bluegrass event of western Europe, thanks to the direction of our good friends Walter Fuchs (Germany's leading historian of country music and longtime presenter of country record radio shows) and his son Patrick, who gave essential help in running the festival for years and took over from Walter as director in 2015. In previous years the BIB has gladly announced it as 'two days and nights of fine bluegrass music in a first-class auditorium in a delightful town on the edge of the Black Forest in spring.' We're happy to learn that Walter and his lovely wife Marianne had their second Pfizer shots earlier this month.

Patrick (second from left) and Walter Fuchs (third from right) with 

Bühl city representatives at the release of the 2016 programme

.

Walter at the microphone, among his record collection

Walter retired from broadcasting on Schwarzwaldradio in June 2019, and in September 2020 Patrick took over the station's weekly country music radio show 'Country Club', heard all over Germany and worldwide via the internet, with bluegrass played regularly. His details (in German) are shown here.

© Richard Hawkins

New podcast series on black Appalachian music

The subject of black music in Appalachia is deservedly receiving greater attention, and the Great Smoky Mountains Association has accordingly launched a new mini-series, 'Sepia tones: exploring black Appalachian music' on its 'Smoky Mountain Air' podcast channel. To be broadcast every other month, the six episodes are hosted by two distinguished scholars, Dr William Turner and Dr Ted Olson.

The image shown above comes from the Association's Facebook, where there is a basic introduction and a link to the fuller details on the Association's website. See also John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. The first episode can be heard here. The 33 minutes include five musical examples; one contributor is the English folksinger Martin Simpson, performing 'John Hardy' with Dom Flemons.

Listeners can expect to learn a lot, and not just about Appalachian music. It was revealed that though 1619 is widely regarded as the earliest date at which African slaves came to North America, Spanish explorers and their Moroccan slaves were in the Smokies "at least one hundred and fifty years before then" - that is, in 1469 or earlier. Which raises the interesting point: did anyone think of telling Columbus before he set out?

© Richard Hawkins

New single from Jesse Brock out Fri. 26 Mar. 2021

In early November last year the BIB reported that mandolin maestro Jesse Brock (who is now a member of Fast Track) was releasing his own composition 'Streamliner' as a single on the Sound Biscuit label. This was the first release from Jesse's project for an album with top-flight guest musicians: full details are on his own website.

Sound Biscuit now announce that a new single and video by Jesse - of the Louisa Branscomb and Geri Byrd song 'Kiss on a cold, cold stone' - will be released this coming Friday (26 March). Musicians also taking part include Greg Blake (guitar), Russ Carson (banjo), Josh Swift (dobro), and Barry Reed (bass), with Felicia Mikels singing tenor. More detail is on the Sound Biscuit press release.

© Richard Hawkins

Jim Hurst on 'Song of the Mountains' concert, 3 Apr. 2021

Thanks to Tim White for the news that on Saturday 3 April at 7.00 p.m. Song of the Mountains, the organisation holding monthly concerts in the historic Lincoln Theatre at Marion, VA, will present a concert featuring guitar wizard Jim Hurst (photo) and two North Carolina bluegrass bands, Nick Chandler & Delivered and Deeper Shade of Blue. As with other Song of the Mountains concerts, the show will be taped for broadcasting across the USA on public TV, and can also be watched on live stream.

Jim Hurst has toured several times in Ireland, most recently in autumn 2019 when he gave (as always) an astounding display of mastery of the guitar, flat- as well as finger-picked, and an equal mastery of sound enhancement to bring out the full qualities of the instrument. He is also, when he gets a chance to show it, a very individual and original banjo player.

© Richard Hawkins

Earl 'J.T.' Gray, 1946-2021

The BIB learns with regret of the death of Earl 'J.T.' Gray on Saturday at the age of 75. An experienced bluegrass musician in earlier life, he is best known for operating the Station Inn in Nashville for nearly forty years.

The Inn is a single-storey building, which in architectural distinction approaches the level of the average German blockhouse in the Ypres Salient c.1917. In J.T.'s hands it became the centre of live bluegrass in Nashville, and renowned throughout the world for the quality of music that could regularly be heard there. In 2020 he was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. More details are in David Morris's feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Mother's lively new brood (UPDATE)

The mother of bluegrass magazines, Bluegrass Unlimited (founded 1966), has expanded online in several directions, as shown by the latest e-mail newsletter. The new features include a weekly podcast (the latest, an hour long, is with guitarist Chris Eldridge); instrumental instruction (e.g. a lesson on developing speed on the mandolin by Andrew Collins); a weekly jam track to play along with; a Spotify playlist; and a selection from the BU archives - the latest is Walter V. Saunders' fine in-depth atudy of North Carolina banjoist Johnny Whisnant, originally published in four parts from June to September 1970. Warmly recommended.

