Duhallow Bluegrass Sessions off to a good start

Thanks to Owen Schinkel of the duo Long Way Home for this news of the first of the new series of bluegrass sessions in north Co. Cork (see the BIB for 20 Apr.). The featured artist was Pat Kelleher.

The first Duhallow Bluegrass Session went well this past Sunday! We had a nice first crowd attending the concert and a good few people stuck around for the session! Here's a little compilation video of Pat's gig, we joined in for a couple of songs towards the end of his set:

Attached are some pictures of the jam session afterwards. We're off to a good start and looking forward to the other planned events.

The next session is Saturday 7 May, starting at 19.00, see poster with details [at bottom, below]. We'll have the great Cork-city-based roots group Jawbone headline the evening.

© Richard Hawkins

A closer view

Thanks to Dave Byrne jr of mygrassisblue.com for this image of the poster showing all the dates for the coming European tour by Seth Mulder & Midnight Run. At this size, the details of the shows should be clearly legible. On the page of the mygrassisblue.com website dedicated to the tour, the brief video clips behind the main title are taken from the band's performances at the 2020 Shannonside Winter Music Festival.

© Richard Hawkins

Mygrassisblue.com bring Seth Mulder & Midnight Run to Europe

John Lawless on Bluegrass Today reports on the imminent European tour of Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, with explicit credit given to Dave Byrne and the team of the Wicklow-based mygrassisblue.com agency which is organising it. Full details of the tour (which begins on 12 May in Belgium and ends on 6 June in the Netherlands, with hundreds of miles covered in between) are on the tour page of the mygrassisblue.com website. This has all the details of the tour (including online ticket-booking links) and of the band that one could wish, with ample photographs, video and audio recordings, information on their earlier album releases, and approving comments from qualified admirers. Also, like everything else on the mygrassisblue.com website, it's a pleasure to view.

The band's part in the 2022 Bluegrass Omagh festival is the only show in the tour that will take place on this island. A 27-second teaser-trailer video, recorded for the tour by the band, can be seen on Bluegrass Today and on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

Woodbine at Kilkenny with Gerry Madden

Thanks to Tony O'Brien for confirming that Woodbine's many fans can see and hear them on three occasions at the coming weekend's Kilkenny Roots Festival. They will be playing at 10.00 p.m. on Friday 29 Apr. at Lenehan's; at 10.00 p.m. on Saturday 30 Apr. at Bollards; and at 10.00 p.m. on Sunday 1 May at O'Gorman's. The lineup will be Tony (guitar, vocals), Liam Wright (guitar, vocals), Nicola O'Brien Kennedy (bass, vocals) and Gerry Madden (mandolin). The photo of Gerry above dates from the release of his 2016 album Baker's dozen.

© Richard Hawkins

Two Time Polka gigs, Apr.-May 2022

Ray Barron of Two Time Polka announces the band's gigs over the next few weeks:

Kilkenny Roots Festival
Sat. Apr. 30th: Left Bank, 4.00-6.00 p.m. Adm. free
Sun. May 1st: Langtons Hotel, 5.00-7.00 p.m. Adm. free
The Club House Hotel, 10.00 p.m-midnight. Adm. free

Sat, 14th: Coughlans - The Nest, Cork. Doors 7.30 p.m. Adm. free

Zydeco Village, the Netherlands
Sat. 21st: Kerkplein 5, Raamsdonksveer, NL, 11.30 p.m.
Sun. 22nd: Kerkplein 5, Raamsdonksveer, NL, 3.00-4.30 p.m.

Our next mail will give details of our gigs at BikeFest, Killarney, Strings 'n Things, Clashmore, and The Cork Summershow.

We'll be updating all our gigs on the website (www.twotimepolka.com) and also on our Facebook page.

Regards & thanks

Ray & TTP

© Richard Hawkins

We Banjo 3 at MerleFest 2022

Galway's We Banjo 3, originators of Celtgrass, will perform this coming weekend at MerleFest, Wilkesboro, NC. In his No Depression article 'Through the lens: exciting roots artists not to miss at MerleFest 2022', Amos Perrine has a fine photo he took of We Banjo 3 on stage at the 2018 MerleFest, and writes:

You may think you know this Irish band, but their online performances during the pandemic have demonstrated a dramatic shift in their songwriting. Some call them a great Irish-Americana band, I say you will not see or hear a better band all weekend.

