Detached notes

The Music Network agency, in partnership with the Baltimore Fiddle Fair, announces a seven-date nation-wide tour in early May 2022 by a trio of outstanding international musicians, Tim Edey (guitar, melodeon), Mairi Rankin (fiddle, step-dance, vocals), and Eric Wright (cello). The Music Network release says: 'Inspired by American old-time and Irish music, cellist Eric Wright has forged his own path incorporating the cello into new and traditional music in unique ways, taking his innovative bowing techniques, chording styles, and "the chop", to new levels. He is a highly sought-after performer, accompanist, and producer with multiple Canadian Folk Music Awards and Western Canadian Music Awards to his name. A 2017 JUNO awardee, Eric has just been nominated for another prestigious JUNO award with his band The Fretless.' The dates for the tour are:

• Thurs. 5th May: Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, 8.00 p.m.; €22/€20; 01 2312929
• Fri. 6th: The Malt House, Stradbally, Co. Laois, 7.00 p.m.; €18/€15; 057 8663355 (promoted by Music Generation Laois)
• Sat. 7th: Baltimore Fiddle Fair, Baltimore, Co. Cork, 8.30 p.m.; €25
• Mon. 9th: Station House Theatre, Clifden, Co. Galway, 8.00 p.m.; €15; 095 21699 (info only) (promoted by Clifden Arts Society)
• Tues. 10th: The Sugar Club, Dublin 2, 7.30 p.m.; €22/€15; 01 4750224 (promoted by Music Network)
• Thurs. 12th: St John's Theatre & Arts Centre, Listowel, Co. Kerry, 8.00 p.m.; €15; 068 22566
• Fri. 13th: Ionad Cultúrtha, Baile Mhúirne (Ballyvourney, Co. Cork), 8.00 p.m.; €20/€15 /€5 u18; 026 45733

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For mandolinists: Jake Howard, mandolinist with Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers, has produced a book of transcriptions of Chris Thile's recorded playing of classic bluegrass numbers; as John Lawless writes on Bluegrass Today, 'Many of the songs included are jam standards that every bluegrass picker should know.' The material is available to subscribers to Jake Howard's Patreon page. More details are on Bluegrass Today.

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Tom Nechville of Nechville Musical Products sends a check-list of dealers who stock his innovative banjos, made to the highest standards, with details of the instruments recently dispatched to them. The complete Nechville range can be seen on the company's website.

© Richard Hawkins

Bluegrass Omagh 2022: lineup details

This year's Bluegrass Omagh festival (Sat. 28 May-Sun. 29 May) is step-by-step getting its website operational, and at the time of writing this post, details of the lineup can now be seen. Links to websites and further artist details are on the lineup page (click on the band name where it appears in bold caps and lower case, NOT all in caps). Acts taking part are:

• The Slocan Ramblers (CAN)
• Seth Mulder & Midnight Run (USA)
• Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno (USA)
• Aaron Jonah Lewis (USA)
• The Often Herd (GB)
• The Fountaineers (GB)
• Long Way Home (NL/USA) 
• Awkward Family Portraits (GB)
• Cup O' Joe (NI/USA)
• Rachel McCarthy, Jackie Rainey, and Katie Richardson (NI)
• No Oil Paintings (NI)
• Anthony Toner and the Doone Brothers (NI)

The fine Tennessee band Seth Mulder & Midnight Run were last in Ireland in January-February 2020. Their new single of the Rich Wilbur song 'My, my, my', recorded for their forthcoming album on Mountain Fever Records, is to be released tomorrow (Thurs. 31 Mar.). It can be heard on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.
PS: More details are now on the Mountain Fever Records press release.

© Richard Hawkins

Brookfield-Knights agency back in business

Loudon Temple of the Brookfield-Knights agency, with its long experience of organising tours for artists in folk, jazz, blues, traditional, and related roots music (including old-time and bluegrass) announces:

Good afternoon, good people. It’s a Big Day today with cause for celebration, as we re-launch the good ship Brookfield-Knights to sail once more with high hopes for no more troubled waters.

We’re back in business with energy restored and a great roster...

3hattrio - Bronwynne Brent - Paddy Buchanan Band - Catfish Keith (Scotland only) - Steven Crawford & Spider Mackenzie - Cua - Michael Farkas - Firelight Trio - Gatehouse - Hoth Brothers - Rain Of Animals - Sam Reider & The Human Hands - Stereo Naked - The Hackles - Luke Winslow-King

... and more names to be added in the coming weeks.

Very much looking forward to working with you all again. We'll be making contact in the coming days with news on various tours/ periods.

Warmest best wishes for the future to one and all - Loudon

Links to websites and other information on the artists named above can be found on the Brookfield-Knights website (see also the agency's Facebook).

© Richard Hawkins

Gone before

On 4 March the BIB reported with great regret the recent death of William Dermot 'Bill' Colleran (right) of Pittsburgh, PA, known throughout the bluegrass world as 'Mac Martin'. It was a pleasure to receive yesterday, as a comment on the 4 Mar. post, a message from Mac's daughter Ms Jeanne Colleran, confirming his Galway ancestry: 'My dad, Mac Martin, has his roots in Ireland. His parents Nellie (O'Toole) and James Colleran were both born in Galway.'