UPDATE 25 Mar.: You can sign up to receive weekly newsletters from BU via this link.

© Richard Hawkins

For bassists

The upright double bass was rare in early string bands; it tended to be too big and expensive, and some bands used the more portable cello. By the time bluegrass music emerged, the upright bass had become more common, and it is now valued in bluegrass both for its sound and for its appearance. It remains, however, more of a handful to carry around than the electric bass guitar.

Mark Zandveld, bassist, artist, and luthier from Hoorn in the Netherlands, has recently devised The Bace (a Bass Cello), which is essentially a cello body fitted with the neck of a fretless electric bass. Several videos are on the website and on YouTube, all of which show the instrument being played like a bass guitar - though it can be played as an upright, and has a much more acoustic sound than the bass guitars shown for comparison here. In the travel version, the neck can be detached and the whole instrument carried in a fairly compact case. The Bace is also on Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

JigJam's online Springtime Shindig, Sun. 28 Mar. 2021

JigJam, the originators of I-Grass, announce that tickets are now on sale for their 'post-Paddy's Day concert' - the Springtime Shindig, to take place on StageIt, live streamed on Sunday 28 March at 9.00 p.m. (Irish time). Tickets can be bought from the StageIt page.

JigJam (Jamie McKeogh, Cathal Guinan, and Daithi Melia from Mullingar, and Gavin Strappe from Co. Tipperary) add: 'As always, we are supported by our management at Take 2 Promotions and the wonderful people at Culture Ireland!'

© Richard Hawkins

Microphone placement for banjos - 7.00 p.m. TODAY

Deering Banjos announce that today (Thurs. 18 Mar.) they will host online a conversation with John Jennings (vice-president of Royer Labs, specialists in ribbon mikes) and Matt Coles (studio engineer at Compass Sound Studio) to discuss all aspects of getting the sound of a banjo through a microphone and out the other end, if possible sounding even better. Questions can also be put to both panelists. The discussion can be watched here.

Past visitor news: Martin Gilmore, Tristan Scroggins

The BIB editor writes:

Thanks to John Nyhan, fans of bluegrass and country music in Ireland have enjoyed tours by Martin Gilmore (right) in 2014 and again in 2015, when he came over with Nick Amodeo (mandolin, bouzouki, guitar) and Ian Haegele (bass), forming the Martin Gilmore Trio. The Trio have now brought out their debut album; the eleven tracks can all be heard, and the album bought ($10), here.

The album received yesterday a comprehensive, thoughtful, and very favourable review on Bluegrass Today from Tabitha Benedict. No comment from me is needed; but as 'Sweet sunny South' is one of my favourite songs, I'd have liked to hear the Trio sing all the verses.

Martin is also the son of Doug Gilmore, guitarist of the splendid Colorado bluegrass band High Plains Tradition.

*

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announces the names of three new members of its board of directors, who are to take office in June 2021. Among them is mandolin wizard Tristan Scroggins, who has been elected to represent the constituency of Artists, Composers, and Music Publishers. Congratulations to Tristan on another field for his apparently boundless energies.

© Richard Hawkins

We Banjo 3: concert video available; 'Inside the Banjoverse' podcast

Galway's We Banjo 3, originators of Celtgrass, performed their epic virtual experience concert, 'We Banjo 3: Live From Ireland' last Saturday (13 Mar.) at 10 p.m. GMT, with all four members together live on stage for the first time since live concerts ceased a year ago. The band now announce, for the benefit of anyone who missed it, that video on-demand access is available for purchase ($25) up to and including Sunday 21 March (midnight EST), via this link.

The band also announce that their brand new podcast, 'Inside the Banjoverse', will be launched on 29 March on all podcast platforms. Season 1 will be hosted by Enda Scahill (right), presenting celebrated roots music artists, 'delving into the thoughts, emotions and experiences that drive and inspire them to art and to greatness'. A six-minute trailer can be heard here.

© Richard Hawkins

St Patrick's day: 2

It's hard to imagine a city more hostile to the notion of sobriety than the one where I live.