Update 28 Apr.: In the Bluegrass Today feature 'Photos from 2022 Old Settlers Music Festival', there are twenty-five fine photos by Amy Price, beginning with two of We Banjo 3, and also including - to mention only those who have played in Ireland - the Del McCoury Band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and Peter Rowan. The Rangers include founder member and guitarist Woody Platt, who recently announced that he will be leaving the band (see here).

© Richard Hawkins

US news - mainly about past visitors

Fast Track have had a new single, 'Heartbreak and trouble', released by the Engelhardt Music Group (EMG). The song can be heard on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today and on YouTube. More details are on the press releases from EMG and Wilson Pickins.

Two excellent on-stage sets by Fast Track, filmed early in 2020 when Jesse Brock was with them on mandolin, can be seen on YouTube: 1 and 2. In the BIB editor's view, this is pretty well exactly how a bluegrass band should act and sound.

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For admirers of the late Tom T. Hall and the music of Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road, the band has recently had a video released by Pinecastle Records of the song 'Who’s gonna tell the story', written by Mark Brinkman and David Stewart. It can be watched on Bluegrass Today and YouTube.

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Bob Denton, co-organiser with Andy Lambert of the three Irish Old Time Gatherings held so far in Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare, announces on the FOAOTMAD news blog (23 Apr.) that he will be in London 10-18 May and keen to play both old-time and Irish music.

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Later this year Charlie Poole (1892-1931) will be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. He was one of the most popular among commercially-recorded rural musicians of the 1920s; his three-finger banjo style was influenced by 'classical'/ ragtime banjo-playing; and the controlled, tight-knit sound of his North Carolina Ramblers band contrasted with his haphazard lifestyle. John Lawless's news item on Bluegrass Today includes two recordings from YouTube.

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Ken Perlman, master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, announces that the last two online live instructional banjo workshops in his current 'Clawhammer Clinic' series will be 'Arranging a song or simple melody for performance, clawhammer style' on Mon. 2 May, and 'Up-the-neck "melodic" fingering forms that feature 5th-string fretting' on Mon. 23 May. Ken can also be seen on 1 May in a free online live-stream concert from the Greenwich Village Folk Festival.

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Kyle O'Brien of the state of Colorado announces that he and Chance McCoy (who toured Ireland in June 2019) recorded, mixed, and mastered ten original songs in two weeks at McCoy's West Virginia home studio and farm, to produce the new album Country pie, which can now be pre-ordered. McCoy was formerly a member of Old Crow Medicine Show, whose latest album, Paint this town, is reviewed on No Depression by Henry Carrigan.

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Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers, in their 'Bluegrass Ambassadors' role, will be introducing schoolchildren to the music of North Carolina masters this week at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, and rounding off their stay with a concert at the Center on Thurs. 28 Apr.

© Richard Hawkins

Crossover festival in England, 29 Apr.-2 May 2022

Taking place in England during the Kilkenny festival this coming weekend is the Crossover Festival of bluegrass, old-time, and Americana music (and dance). The fifth newsletter for 2022 issued by the Crossover organisers gives extra advice and information to attenders, including additions to the lineup, food and drink available on site, links to the websites of luthiers and other stallholders, and a weather forecast. No paper programmes are being issued; the complete schedule can be viewed and printed out from here. Events at Crossover can be seen on livestream on the Festival's YouTube channel and Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

Bluegrass at Kilkenny Roots Festival, 30 Apr.-1 May 2022

Niall Toner (above) posted on Friday the following exciting news on his Facebook (links added by the BIB):

Very much looking forward to playing the Kilkenny Roots Festival on Saturday the 30th at the Pembroke Hotel, 10 p.m., and at Bollards on Sunday the 1st of May, also at 10 p.m. Most exciting to be doing these gigs with an all-original set AND a new lineup! A few surprises in store, and all to be filmed [...]!!! Be there, or be square!!!

The filming will be for the purpose of compiling a twenty-minute video of Niall and his band in rehearsal and performance, as his contribution to the IBMA songwriter showcases at this year's World Of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC.

Other bands playing sets of bluegrass or related music in the Smithwick's Music Trail schedule over the weekend include Two Time Polka, the Blue Light Smugglers, Desert Aces, and Woodbine, featuring Gerry Madden on mandolin.

© Richard Hawkins

Wild Atlantic Waves Music: new series of gigs in Co. Donegal

Riona McGrath of the organising team of the BAND Festival (Bluegrass And Nashville Dunfanaghy) in Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal, announces that she has set up Wild Atlantic Waves Music as a side project to organise gigs in Donegal. The first in the series was held a week ago (15 Apr.) at the Workhouse heritage venue in Dunfanaghy, and featured singer/ songwriter Susan O’Neill with support from Ruairí Friel and Sarah Cullen. At present there is no indication whether bluegrass-related music will feature in the series, but given the BAND festival's scope, it is worth keeping an eye on the Dunfanaghy website.

