Further news of past visitors - and some not-yet visitors

Kristy Cox (right), award-winning Australian country and bluegrass singer, toured Ireland in May 2019, thanks to the mygrassisblue.com team. She is now based in Nashville, TN, and records for Billy Blue Records, who have just released a second single from her forthcoming album Shades of blue, which is due for release on 4 Feb. The single is 'Appalachian blue'; John Lawless on Bluegrass Today describes it as 'a bluesy bluegrass number full of heartbreak and pain – a typical bluegrass song!' The official video can be seen on Bluegrass Today and YouTube.

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The powerful band Sideline from North Carolina, who toured Ireland in July 2019 (again, thanks to mygrassisblue.com), will be topping the bill at a bluegrass concert presented by Song of the Mountains at the Lincoln Theatre, Marion, VA, on Saturday 5 Feb. Also on the programme will be the duo of Tammy Rogers & Thomm Jutz and the alt-bluegrass band Monroeville. The show will be filmed for public television.

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Age of apathy, the third and latest solo album by Aoife O'Donovan, is reviewed on No Depression by Maeri Ferguson. The review includes the official video of 'Phoenix' (also on YouTube} and the official audio of the title track (also on YouTube, with lyrics helpfully shown on screen).

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It was nearly five years ago that we first began to hope for an Irish tour by the Po' Ramblin' Boys from east Tennessee, strongly recommended by our good friend the not-easily-satisfied Jan Michielsen of Four Wheel Drive. One thing after another prevented a tour from happening. In the meantime the band has gone from strength to strength, having won the IBMA New Artist of the Year award in 2018; been nominated for a Grammy award in 2019 and IBMA's Entertainer of the Year award in 2020; and added Laura Orshaw on fiddle and vocals.

Thanks, then, to Sophie Sachar of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings for the news that Never slow down, the new eleven-track album by the Po' Ramblin' Boys, is due for release by Smithsonian Folkways on 25 Mar. 2022 and can now be pre-ordered. The first single from the album, 'Blues are close at hand', was featured on Bluegrass Today last Wednesday (19 Jan.) and premiered on the American Songwriter website, where the Boys' mandolinist C.J. Lewandowski is interviewed by Katherine Yeske Taylor.

© Richard Hawkins