And that city is Savannah, GA, as described by Allison Styce in her essay 'Sober in Savannah on St Patrick's day', published on 11 March in the Bitter Southerner online magazine. The city holds three well-established ceremonies for, or in honour of, its Irish community. Styce's essay is a study of personal disengagement from alcohol, and a window on to one aspect of Irishness in the south-eastern United States.

© Richard Hawkins

St Patrick's day: 1

To mark St Patrick's day this year, the BIB recommends 'Cremonea', a composition by Turlough O'Carolan, which can be heard here, played on clawhammer banjo by Janet Burton, who put it on YouTube two weeks ago (4 Mar. 2021). At the time of writing it is the latest video on her YouTube channel.

Several other O'Carolan tunes are on the channel, which is predominantly a treasury of old-time American fiddle and banjo tunes. One deceptively simple example is 'Spring Creek gal', recorded four years ago (1 Mar. 2017), when Janet Burton wrote:

I'm taking Dwight Diller's advice this year and choosing my favorite 25-30 tunes to play again and again. He wisely asks why learn hundreds of tunes, just to forget how to play them or how they go.

Sound advice - nonetheless, since then Janet has recorded dozens if not hundreds of other tunes, all well worth hearing. Three weeks ago she recorded 'Three tunes inspired by Lee Sexton', in honour of the Kentucky musician who died on 11 Feb.

© Richard Hawkins

The Original Five (SE) celebrate ten years together

Thanks to John Lawless on Bluegrass Today for the news that Sweden's Original Five were able to celebrate ten years together as a band with a concert on 31 October 2020, thanks to the more relaxed approach to COVID restrictions that prevailed at that time in Sweden. A 43-minute video of the show can be seen on Bluegrass Today and also on YouTube, and the band are in appropriately lively form. Well worth a listen.

It's not quite the same lineup that made a tour of Ireland four years ago, including the 2017 Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival - mandolinist Ola Persson is no longer a regular member, though he was among the guest musicians at the concert. More details on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Kaufman Kamps (USA) planned for June 2021

Steve Kaufman (USA) announces that his 25th summer Acoustic Kamps will be held at Maryville College, Maryville, TN, with all appropriate safety precautions and the hope of some present restrictions being lifted by then in response to the roll-out of vaccination in the US. The week for old-time and traditional music is 13-19 June, followed by the bluegrass week, 20-26 June. Full details, with an introductory video, are on the Acoustic Kamp page of his website.

© Richard Hawkins

Carlton Haney, 19 Sept. 1928-16 Mar. 2011

Ten years ago today, Lawrence Carlton Haney (left) of North Carolina died after a stroke at the age of 82. The BIB's post of that date balked at trying to do justice to such a multifaceted individual, who had such an influence on bluegrass history; however, there and on 11 Apr. 2011 the BIB gave links to a number of the most informative sources on his life, career, and personality.

To mark this anniversary, the BIB cannot do better than recommend a second time the YouTube video 'Carlton Haney, Jimmy Martin, and Bluegrass Pythagoras', which was first noted on the BIB on 6 June 2018. As was noted at the time, it gives 'some feel of the cement, gravel, and iron that went into the foundations of the music'.

© Richard Hawkins

Q&A session for 4th Jens Kruger masterclass, Tues. 16 Mar. 2021

The fourth in the series of banjo masterclasses given by Jens Kruger, covering single-string playing and right-hand triplets, was shown last week (Tues. 9 Mar.), and can now be seen on YouTube. Deering Banjos announce that the corresponding Q&A session will be held tomorrow (Tues. 16 Mar.) at 10 p.m. GMT ('Lisbon Time').

© Richard Hawkins

The latest BBN

The BIB editor writes:

The latest issue - no. 93, spring 2021 - of British Bluegrass News (BBN), the magazine of the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA), has Tabitha Benedict on the cover (right) and a fine four-page interview with her by BBN editor Chris Lord, in which she gives thanks for the years of going to Omagh bluegrass festivals at the Ulster American Folk Park, talks about her Bulas banjo and other gear, and reveals that her first instrument was the bodhran.

Chris Lord also has a four-page interview with the US band Breaking Grass. Pete Wraith (who played at Dunmore East some years ago with the Ken Tardley Playboys) describes a trip to the US that resulted in the formation of the BBMA; three European albums are reviewed; the substantial 'Tab Corner' feature includes tablature for guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin on 'Blue Ridge cabin home' as played by the Bluegrass Album Band; and the many other features include 'Making lockdown videos, part 2' and an account of the 2020 online Banjo Summit.