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The BIB also learns with regret from Richard Thompson's obituary on Bluegrass Today of the death on Sunday 27 Mar. of Bobby Atkins (b. 1933) of North Carolina, banjo-player and bandleader, who recorded over fifty albums in the course of a career in bluegrass and country music that began in 1951. He and Chet Atkins were second cousins. The photo on the left is taken from the cover of his 1985 album Good times can't last. In August of that year a five-page article on him by Art Menius was published in Bluegrass Unlimited; it can now be read here. The final words in the article are his: 'Bluegrass music is to me something that you can't fake. It comes from right here, your heart, your feelings, your soul. You've got to have that feeling.'

© Richard Hawkins

Select news from the US

Nu-Blu, based in North Carolina, toured Ireland in the autumn of 2019 and subsequently announced a project to host tours of Ireland. This was inevitably delayed by the global pandemic, but Nu-Blu have now relaunched their Encounter Ireland Tours autumn programme:

If a trip to Ireland has been on your bucket list, now's the perfect time to go! You can join Nu-Blu on a special bus trip around Ireland! Travel with the band and one of the leading archaeologists in Ireland as they visit the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and gain exclusive entrance to many 'off limits' areas... Over your eight days, you'll stay in castles and boutique hotels, enjoy music and jamming with Nu-Blu, and Irish storytelling! All ground transportation and meals are included!

Other images and full details for US visitors are on the Encounter Ireland Tours website. Nu-Blu also host a Mexico and Western Caribbean Cruise tour later in the autumn.

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As mentioned earlier on the BIB, after Doyle Lawson's retirement from touring, three members of his last band formed the core of a new group with the confident name of Authentic Unlimited (one of whose newly-enlisted members is Jesse Brock). John Lawless on Bluegrass Today writes: 'It has been since the launch of Dailey & Vincent in 2007 that there’s been as much excitement about a new bluegrass act as there is today for Authentic Unlimited.' Their new single for Billy Blue Records, 'Before you miss me', justifies this excitement; the official video can be seen on Bluegrass Today, on the band's website, and on YouTube, and was released for downloads on Friday (25 Mar.).

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The 72nd weekly Bluegrass Unlimited newsletter includes a podcast interview with banjoist and fiddler Ron Stewart, a Spotify playlist with over three hours of the music of David Grisman, and an archive article on Vassar Clements by Barry Silver from 1978 - fifty years after Vassar's birth and forty years before his induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

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Hurricane Clarice, the new album by the 'apocalyptic stringband duo' of Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves (see the BIB for 22 Feb.) was released on Friday 25 Mar. and has been reviewed by Jeremy Gaunt on No Depression. The review includes videos of two numbers from the album.

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Also on No Depression, Matt Ruppert reviews Never slow down, the new eleven-track album by the Po' Ramblin' Boys from east Tennessee. The review is entitled 'Po’ Ramblin’ Boys hew to tradition while embracing the progressive on ‘Never slow down’'. 'Embracing the progressive', of course, just means that they play from the knowledge that the spirit of traditional bluegrass is more than just the established repertoire. The review is quoted in the press release issued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

PS: Samples of the tracks can be heard on an Apple Music playlist at the end of Lee Zimmerman's feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Earl Scruggs: ten years after

Earl Eugene Scruggs, the Father of Bluegrass Banjo, died ten years ago today, almost three months past his 88th birthday. The BIB's first report was on 29 Mar. 2012, in which Colin Henry wrote from Belfast:

I think if I had to cite who was the most influential musician in all my years of playing (i.e. who had the most effect on me) it would not be a dobro player, it would be Earl Scruggs. I was completely taken when I heard him for the first time and to this day I still love his playing. They always describe his playing as like a machine gun; what I hear is a melodic flow of notes like a river whitewater, powerful and mesmerising, every note crystal clear. No one plays Scruggs style like the man who created it.

In following days, and into April and May 2012, the BIB carried online links to numerous tributes and obituaries from bluegrass sources and other publications. Since Earl's death the Earl Scruggs Center has been completed in his home town, Shelby, NC, and has an active programme of musical and educational events; and after a delay of two years caused by the pandemic, the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival will be held in September this year.

Since 2012 three notable books on Earl Scruggs and his music have appeared: Gordon Castelnero and David L. Russell, Earl Scruggs: banjo icon (2017); Thomas Goldsmith, Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown: the making of an American classic (2019), and The Earl Scruggs banjo songbook (2021). An earlier and excellent twenty-one-page analytical commentary on his playing is in Tony Trischka and Pete Wernick, Masters of the 5-string banjo in their own words and music (1988).

The photos on this post (credit: johnnykeenan.com) were taken at the 3rd Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival in Longford in 2004, where Earl performed in his first European trip for decades. He is shown below with his wife, Louise, to whom he attributed his success, and with festival organisers Kathy Casey and Chris Keenan.