© Richard Hawkins

Michael J. Miles on Deering Live and YouTube

Michael J. Miles - the master of applying clawhammer banjo and fingerstyle guitar techniques to all kinds of music - was the featured artist on Deering Live last night (Thurs. 21 Apr.). The 72-minute interview with Jamie Latty and David Bandrowsky, in which he plays a lot of varied music on several instruments, can now be watched on YouTube.

On a separate 3-minute video Michael demonstrates one of the instruments played in the interview: a Deering Goodtime electric/ acoustic fretless 5-string, which he favours for blues playing.

© Richard Hawkins

Mules & Men on Bluegrass Today

Congratulations to Dublin-based Mules & Men (Luke Coffey, banjo; Lily Sheehan, guitar; Patrick Cummins, mandolin; Niall Hughes, bass) who are featured on Bluegrass Today in an interview with Lee Zimmerman. The feature includes two videos from their YouTube channel: the original 'John Keavney' from their Roscommon county line album two years ago, and 'Lost', the Buzz Busby classic, which they recorded on last year's A tribute to Johnnie Whisnant (and other bluegrass legends).

© Richard Hawkins

Weekend Bluegrass Jam Camp in Galway, 4-6 Nov. 2022

Thanks to Sean McGrath for the news that Larry Kernagis (right), a fully accredited and highly experienced Wernick Method teacher, will lead a Weekend Bluegrass Jam Camp at the Galway Mechanics Institute, Middle St., Galway H91 XT6P, on the weekend Fri. 4-Sun. 6 Nov. 2022. Larry led a previous Jam Camp in west Cork seven years ago (see the BIB for 26 July 2015 or click on the 'Kernagis' label at the end of this post). This year's Camp would have been held in 2021 but for Covid restrictions.

Full details of the Camp and of the Wernick Method, together with testimonials from Larry's students, photos from his previous Camps, and links for registration and a downloadable Camp flyer are here. Recommendations for lodgings will be added shortly. All the bluegrass instruments are welcome, and no previous jamming experience is necessary.

© Richard Hawkins

First Portuguese bluegrass festival, 9-11 Sept. 2022

For any who love bluegrass music and love Portugal as a holiday destination, Andre Dal Lentilhas (the moving spirit of bluegrass in Portugal) announces Trafaria Bluegrass, the first international bluegrass festival to be held there. The festival will take place on the weekend Fri. 9-Sun. 11 Sept. in the village of Trafaria, near Lisbon and the mouth of the Tagus river. Four international bands and one from Portugal will perform, and the website states:

You will be able to meet, socialize and enjoy great moments with masterclasses, music and dance workshops, tours, guided tours of the village, street entertainment, gastronomy and spontaneous musical moments between local musicians and guest artists.

More information, in English and Portuguese, is on the website and the first press release. The festival is also on Facebook and Instagram. And see also John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Duhallow Bluegrass Sessions: first series, Apr.-May-June 2022

Thanks to Owen Schinkel of the duo Long Way Home for this welcome news of a new programme of bluegrass events in north Co. Cork:

Since things are somewhat back to normal now, I felt like this is the time to re-connect and connect to fellow bluegrass enthusiasts once again. I created an event series in Cork which runs from April to June this year and is focused around bluegrass music.

The name of the series is the Duhallow Bluegrass Sessions. Each event will feature a Cork-based guest artist or group who will get a short set to perform their own music. When the guest artist is finished up, we'll move some tables and chairs around and start a jam session. The guest artist will participate and so will our music duo Long Way Home. Key is that that the events are free, inclusive, and family-friendly. The location of the events is Bobs Bar & Restaurant on 16 Percival St. in Kanturk, which is in North Cork. The event page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/3278161945799351/3278161962466016/".

Perhaps this is of interest to the readers. It should be a good time, and I'm very thankful for the support from the local County Cork Arts Office and all the artists who are set to perform during the event series. If people have any questions about it they can reach out to me at 089 613 3817 or e-mail at owen@longwayhomeduo.com.