Captions on more of the photos might have aided the reader, but apart from this, BBN remains a model of what the magazine of a national bluegrass organisation can be.

Update: Another media development from Britain: you may be helped by the 'Bluegrass Jam Along Podcast' presented by Matt Hutchinson in London. See this feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Kody Norris Show to release All suited up on 23 Apr. 2021

Rebel Records announce that the Kody Norris Show (who would have headlined the bluegrass section of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival last year, but for the pandemic) will release their debut Rebel album All suited up on 23 Apr. 2021. The twelve-track album can be pre-ordered here; three of the twelve can be heard on the band's website.

More details, including a full track listing, are on the Rebel press release, which states: 'The Kody Norris Show inhabits traditional bluegrass and confidently carries it forward.' Or, as our friend Greg Cahill of the Special Consensus writes in the album notes:

The element that distinguished the music of the first-generation bluegrass bands from each other was that each created their own sound. This recording clearly establishes that Kody has accomplished this – he has created his own sound that is deeply steeped in tradition but has his own stamp on the performance, the arrangements, and the repertoire in general.

© Richard Hawkins

Celtgrass live from Ireland, 13 Mar. 2021

Galway's We Banjo 3, originators of Celtgrass, send a reminder that their next epic virtual experience, 'We Banjo 3: Live From Ireland', will be tomorrow night (Sat. 13 Mar.) at 10 p.m. GMT, with all four members together live on stage for the first time since live concerts ceased a year ago. The show will be streamed live in real-time from the Pearse Lyons Distillery in Dublin.

Today is the last chance for buying tickets (from $20) and merch bundles (from $22.50), which are on sale now. Garments, commemorative posters, steel pints, and limited release WB3COFFEE are available. Loyalty Early Bird discounted tickets can be bought up to 11.59 p.m. EST on Friday 12 February. Each ticket purchase includes on-demand streaming access for seven days after the event.

© Richard Hawkins

Red Hat Acoustic Music Club virtual meeting TONIGHT

Paul and Anne McEvoy, organisers of the Red Hat Acoustic Music Club, announce that the next virtual meeting of the Club is tonight (Fri. 12 Mar.), and they are looking forward to hearing and seeing all Red Hat habitués.

In normal times the Red Hat meets on the second Friday of every month at the Harbour Hotel, Naas, Co. Kildare. Music starts around 8.30 p.m.; a donation of €3.00 covers coffee/ tea and sandwiches at the interval.

© Richard Hawkins

Ken Perlman classes from now to the end of April

Ken Perlman (USA), master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, sends a reminder of the Suwannee Banjo Camp which is being held online this coming Saturday and Sunday (13-14 Mar. 2021) and also offers courses in old-time fiddle, mandolin, and flat-picked guitar. The cost to attend is $125 for a single day or $240 for the full two-day schedule.

Ken also announces that in the next month his continuing programme of online live instructional banjo workshops on Zoom will include 'Playing cross-tuning' (playing in one key while the banjo is tuned to a different key) on 29 Mar., and 'Beyond the Galax lick: the arpeggio technique in clawhammer' on 10 Apr. All the clawhammer clinics Ken has given are available as videos for $25 each. More information is on his website.

© Richard Hawkins

Fast Track: new single, 'Tennessee rain'

Fast Track: rear, Duane Sparks, Steve Day, Ron Spears; front, Jesse Brock, Dale Perry

The Engelhardt Music Group announce that today (10 Mar.) 'Tennessee rain', a new single by Fast Track (USA), is being released. A song of flight, danger, and despair, it can be heard from a player on the band's website and in a video on their Facebook.

Fast Track is the 'new' band of seasoned bluegrass campaigners which caused general excitement and interest on the US scene when it formed. The band consists of Dale Perry (banjo, bass vocals), Steve Day (fiddle, vocals), Ron Spears (bass, vocals), Jesse Brock (mandolin, vocals), and Duane Sparks (guitar, vocals). Ron and Jesse have both toured in Ireland in the past.