Update 29 Mar.: Richard Thompson's major commemorative feature on Bluegrass Today includes contributions from many banjo players in the US and other continents, and nine videos.

Update 21 June: The list of books on Earl Scruggs should now also include Bob Carlin's What Earl Scruggs heard: String music along the North Carolina–South Carolina border, on the musical environment in which Earl grew up.

© Richard Hawkins

Billy Strings (USA) in Dublin, 9 Dec. 2022

This weekend (tomorrow and Sunday, 26-7 Mar.) the phenomenal young emerging guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader Billy Strings (right) will be playing two sold-out shows in Islington Assembly Hall in London. At the end of this year he will be back on this side of the Atlantic for a tour in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, and Britain, with a show scheduled for Friday 9 December at The Academy, 57 Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1. Tickets should be available from 31 Mar.

© Richard Hawkins

New luthiery service in Dublin

Thanks to John Denby (formerly mandolinist with Belfast's Down and Out Bluegrass Band and other groups) for this welcome news:

I'm pleased to announce that I've launched a new luthiery and instrument-repair service in Dublin. I specialise in setups, modifications, and repairs of acoustic instruments with a particular focus on mandolin and guitar. My website is www.fixmyguitar.ie, where you can find examples of my work, testimonials, a list of services that I offer, and my contact details. My workshop is located in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, with easy access from bus and Luas connections, and only twenty minutes from the city centre.

The photos above are a before-and-after example of repair work, taken from the gallery section of John's website. The highly appreciative testimonials emphasise his attention to detail, close consultation with customers, and quick turnaround. He can be contacted by e-mail or mobile (085-185-9287).

© Richard Hawkins

Max Allard on Deering Live

Deering Banjos announce that Max Allard is the featured musician interviewed by David Bandrowski on Deering Live tonight (Thurs. 24 Mar.), at 10.00 p.m. Irish time. The interview can be watched in progress and later on YouTube.

Allard, a gifted young three-finger-style 5-string banjoist, won the 2018 RockyGrass banjo Competition and the 2019 FreshGrass banjo award. He performs solo or in a duo with his brother Otto, has toured the midwest USA with the Minneapolis-based band Barbaro, and is currently studying composition at the Oberlin Conservatory. Béla Fleck describes him as 'a new mature and poetic voice on the 5-string banjo. Beautiful compositions and a very nice touch.'

© Richard Hawkins

New music from the Special C. - and more

Thanks to John Lawless on Bluegrass Today for the news that the Special Consensus will release this coming Friday (25 Mar.) the first recording with their current lineup (above, l-r: Dan Eubanks, Greg Cahill, Greg Blake, Michael Prewitt). The single on the Compass label is 'Blackbird', with Greg Blake singing lead, Dale Ann Bradley and Amanda Smith singing harmony, Rob Ickes guesting on dobro, and Alison Brown on second banjo. It can be heard on Bluegrass Today (where there's a characteristically upbeat quote from Greg Cahill) and on YouTube.

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Thanks to East Public Relations for a reminder of the Bluegrass Music Hall Of Fame and Museum's 'My Bluegrass Story' series of video interviews, in which the latest, featuring Joe Mullins, will be shown on Friday 25 Mar. on RFD TV. A thirty-second trailer can be seen on YouTube. More details are on the East PR press release.

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A month ago the BIB mentioned mandolin master Mike Compton and his new album, Rare & fine: uncommon tunes of Bill Monroe, on which he plays Monroe instrumentals, some of which were never released on a record label. No Depression has now published a substantial and rewarding article by Compton, in which he describes how he came to the music of the Father of Bluegrass, and his reasons for selecting the tunes, the musicians, and the sound engineer for the recording. He writes that the album

... is not meant as a solo mandolin recording. The point is to illustrate Monroe’s use of single, duo, and triple fiddle formats and to celebrate that sound. All I attempted to do with the mandolin is to play the melodies straight as I could get them off the source material so that people will know how they go and players will have a fair chance at learning them, not to see how many notes I can get on the head of a pin. This is an album primarily dedicated to Monroe’s love of fiddle music, not my Mississippi-influenced interpretation of his mandolin style.

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Also on No Depression, Stephen Winick marks Women's History Month and Irish American Heritage Month with his article 'Roots in the archive: two Irish American women who carried songs across time'. The first is Carrie Grover (1879-1959), born in Nova Scotia, who lived in Maine, USA, from the age of 12; was recorded by Alan Lomax singing and playing music learned from her family; and later published a book, A heritage of songs, which was the source for 'Arthur McBride' as sung by Paul Brady. Carrie Grover's 1941 recording of the song can be heard in this article. The second is Maggie Hammons Parker (1899-1987) of the famous West Virginia Hammons family, whose singing of 'Ireland's green shore' can also be heard here. Stephen Winick has missed the distinction between 'conscription' and 'enlistment', but otherwise the article is well worth reading.

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The IBMA sends a reminder of its Zoom discussion on the theme 'The Bluegrass Global Village' - in which Uri Kohen of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival is on the panel - which will take place this coming Saturday (26 Mar.) at 6.00 p.m. GMT (see the BIB for 11 Mar.).