The artists taking part in this first series of the Duhallow Sessions, as shown above, are:

• Sun. 24 Apr.: Pat Kelleher and friends, 4.00 p.m.
• Sat. 7 May: Jawbone Acoustic Folk & Blues Commune, 7.00 p.m.
• Sat. 18 June: Prairie Jaywalkers, 5.00 p.m.
• Sun. 26 June: Hank Wedel and Ray Barron, 4.00 p.m.

© Richard Hawkins

Any old-time jams in Dublin on 22-3 April or 3-8 May 2022?

On a post that appeared on the BIB nearly eleven years ago (illustrated with the photo of Bill Whelan shown on the right), a correspondent identified only as matchbookholder sent two days ago a comment that reads:

I will be in Dublin April 22-23 and May 3-8 and thereabouts. Are there any old-time jams happening?

As this message was received as a comment, we have no means of replying directly to matchbookholder and no address to pass on to anyone else who might want to reply. At present, the BIB also has no news of old-time activity to pass on to him/ her/ them. If anyone on the old-time scene in Dublin has news of activity in the time-frames shown, please let the BIB know and it will be published at once.

© Richard Hawkins

Peter Rowan: new single, 'The song that made Hank Williams dance'

Thanks to Devon Léger of Hearth Music for the news that the multi-faceted and always vital Peter Rowan has a new single released today on Rebel Records, 'The song that made Hank Williams dance', featuring Shawn Camp. This is the first release from his Rebel album Calling you from my mountain (see cover image, right), scheduled for release on 22 June, which will also feature Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, and Lindsay Lou.

In a thirty-two-minute performance-cum-interview at the WinterWonderGrass festival in California, recorded on YouTube, Peter Rowan talks about how folk music led him to blues and bluegrass, and his subsequent opening to many other forms.

Update 20 Apr.: More details are on the Hearth Music press release.

Update 13 May: Lauren Leadingham has contributed a feature on Peter Rowan and the new album to the American Blues Scene website.

© Richard Hawkins

Happy birthday, Sam Bush!

Charles Samuel 'Sam' Bush was born seventy years ago today in Bowling Green, KY, and made a name for himself at the age of 17 with the LP Poor Richard's Almanac (1969), which stood out among bluegrass albums as an all-instrumental record with many original compositions, played by a trio rather than a full band, and at moderate tempo to allow a continuous flow of melodic variation. Two years later he was a founder member of the highly successful and influential New Grass Revival - a name which he explained as showing that the band was building upon innovations that had already been made in bluegrass by bands such as the Osborne Brothers, the Country Gentlemen, and the Dillards.

Sam Bush's 1937 Gibson F5 mandolin, 'Old Hoss', was the basis for a special Sam Bush signature model issued by Gibson in 1999, followed by a limited edition in 2009. He was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of New Grass Revival, and at the age of 70 is the pre-eminent 'senior rocker' of the bluegrass world. Happy birthday, Sam Bush!

© Richard Hawkins

Editorial hiatus

The BIB editor will be out of the editorial chair for reasons connected (pretty remotely, to be candid) with bluegrass in Europe, for ten days, starting today (Sunday 10 April); so please keep sending in news, but don't expect it to appear before Wednesday 20 April at the earliest. However, look out for two news items on 13 April, prepared in advance for publication on that date.

More news of past visitors and almost-visitors

More on the Po' Ramblin' Boys from east Tennessee, whom we can hope to see one day at an event in Ireland: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings send news of the many dates (see poster image) that the Boys will be playing from now till November in their 'Never slow down' tour of the USA, named after their new album. Smithsonian Folkways also include this link to a YouTube video of the Boys playing 'Old time angels' at a live show.

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The 74th Bluegrass Unlimited weekly newsletter includes (among other good things) several items on Roland White, who died last week: a Spotify playlist of thirty tracks he recorded with various bands; a podcast of a 1982 interview with him by presenter Orin Friesen; a new podcast with banjoist Bob Black, whose biography of Roland will soon be published; and two 1969 articles from the BU archives on the Kentucky Colonels band.

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The latest episode of Dave Berry's 'California report' series on Bluegrass Today is an interview with mandolinist Tom Bekeny, who has been fiddler with High Country every time they have played in Ireland, including the very first Athy bluegrass festival (1991). He also plays in the Kathy Kallick Band and jazz in the Missing Man Quartet.

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Nick Dumas, who was here in 2017 and 2019 as mandolinist with the Special Consensus, has released an impressive new single, 'Details', on Skyline Records. An official video, giving the lyrics, can be seen and heard on Bluegrass Today and YouTube.