© Richard Hawkins

Seth Mulder & Midnight Run sign with Mountain Fever Records

Mountain Fever Records of Willis, VA, announce today that they are welcoming Seth Mulder & Midnight Run of Tennessee to their roster of artists. The photo above shows the band signing in: (l-r) Ben Watlington, Seth Mulder, Mark Hodges (president of Mountain Fever), Colton Powers, Max Etling.

Midnight Run were among the last US bluegrass visitors to tour Ireland before the pandemic struck; a highlight of their tour (organised by John Nyhan) was the powerful performances they delivered at last year's Shannonside Winter Music Festival in January 2020. The photo below, taken at the set they played in the Main Guard of Bunratty Castle, Co. Clare, has since then been the cover photo of the band's Facebook.

Update 11 Mar.: See also Bluegrass Today, which includes a video from YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

Often Herd play for IBMA's LBG webinar

In its latest press release, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announces that its 'Leadership Bluegrass online: navigating the digital jungle!' programme will continue tomorrow (Thurs. 11 Mar.) with a free webinar on the theme 'The Music Modernization Act: where are we today?', which will be streamed live on Facebook.

The webinar will be followed by a performance from the Often Herd, based in Newcastle, north-east England, who won the title of #1 European Bluegrass Band at the big La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France (2018), having previously taken part in the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival (2016) in their earlier configuration as the Kentucky Cow Tippers.

© Richard Hawkins

Fourth Jens Kruger masterclass TONIGHT

Deering Banjos announce that the fourth in the series of banjo masterclasses given by Jens Kruger will be showm tonight (Tuesday 9 Mar.) at the usual time of 11.00 p.m. GMT ('Lisbon Time'), and can be watched here. This week Jens will be covering single-string playing and right-hand triplets.

© Richard Hawkins

The new BU

The March 2021 print issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine is centered on Tony Rice: a memoir by his brothers, a 1985 interview by Pete Wernick, accounts of important periods of his career and of the development of the Tony Rice model guitar by the Santa Cruz company, a Rebel Records ad on two of his main albums, and more.

Among the features in the rest of the issue, editor Dan Miller contributes a four-page article on Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, fiddler for Boston's Mile Twelve, in which it emerges that she began learning Irish fiddling at the age of 10 and discovered bluegrass six years later. The review section includes David McCarty's review of Andy Novara's Bill Monroe: solo transcriptions 1936-1996, clearly a must for all dedicated mandolinists.

Anyone who feared that BU might lose something in its transition to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum last November should set their mind at rest; the new BU really looks, feels, and reads very well, and the additional facilities on the website are very welcome. The BIB referred to the change as 'Mother going to the Care Home'; but the Care Home has turned out to be a spa.

© Richard Hawkins

News of past visitors

East Public Relations announces the release by Billy Blue Records of 'Hear Jerusalem calling' by Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers. This is the first single from their all-gospel album Somewhere beyond the blue, which will be available from 7 May 2021. A video of 'Hear Jerusalem calling' (with lyrics on screen) is on YouTube and on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. More detail is on the press release.

*

The Mountain Home Music Company announce the release of 'Whither you roam', the latest single by Chris Jones & the Night Drivers. The song, a 'traveller's love song', can be heard in full on Bluegrass Today, and more detail is on the Mountain Home press release.

Following the last visit here by Chris and the band, Grace van 't Hof has been their banjo player. Their previous banjo player, Gina Furtado, and her band the Gina Furtado Project, released a new single, 'Gone' at the end of January, also on the Mountain Home label. The song can be heard in full on Bluegrass Today.

*

Again on Mountain Home, Sideline,'the embodiment of the North Carolina bluegrass sound', have released a new gospel single 'When the Son rose up that morning', telling the Easter story. As a small detail, it marks guitarist Skip Cherryholmes's recorded debut as a slide guitar player. More detail is on the Mountain Home press release and the song can be heard in full on Bluegrass Today.

*

Dale Ann Bradley, who had signed a multi-album deal with Pinecastle Records last summer, left Sister Sadie in December to pursue her solo career. Sister Sadie have since brought themselves back up to strength; their lineup is now Tina Adair (mandolin), Gena Britt (banjo; over here with Alecia Nugent in 2019), Deanie Richardson (fiddle), Jaelee Roberts (guitar), and Hasee Ciaccio (bass).