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The Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, announces that the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival, postponed for two years by the pandemic, will be held at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, Mill Spring, NC, with a constellation of bluegrass acts, on 2-4 Sept. 2022. More details are on the Festival website.

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Ken Perlman, master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, announces that the next two online live instructional banjo workshops in his 'Clawhammer Clinic' series will be 'Playing in the key of D from open G tuning (gDGBD)' on Mon. 11 Apr., and 'Arranging a song or simple melody for performance, clawhammer style' on Mon. 2 May. Ken's 72-minute appearance as featured artist and interviewee on Deering Live in January can be seen on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

An Irish band at EWOB 2022

On 26-28 May 2022, the European World Of Bluegrass festival will again be held at Voorthuizen in the central Netherlands (as it was from 1999 to 2017), and in the new venue of De Eng. The running order of bands can be seen on the website, with the novel feature that instead of showing the names of the bands, their national flags are displayed. From this, one can see that a band from Ireland is scheduled to be on stage at 8.30 p.m. on Thursday 26 May, followed by a Czech band at 9.30. The BIB will be glad to learn who the Irish band may be.

Update 20 Apr.: The answer is now on the EWOB website (together with the names of all the other bands) - the band from Ireland is Long Way Home!

© Richard Hawkins

IBMA World Of Bluegrass news, and 'The banjo legacy of J.D. Crowe'

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announces the initial lineup for the IBMA Bluegrass Live!® section of its annual convention and festival, IBMA World Of Bluegrass, to be held at the end of September in Raleigh, NC - marking ten years of Raleigh being the host city for the event. The IBMA also sends a reminder to anyone who wishes to take active part in the event that applications are open till the end of this month. Tickets and hotel reservations will be available to IBMA members from 5 April 2022. More details are in the IBMA's press release.

The IBMA's March e-newsletter includes a mention that the eighty-five-minute Zoom discussion 'The banjo legacy of J.D. Crowe', featuring banjo players Bill Evans, Ron Block, and Ron Stewart, can now be seen on YouTube. Donations to the IBMA Trust Fund can be made via this link, but at present the IBMA is unable to accept online donations that are not from US banks.

© Richard Hawkins

More US news (mainly of past visitors)

Thanks to Hearth Music for the news that The Boot online magazine has premiered 'Each season changes you', a track from Hurricane Clarice, the forthcoming album by the 'apocalyptic stringband duo' of Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves (left; see the BIB for 22 Feb.). The track can be heard on YouTube. The Ruth Talley/Albert Gore song has been recorded by many country and bluegrass singers; de Groot and Hargreaves learned it from the 1962 recording by Rose Maddox, the first woman to make a bluegrass LP. More details are on the Hearth Music press release. Hurricane Clarice is due for release this coming Friday (25 Mar.).

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For everyone who remembers the earliest Athy bluegrass festivals, and especially the fine contributions by Homer Ledford & the Cabin Creek Band from the Lexington area of Kentucky: Doyle Lawson, in the 21 Mar. instalment of his excellent series 'The school of bluegrass' on Bluegrass Today, writes: 'The first F-5 that I owned was built by Homer Ledford in Winchester, and I bought it while working with J.D. [Crowe] and used it on the Bluegrass Holiday recording.'

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The Steep Canyon Rangers announced last Wednesday (16 Mar.) that up to the end of March almost all their merchandise is marked down, with all proceeds from sales going to a Polish women's organisation helping Ukrainian refugees. A brief explanatory video by banjoist Graham Sharp is on the band's latest e-newsletter and also on YouTube.

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The Steeps will also be taking part in the Bluegrass Music Hall Of Fame and Museum's ROMP (River Of Music Party) festival in Owensboro, KY, on 22-25 June, together with many other bands and artists who have performed in Ireland, not to mention Galway's We Banjo 3, 'with their Celtic-inspired bluegrass', as the ROMP e-newsletter says. Full details are on the ROMP website and e-newsletter.

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This coming weekend (24-26 Mar.) the Industrial Strength Bluegrass festival takes place in Wilmington, OH, with an impressive lineup, and includes an opportunity to jam with Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers in a session sponsored by the Paige capo company. More details on this e-newsletter.

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Workshop camps for guitarists and others are well catered for in this coming June. Bryan Sutton's First Annual Blue Ridge Guitar Camp, postponed for two years by the pandemic, will be held on 1-5 June at the Brevard Music Center, Brevard, NC, on 1-5 June. Applications to take part can be made via this link. Steve Kaufman's 26th Acoustic Kamps (12-18 June, old-time and traditional; 19-25 June, bluegrass) are being held at Maryville, TN, with a new two-level programme for hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, old-time fiddle, and old-time banjo. A full-colour pdf brochure is here, and a registration form here.

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The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, TN/VA, announces a live variety show in their 'Farm & Fun Time' series to be held on 14 April, featuring Dale Ann Bradley with her full band, Tammy Rogers & Thomm Jutz, and the series' house band Bill and the Belles.