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Guitar magician Jim Hurst, whose most recent tour in Ireland was in autumn 2019, has just released a new single on Pinecastle Records, the Keith Little song 'Weary old highway', with harmony vocals by his friends Darin and Brooke Aldridge, the Omagh headliners in 2018. Full details are on the Pinecastle press release. Darin and Brooke Aldridge will also be playing a concert at the Bluegrass Music Hall Of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY, on St George's day (23 Apr.)

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The Travelin' McCourys have not yet actually played in Ireland under that name, but a majority of them have played here as members of the Del McCoury Band. They have now released a new single, the Tom T. Hall song 'I like beer', which can be heard on your favourite streaming platform or via this e-newsletter.

© Richard Hawkins

The EBMA: Bluegrass camp for kids at La Roche 2022

The European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA) announces that the first bluegrass camp open to kids from any country in Europe will be held together with this year's La Roche Bluegrass Festival (3-7 Aug. 2022) at La Roche-sur-Foron in Haute Savoie, on the edge of the French Alps. The camp is open to anyone aged 6 to 16 who can hold an acoustic instrument and play three chords. It will operate from 9.00 a.m. to noon on the three days 4-6 Aug., at a cost of €30 per person for all three days. Full details are on the EBMA web page and can also be reached via the EBMA Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

Athy visitors honoured in Virginia, USA

John Lawless reports on Bluegrass Today that David McLaughlin and Marshall Wilborn have both been honoured in a recent resolution by the House of Delegates of the Virginia state legislature. The resolution, proposed by delegate Wendy Gooditis, commended them both for their induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as members of the Johnson Mountain Boys, and authorised sending them both copies of the resolution 'as an expression of the House of Delegates’ admiration for their contributions to the American musical landscape'. The JMB were a major driving force in revitalising traditional bluegrass during the 1980s.

Longtime bluegrass fans in Ireland will recall that David McLaughlin and Marshall Wilborn were members of the band that Lynn Morris (see the BIB for 10 Mar.) brought over to the 1995 Athy Bluegrass Festival in Co. Kildare. Marshall Wilborn has since toured here, most recently as bassist with Chris Jones & the Night Drivers. The photo above (from the Johnson Mountain Boys Facebook) shows (l-r) David McLaughlin, Marshall Wilborn, and Dudley Connell at a 1987 JMB show in the 100 Club, London.

© Richard Hawkins

Stellings retire, and more news of past visitors

Stelling Banjo Works announce that this is the last year for the company; sales of Stelling products continue, but no further repair work is being undertaken. Geoff Stelling (right) and his wife Sherry are in good health and intend to enjoy retirement after building banjos since 1974.

More details are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today. In the statement there that 'Stelling got his start working with Greg Deering of Deering Banjos', 'with' doesn't mean 'for': the two collaborated, with Deering making necks for Stelling's innovative pot-and-tone-ring assembly, and were briefly partners before Deering set up his own company in 1975 (see Carolina Bridges's article 'Deering Banjos today' in the Apr. 2013 Banjo News Letter).

Alan Munde, whose Staghorn was no. 12 in the Stelling production series, was the first high-profile banjo player to use a Stelling as his main instrument throughout his subsequent career. Geoff Stelling was inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall Of Fame in 2020 as a designer and manufacturer.

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Lorraine Jordan and her band Carolina Road have released a gospel album, I can go to them, on the Pinecastle Records label. The title track, in a stunning a cappella arrangement, can be heard on YouTube. The album is reviewed by Braeden Paul on Bluegrass Today.

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The Lonesome River Band, headliners at the 2014 Omagh festival, have reached no. 1 on the Bluegrass Today monthly chart with their latest single, 'Mary Ann is a pistol'. More details are on the Mountain Home Music Company press release, and the song can be heard on Bluegrass Today and on YouTube - where there is also a video of it being performed live by the LRB.

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The Bluegrass Situation online magazine yesterday published 'Carrying the tradition of bluegrass, the Po' Ramblin' Boys keep on truckin'', a substantial feature by Matt Wickstrom, interviewing Laura Orshaw, fiddler with the Po' Ramblin' Boys from east Tennessee, and C,J, Lewandowski, their longtime mandolinist. Well worth reading for the views of what Orshaw's joining has meant for the band and for her; for what they're doing to keep bluegrass alive; for how the band came to link up with Smithsonian Folkways; and for the tale of how Lewandowski came to own Jimmy Martin's old pickup truck.