© Richard Hawkins

Geordie - a few notes

The BIB editor writes:

During the past week, the following tributes to Geordie McAdam (right) have been published:

28 Feb. 'I ndílchuimhne Geordie McAdam', TG4 YouTube channel: Geordie and north Down fiddling, with Nigel Boullier

1 Mar. BangorBoat on Twitter; with brief video clip of Geordie fiddling 'Ashokan farewell'

2 Mar. 'Geordie McAdam, traditional musician (1938-2021)' by Maria MacAlister, Music Development Officer, Arts Council of Northern Ireland

2 Mar. Ulster American Folk Park Facebook

5 Mar. 'Tributes paid as NI Bluegrass legend Geordie McAdam plays his last tune' by Graeme Cousins, Belfast News Letter, 5 Mar. 2021 (quotes tributes by Richard Hurst, Frank Galligan, and Billy Kennedy, country music columnist of the News Letter)

*

On 25 June 2019 the BIB carried a press release on the coming Cairncastle Ulster Scots Bluegrass Musical Evening, which included a substantial biographical article on Geordie, giving sources - one of which was the Irish News feature 'Bluegrass Music Festival back at Ulster American Folk Park' (25 Aug. 2016). The BIB, however, most strongly recommends the 28-minute video in which Geordie was interviewed on NVTV by Ciarán Ó Brolcháin in the 'Our generation' series, and gave a frank overview of his life.

As a traditional musician, playing Ulster Scots, Scottish, and Irish fiddle music as well as old-time and bluegrass, Geordie made significant contributions to Fintan Vallely's important book Tuned out: traditional music and identity in Northern Ireland (Cork University Press, 2008).

A cropped version of the photo above serves as the cover photo for the Belfast Bluegrass Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

When things come together...

A week ago (25 Feb.) Deering Banjos celebrated the 75th birthday of Pete Wernick. On Sunday (28 Feb.) three-fifths of the all-women UK bluegrass band Midnight Skyracer released a Zoomed YouTube video of the song 'Tortured tangled hearts', with Co. Armagh's Tabitha Benedict (Instrumentalist of the Year in the IBMA's 2020 Momentum Awards) playing both guitar and banjo parts. And on Monday this week it was announced that banjoist Trajan 'Tray' Wellington (Instrumentalist of the Year in the IBMA's 2019 Momentum Awards) would receive a grant from the IBMA's Arnold Shultz Fund.

Tray Wellington, Tabitha Benedict, and Pete Wernick can all be seen together, jamming on 'Roanoke' in the trade fair at IBMA's World of Bluegrass 2019, in this video from the Deering Banjos YouTube channel.

The Midnight Skyracer video - #16 in the band's '#SundayShowcase' series - can also be seen on the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA) Facebook and on the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA) Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

FREE instrument workshops online at Barcelona Bluegrass Camp this weekend

John Lawless on Bluegrass Today draws attention to this year's Barcelona Bluegrass Camp, which in response to continuing coronavirus restrictions is being held this coming weekend (5 and 6 Mar.) with free workshops bv Raphael Maillet (F; fiddle) on Friday evening, and by Richard Cifersky (SK; banjo), Martino Coppo (I; mandolin), and Chris Luquette (USA; guitar) on Saturday. Full details are on the website of the Camp (which is also on Facebook) and on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

IBMA hosts 'The show must go on' online symposium, 4 Mar. 2021

As part of its Leadership Bluegrass programme, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) is hosting TODAY (Thurs. 4 Mar.) a free online panel discussion (with questions and answers) entitled 'The show must go on: producing events in uncertain times'. This will be held live on Facebook at 12 noon CDT (6.00 p.m. GMT), and will consider the lessons to be learned from the past year of uncertainty and restrictions. The IBMA's e-newsletter announces:

Areas of discussion will include ticketing, obstacles and advantages to maintaining a virtual presence, developing a budget, creating a consistent COVID mitigation policy with effective communication to enhance compliance, and managing high contact gathering points such as catering, concessions, merch sales, etc.

Several members of the bluegrass scene in Ireland have graduated from the IBMA Leadership Bluegrass programme, and at least three of them are involved in event production, so this symposium will be of special interest to them; but by no means only to them. This is the first of a series of Leadership Bluegrass Online events, presented under the title 'Navigating the digital jungle'.