© Richard Hawkins

The Slocan Ramblers (CAN): new single, forthcoming album

The Slocan Ramblers from Toronto toured Ireland as a quartet in October 2017 and again in October 2019. They appear above as a trio, as their website now lists the members as Frank Evans (banjo, vocals), Adrian Gross (mandolin), and Darryl Poulsen (guitar, vocals), adding 'With' Charles James (bass, vocals).

On Wednesday last (16 Mar.) the Ramblers released their latest single, the Tom Petty song 'A mind with a heart of its own', the only track which is not a Ramblers original among the twelve comprising their forthcoming album Up the hill and through the fog (scheduled for release on 10 June). The official video pf the single is on YouTube, and the song can also be heard on Soundcloud.

The Hearth Music press release writes that bluegrass has 'always been music made by people in pain, and it’s made to uplift and move beyond that hurt, not to wallow'; the band's website says 'This is roots music without pretension, art powerful enough to cut through the fog of the past two years and chart a more hopeful course forward.'

The BIB described the Ramblers on their earlier tours as a 'hot young traditional bluegrass band'; they've lost none of that, but there are whiffs here of acoustic folk-rock and other flavours from outside the hard core. The Osborne Brothers are among their influences, and a listener may be reminded of some of the material the Osbornes recorded when they were winning Country Music Association awards. The album can be pre-ordered on the band's website. See also John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Win £100 + Prosecco, win a Martin, learn body percussion, and much more at Crossover (29 Apr.-2 May 2022)

The fourth newsletter for 2022, issued by the organisers of the Crossover Festival of bluegrass, old-time, and Americana music (and dance) in England, gives details of some of the extras complementing the main programme. Weekend tickets bought before the end of March can enter the buyer in a raffle to win £100 and a bottle of Prosecco; another raffle during the Festival is for a Martin guitar. 'Fiddle Friday' gives opportunities to learn and play half a dozen tunes; an open mic concert, with eight slots open, will be held on Saturday between 5.00 and 7.00 p.m.; instrument workshops for kids are offered on Sunday; and a Body Percussion (or 'Body Music') workshop will be given on Monday. Videos illustrating all these can be seen on the e-newsletter and on the Festival's YouTube channel.

© Richard Hawkins

Composing on the banjo, with Hank Smith

The Deering Banjo Company announce that Hank Smith, banjo-player and co-leader of Hank, Pattie & the Current, is featured tonight on Deering Live for an hour's talk and discussion of composing non-bluegrass music on the banjo, and on related matters such as tonality. Hank can be seen on Deering Live and also on YouTube, where the discussion will subsequently be watchable on the Deering YouTube channel.

© Richard Hawkins

BGS presents St Patrick's Festival in New York, 17-19 Mar. 2022

The Bluegrass Situation (BGS) online magazine is presenting today and the two following days (17-19 Mar.) a St Patrick's Festival at the Irish Arts Center at 726 11th Avenue, New York City. The festival opens with a 'Jam Night' featuring Jake Blount, Nic Gareiss, Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves, and special guests. Gareiss and de Groot have (separately) performed in Ireland, as has Tim Eriksen, who is also taking part in the festival.

For those who can't be there, here's a YouTube video of 'Paddy on the turnpike' in an unusual keychange version, played by the Minneapolis band Steam Machine, 'a midwest-based bluegrass-accompanied old-time-music project'.

© Richard Hawkins

Assorted US news

The March 2022 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited, the Mother of Bluegrass Magazines, pays special tribute to the late J.D. Crowe with articles by Thomas Adler on his career as musician and bandleader; by Dan Miller on his long friendship with Paul Williams; and by Derek Halsey, who compiled the memories of some of the best musicians in bluegrass. Other good things include Bill Conger's feature on Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, one of the last US bands to visit Ireland before the pandemic.

The 70th Bluegrass Unlimited weekly newsletter includes a Spotify playlist of forty-seven tracks from the recorded output of J.D. Crowe & the New South; and an archived article by Barry Silver, 'Curly Seckler - from Foggy Mountain to Southern Grass', published in 1979 when Curly had taken over as leader of the Southern Grass on the death of Lester Flatt.

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The Steep Canyon Rangers, definitely the last US band to play in Ireland before lockdown, announce their 'Free For All' open-air concert, to be held in Pack Square Park, Asheville, NC, on 7 May 2022, sponsored by the Oskar Blues Brewery.

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Nu-Blu, who toured Ireland in a trio configuration in the autumn of 2019, will be giving a special concert with the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation in Dallas, TX, this coming Friday, 18 March. More details are on the Foundation's website.

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Ken Perlman (USA), master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, sends a reminder of the next online live instructional banjo workshop in his 'Clawhammer Clinic' series, 'Playing Celtic reels with taste and authority, clawhammer style', this coming Monday (21 Mar.).

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To end with news of how good things come from J.D. Crowe even after his death, read John Curtis Goad's review on Bluegrass Today of the new album Crowe & Wasson.

© Richard Hawkins

7th Barcelona Bluegrass Camp, 4-5 Mar. 2022

Michael Luchtan and Xavier Cardus of the organising team of the 7th Barcelona Bluegrass Camp have contributed a major report on the event to Bluegrass Today. Details of the instructors can also be seen here, and several of the names will be familiar in Ireland: Lluís Gómez, together with Maribel Rivero and Joan Pau Cumellas, who came over as members of the Barcelona Bluegrass Band to successive Johnny Keenan Banjo Festivals; and Paul van Vlodrop, who has been over playing mandolin with 4 Wheel Drive and (most recently in Jan. 2020) banjo with the Sons of Navarone. Eugene O'Brien, born in Dublin and now chairman of the European Bluegrass Music Association, shared the bluegrass banjo instruction with Lluís Gómez.

The report includes two videos and a dozen photographs. The Camp's Facebook announces that John Reischman (USA) will be teaching mandolin at next year's event.

© Richard Hawkins

César Benzoni, Roger Green, and Fergus Packman sing 'Blue Ridge'

Thanks to César Benzoni (left) - sound engineer, video maker, operator of the Yodel Recording Services studio, and mandolin- and guitar-player in the Rocky River Bluegrass Show based in Galway - for the latest video to appear on his YouTube channel. Yesterday (14 Mar.) César added this video, recorded in 2018,

... a few months after arriving in Ireland. Soon I met some great people to play bluegrass with, in this case, Roger Green (mandolin and vocals) and Fergus Packman (bass and vocals). This was one of our favorites to play and sing harmonies and it's called 'Blue Ridge'.

Roger Green, with a long and distinguished bluegrass career, has brought his band Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition over to Ireland for several very welcome tours over the years. César has been giving advice and instruction in harmony singing (together with much more) on his YouTube channel. Earlier this year he recorded 'Blind Bartimus' as an a cappella quartet.

César is originally from Brazil, where he ran the São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association in succession to its founder, Erio Meili. He will be one of the artists featured in this year's Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival.

© Richard Hawkins

Darren Flynn to release 'Big blue moon', 25 Mar. 2022

A year ago (see the BIB for 24 Feb. 2021) Darren A. Flynn (left), award-nominated Americana musician and songwriter from Dublin, released his debut solo single, 'Mountain whiskey', on all music platforms. The song received airplay on national radio (e.g. Brian Lally's 'Country time' on RTE Radio 1, several shows on RnaG), and also internationally in Australia, the UK, and the US, where it has featured on several nationally syndicated shows such as KAFM 88.1's show 'Bluegrass and beyond'.

Thanks to Darren for the news that his new single 'Big blue moon' is due for release on Friday 25 March, and can be pre-saved or pre-added on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and Tidal via this link. Drums are certainly present, but the instrument in the foreground is undeniably the impressive 5-string playing of Johnny Butten. What the BIB said about 'Mountain whiskey' can also be said here: 'it's a hard-driving song which would make a powerful bluegrass number', and it's not too hard to imagine 'Big blue moon' being delivered by (say) the Del McCoury Band.

Darren is also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Bookings: e-mail or (00353) 85 1022649.

© Richard Hawkins

We Banjo 3 'Live from Ireland' video - and more

Galway's We Banjo 3 announce in their latest e-newsletter that their 'Live from Ireland' video is now available for renting:

Tune in now for this very special show - performed and recorded live in Dublin, Ireland in March 2021. It’s back by popular demand and available to watch in the comfort of your own home today.

The band have also, at popular request, recorded three cover numbers in their 'Songcatcher' series, which can be heard here. As noted on the BIB a week ago, they will be playing in concert on 18 Mar. at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY.

© Richard Hawkins

Full programme for Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival

Thanks to the organising team of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival for the information above and the announcement below:

Following the issuing of this year's tickets, the festival committee are delighted to share details of the full programme of events. As well as the fully seated ticketed concerts, there will be a welcoming return of all the pub gigs and sessions.

The festival will once again stage some of the events that have become the story of legend such as the 'Gospel Hour', the 'Red Room Mystery Gig', and the Square Dance.

Details of all the acts, venues, accommodation providers, and links to buy tickets on line are all available via the festival's website http://westportfolkbluegrass.com/.

The festival committee is encouraging everybody to buy tickets well in advance as the numbers are limited as well as booking accommodation, as the town accommodation providers are already showing signs of full capacity during the festival weekend. Roll on June 10th...

© Richard Hawkins

Financial support for music - two new initiatives

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announced on Wednesday (9 Mar.) a new programme to provide financial assistance to enable one or more bands from outside North America to take part in this year's World Of Bluegrass (27 Sept.-1 Oct.) in Raleigh, NC, and open up possibilities of subsequent tours in the US. The IBMA International Band Performance Grant is expounded in more detail in the IBMA press release and in John Lawless's article on Bluegrass Today. For further information, e-mail Pat Morris, the IBMA executive director.