© Richard Hawkins

Geordie - from Alec Somerville

Foreground (l-r): Alec Somerville (bjo), Geordie McAdam (fdl), 

Barney Bowes (gtr)

Many thanks to Alec Somerville (of northern England, Canada, and Co. Donegal) for these photos and his own memories of playing with Geordie McAdam:

I guess I knew him for a long time, because I met him when Ronnie Crutchley was playing guitar with him - and Ronnie's been dead these many years... they were Appalachian Strings in those days, a big band for old-time music. So I would see Geordie at times when we were playing the same places, and when that happened we would always try to get a few minutes sitting down some place to play a few tunes. He usually said 'What's that thing in A that we do?' This, of course, being 'Boatman' a real opener... and I think he liked the rhythmic 'knock-down' style I play, with 'impeccable' timing, a fan once said!

But I want to tell you something more recent...

I was booked to play at the first Dunfanaghy BAND Festival, got there early, checked in, and we were walking about the town. We were outside the tourist office when I saw Geordie and Wilson [Davies] heading across the car park. Soon as he saw me, he ducked back to their car, and when he reappeared, he had this daft-looking banjo with him which, when he handed it to me, I could see was made of thousands of glued-together matchsticks. 'I made it', he said, 'and you're going to be the first to play it.'

So I tuned it, and off he went to the car, returning with a fiddle of the same construction. Now, in my time I've seen lots of things made from matchsticks - models of Tower Bridge or Spanish galleons - but never had I seen two full-sized playable stringed instruments before, but here they were, tuned up and ready to go... so off we went and played for a crowd of twenty or thirty people for a half-hour or more. The banjo was made a bit like what poor folks used to make in the mountains, from a biscuit or cookie tin, and sounded like a cross between all sorts of instruments, but cool...

That same festival, my gig on the last day was to play as a trio with him and Wilson, upstairs in a donut shop; and we packed them in, I remember Niall Toner stopped by, probably as we were doing 'Black Mountain Rag', which Geordie 'cross-tuned' for and which went on for ever. Have a video of part of it... Niall might remember...

So that's about it. I think I'll pour myself a shot, grab a banjo and play 'that thing we do in A', for him...

It will no doubt turn out to be 'Boatman'...

© Richard Hawkins

Fiddle tune favourites - books from Tristan Scroggins

As John Lawless remarks on Bluegrass Today, mandolin wizard Tristan Scroggins (right) has been making good use of lockdown time by giving online instruction and publishing tune books. The latest of these is Bluegrass jam standard fiddle tune favorites, a 51-page book presenting ten tunes, each in three increasingly complex versions, written both in tablature and in standard notation.

John Lawless's feature lists the tune titles; all of them are old-time tunes favoured by bluegrass players. This fits in nicely with Tristan's previous publication, Old time fiddle tune favorites, comprising fifteen tunes. Hard-copy editions of both books are posted only within the US, but digital versions are available at $25 for the 'bluegrass' book and $15 for the 'old-time'.

Tristan has many admirers in Ireland already from his performances as a member of his father's band, Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, and filling in with Chris Jones & the Night Drivers.

© Richard Hawkins

We Banjo 3 live on stage and live-stream, 13 Mar. 2021

As originally announced three weeks ago, Galway's We Banjo 3, originators of Celtgrass, will host their next epic virtual experience, 'We Banjo 3: Live From Ireland' on 13 March, with all four members together live on stage for the first time since live concerts ceased this time last year. The show will be streamed live in real-time from the Pearse Lyons Distillery in Dublin.

Tickets (from $20) and merch bundles (from $22.50) are on sale now. By popular demand, the band have restocked posters, steel pints, and limited release WB3COFFEE. Some exclusive merchandise will only be available as part of a ticket bundle. Loyalty Early Bird discounted tickets can be bought up to 11.59 p.m. EST on Friday 12 February. Each ticket purchase includes on-demand streaming access for seven days after the event.

© Richard Hawkins

Tributes to Mel

The BIB editor writes:

Thanks again to Frank Galligan for a reminder of another great loss suffered by the scene here, with the death of Mel Corry (right) in January. Frank sends this link to Micheal McKenna's article 'Shock and sadness at passing of tireless trade unionist and talented musician Mel Corry', which was published in the Armagh I on 14 January. The article draws largely on tributes by Mel's colleagues in Trademark and other campaigning bodies, by Tony and Clem O'Brien, and by Rick Faris.

One quoted sentence, however, which the article attributes to the German website Uncut Grass, was in fact written by me and first published on the BIB. Uncut Grass is in the habit of reprinting anything that appears on the BIB, without acknowledgment. I have asked them to extend to the BIB the same courtesy that Bluegrass Today receives.

© Richard Hawkins