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Nearer home, we learn from the Music Network agency today (11 Mar.) that Catherine Martin T.D., minister for tourism, culture, arts, the Gaeltacht, sport, and media, has confirmed funding of €335,500 for the Music Capital Scheme, comprising three different awards, which supports the purchase of musical instruments and is designed to respond to a broad range of capital needs within the music sector in Ireland. Thousands have already benefited from the scheme to date, and this latest move 'will support a wide range of musicians nationwide and across all genres, giving them access to instruments and enabling them to develop their talent for live performance'.

A new award is offered specifically for emerging professional musicians. This complements the awards for established professional musicians and non-professional performing groups. Music Network is committed to equity and inclusion, and welcomes applications from individuals within culturally diverse communities and people with disabilities. Information sessions will be held on Tues. 29 Mar. for non-professional performing groups (Award 1) and on Thurs. 31 Mar. for established and emerging individual professional performing musicians (Awards 2 and 3) at 6.00 p.m. on the Music Network Facebook page.

The Music Capital scheme was introduced by the Arts Council, the IRMA Trust, and Music Network as an action-research initiative, was established in 2008, and is now managed by Music Network. It has funded 413 awards, benefiting more than 42,000 people of all ages throughout Ireland. It is open for applications from today (Fri. 11 Mar.) to Thurs. 21 Apr. at 2.00 p.m. Guidelines documents and application forms are available on www.musicnetwork.ie or from Sarah Cunningham at +353 (0) 83 095 5956 or by e-mail.

© Richard Hawkins

IBMA's Leadership Bluegrass presents 'The Bluegrass Global Village', 26 Mar. 2022

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Leadership Bluegrass programme announces 'The Bluegrass Global Village', a panel discussion (by Zoom) of bluegrass events, activities, and issues around the world, including opportunities for US-based artists to perform overseas, to take place on Sat. 26 Mar. at 6.00 p.m. GMT / 1.00 p.m. CDT. The panel members, shown below, include Ben Wright (moderator) of the Henhouse Prowlers; Emma John, author of Wayfaring stranger (2019); Uri Kohen, director of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival; and Maria Wallace of the UK's True North Music agency. More details and a Zoom link are on the IBMA e-newsletter.

Bluegrass 43 (F) featured on Bluegrass Today

The fine (and senior) French bluegrass band Bluegrass 43, who took a notable part in the 2019 Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival, are featured on Bluegrass Today in a major interview article by Lee Zimmerman, which includes four videos. And yes, their appearance at Westport is mentioned, part of the long catalogue of other bluegrass events at which they have played since the band first formed over forty years ago.

© Richard Hawkins

Two Time Polka: St Patrick's day gig in Cork city

Ray Barron of Two Time Polka announces:

We're playing a gig on St Patrick's day in Cork city. Details as follows:

Thurs. 17th: Crane Lane Theatre, Phoenix St., Cork. 2.00-3.30 p.m. Adm. free. Tel. 021 4278487

Our next mail will include gigs at Kilkenny Roots festival and Zydecozity festival in Holland. Our site is continuously updated with details of all confirmed gigs.

Regards,
Ray & TTP

© Richard Hawkins

BGS honours Lynn Morris

The Lynn Morris Band: (l-r) Tad Marks, Jesse Brock,
Marshall Wilborn, Lynn Morris, Chris Jones

Two years ago the Bluegrass Situation (BGS) online magazine published Claire Levine's article 'Lynn Morris: the national banjo champion who couldn't get an audition'. To mark the start of Women's History Month, the BGS staff have now published a further feature as #6 in their 'BGS Top 50 Moments' series, drawing attention to the earlier article and stating:

What sets this profile apart from the thousands of other features we’ve published is that it had some of the highest engagement we’ve ever seen on the site. Even now, nearly twenty years after her retirement, Lynn’s legacy continues to ripple through our community in big ways.

The Wikipedia article on Lynn Morris is short and incomplete, and the biographical article on her for the Bluegrass Music Hall Of Fame (into which she was inducted last year) is not yet online, so Claire Levine's article (with two YouTube videos) is a good brief introduction to Lynn's career. A 1999 Bluegrass Unlimited article by Geoffrey Himes, 'Lynn Morris: she will be the light' can be read in the BU archives.

Both BGS features refer the reader to Murphy Hicks Henry's Pretty good for a girl: women in bluegrass (2013) for further details. Long-service bluegrass fans in Ireland will note that at least four of the five musicians shown in the photo above have played over here at one time or another, and while in Ireland Lynn learned the song 'You'll never be the sun' from a recording by Dolores Keane.

© Richard Hawkins

Chris Thile (USA) in Dublin, 15 Nov. 2022

Looking further ahead, the BIB learns that mandolin wizard Chris Thile is scheduled to play in concert on the Main Stage of the National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, at 8.00 p.m. on Tuesday 15 Nov. 2022. Tickets (€30, €26, €22) can be bought from the NCH or through a link on his online tour schedule. The concert is the nineteenth and last in a tour beginning on 20 Oct. in Viljandi, Estonia, and continuing through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, and five dates in Britain.

© Richard Hawkins

US bands in Europe, May-June 2022

The BIB mentioned two days ago that this year's Bluegrass Omagh festival (28-9 May) will be the one chance for bluegrass fans in Ireland to see the fine Tennessee band Seth Mulder & Midnight Run (above; photo: Miranda Goff). Thanks to mygrassisblue.com for this poster image (right; click on it to enlarge) showing all eighteen dates on the European tour organised for them by mygrassisblue.com, extending from 12 May to 6 June, and including major European bluegrass events.

Bluegrass Omagh is the fourteenth on this list; the second on the list is the 18th International Bühl Bluegrass Festival (13-14 May) in Bühl, Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany, a bluegrass-friendly city. Also on the bill at Bühl are two US bands who have played in Ireland in the past: Chatham County Line (below; photo: York Wilson) and the Hackensaw Boys (bottom; photo: Paul van der Blom).

Both bands are on European tours, and Chatham County Line will be playing in the Workman's Club, Dublin, on 4 May, their only scheduled date in this island.

The organisers of the 10th Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival (24-26 June), presenting 'the best of bluegrass and far beyond' have issued a preliminary press release on the lineup for this year's event, which includes from the USA Gangstagrass, the Legendary Shack Shakers, Possessed by Paul James, and former visitors to Ireland the Henhouse Prowlers. The Dutch contingent are headed by our old friends who have been away far too long, the Blue Grass Boogiemen (below). Yes, they're not a US band, but Tim Knol's photo is too good and evocative to leave out.

© Richard Hawkins

International Women's Day, 8 Mar. 2022

To mark International Women's Day, here's a video of a song performed by one of the leading women musicians of the twenty-first-century old-time and bluegrass fields, learned from a recording by her counterpart of some seventy years earlier: Molly Tuttle singing 'Graveyard' as recorded by Cynthia May Carver (1903-80), 'Cousin Emmy'.

In the video (added to YouTube in 2014), Molly Tuttle plays a Bart Reiter Standard 5-string banjo at the Gryphon Strings premises.

© Richard Hawkins

Detached notes

On the Deering Banjos blog, David Bandrowski introduces a video (also on YouTube since January) of Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi performing 'I shall not be moved', a song that became an anthem of the civil rights movement in the USA during the 1960s. She links the song with her experience of learning from the African-American fiddler Joe Thompson, and both of these to the principles of purpose, service, and community.

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Ken Perlman (USA), master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, announces that the next two online live instructional banjo workshops in his 'Clawhammer Clinic' series will be 'Playing Celtic reels with taste and authority, clawhammer style' on Mon. 21 Mar., and 'Playing in the key of D from open G tuning (gDGBD)' on Mon. 11 Apr., together with a reminder of the last chance to register for the Suwannee Banjo Camp this coming weekend (12-13 Mar.).

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For upright bass players faced with the lasting difficulty of lugging the thing around, have a look at Bluegrass Today where John Curtis Goad draws attention to the R.C. Williams Company, designers of music accessories, and two of their recent products. The dbl Bass Buggie™ is a pair of wheels with handle and harness to fit any bass from 1/10 to 4/4 size. The Amazing Bass Stand doubles as a comfortable chair to use while practising, and can take a load of up to 500 lb. Similar stand/chair items are also made for guitar, banjo, and fiddle, and we imagine that dobros, mandolins, and their players would probably find that these suited them as well.

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'Little Roy' Lewis had his eightieth birthday two weeks ago (see the BIB for 24 Feb.), and is very much alive. Much more about him and his foster-daughter Lizzy Long (photo below) is in the Mountain Home Music Company press release for Welcome to the show, the new album by the Little Roy and Lizzy Show, which is due out on 29 Apr. and can be pre-ordered.
PS: Their new single can be heard on Bluegrass Today and YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

Bluegrass Omagh, 28-29 May 2022

Thanks to Dave Byrne jr of mygrassisblue.com for the news that the Ulster American Folk Park at Omagh, Co. Tyrone has confirmed the dates for this year's Bluegrass Omagh festival as Sat. 28 May and Sun. 29 May. The festival website is on the way to becoming fully operational at the time of writing this post, and details of the lineup have yet to be announced. However, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run are expected to be headliners, in the course of their European tour organised by mygrassisblue.com. This is the one chance fans in Ireland will have to see this fine band during the tour.

Tickets for Bluegrass Omagh 2022 can be bought via this link: adult day passes are £25 and weekend passes £40; corresponding rates for children are £6 and £10; and family passes (covering two adults and three children) £56 and £95. The succession of images on the festival homepage includes an evocative couple of seconds of the irreplaceable Geordie McAdam, who died just over a year ago.

© Richard Hawkins

'St Paddy's celebration' with We Banjo 3

Galway's We Banjo 3 announce in their latest e-newsletter that their next ten US shows from this Wednesday (9 Mar.) onwards will constitute a 'St Paddy's celebration'. The shows will be in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho, and Missouri. Tickets can be booked on the band's online tour schedule, where in addition to those shown on the image (right) the shows include one on 18 Mar. at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY. Their 'Spring Awakening' tour in the USA continues through April into May.

© Richard Hawkins