© Richard Hawkins

Adam Hurt on Deering Live, 7 Apr. 2022

The Deering Banjo Company announce that the outstanding clawhammer-banjo player Adam Hurt will be featured on Deering Live tomorrow (Thurs. 7 Apr.) at 11.00 p.m. Irish time. The interview-with-musical-episodes can be seen on Deering Live or YouTube.

Deering also send this link to one video in a series made by multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan on the use of ribbon microphones in recording banjo playing.

© Richard Hawkins

Michael J. Miles - AND Greg Cahill

In his latest e-newsletter, Michael J. Miles (USA) announces upcoming events, which include a concert this coming Sunday (10 Apr.) with one of the world's finest fingerstyle guitarists, and another in a month's time comprising original musical compositions to the words of Walt Whitman. At the Midwest Banjo Camp in June, he will be hosting, with Tony Trischka, a session of songs and stories about Pete Seeger. Michael's one-off workshops for guitar and clawhammer banjo, as well as his classes for both instruments and his concert dates, can be found here.

Perhaps of most interest to BIB readers in Ireland - in connection with Michael's role as a teacher at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, he and his fellow instructor Greg Cahill of the Special Consensus joined forces to present three banjo duets as video tributes to the three banjo giants who died in late 2021. These can be seen on Michael's YouTube channel, where Michael and Greg play 'Sledd Riding' by Sonny Osborne and Dale Sledd, 'Blackjack' by J.D. Crowe, and 'Theme time' by Bill Emerson. The BIB particularly recommends the last to viewers, as Michael begins it on the low-tuned minstrel banjo. As always, Greg's expressions are well worth watching.

© Richard Hawkins

New recordings, new hardware, and new activity from the Americas

Molly Tuttle has released her new album Crooked tree on Nonesuch Records, recorded with her bluegrass band Golden Highway, plus other distinguished musicians. The release concert at the Station Inn, Nashville, on Monday night (28 Mar.) was reported by Abby Lee Hood on Bluegrass Today. A review of the album by Laura Stanley can be read on No Depression.

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Last week the BIB mentioned Mike Compton and his new album, Rare & fine: uncommon tunes of Bill Monroe. It was reviewed a few days ago on Bluegrass Today by Braeden Paul, and can now be ordered from the store on Mike Compton's website, where it is described as 'the work of a detective, a historian, and a master musician, working with trusted colleagues who love Monroe’s music as much as the leader.' The BIB editor cordially agrees with this assessment.

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Ear Trumpet Labs announce their new model microphone, Ed - a scaled-up-three-times development of their popular Edwina model (for instance, the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival uses Edwina). Details are on the Ear Trumpet website and Richlynn Group press release.

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The 6th National Gathering of SongFarmers is to be held on 29-30 Apr. 2022 at the historic Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Renfro Valley. KY. Michael Johnathon of the Woodsongs Front Porch Association writes: 'A SongFarmer is any artist, musician, songwriter, and fan who wants to use their passion and music to make their homes, families, and communities better.' Full details are on this press release, with the slogan 'We need a Front Porch 'round the World!'

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A guest contributor reports on Bluegrass Today that the first Banjo Camp Brasil has been held with great success as a three-day event (14-16 Jan. 2022) in a congenial mountain-country venue. The moving spirit behind the Camp, and behind the growing popularity of 5-string banjo in Brazil, is Wagner Creoruska jr.

Galway's own representative of Brazilian bluegrass, César Benzoni (a friend of Wagner Creoruska), tells the BIB: 'Nowadays he's the person that is getting more people to know and engage with bluegrass in Brazil, mainly banjo. He's the founder of the band O Bardo e o Banjo, and I produced the majority of the albums, also he has an online banjo course and a YouTube channel giving information about 5-string banjo. He's also part of our directory in the Brazilian Bluegrass Music Association [links added by the BIB]. He's a great communicator and is bringing interest to a lot of [people] on the banjo.'

Update 6 May: Wagner Creoruska and O Bardo e o Banjo are featured in a piece by Lee Zimmerman on Bluegrass Today. The album O tempo e a memoria, mentioned by Zimmerman, was recorded and produced by César Benzoni.

© Richard Hawkins

Roland White, 23 Apr. 1938-1 Apr. 2022

Thanks to John Lawless on Bluegrass Today and Roger Ryan of the Country Music Association of Ireland for the sad news that Roland Joseph White died yesterday (1 Apr.) after a severe heart attack a week ago.

Born in the northern US state of Maine into the French-Canadian LeBlanc family, who moved to California when Roland was in his teens, he might seem to have been placed on the margins of the bluegrass world. In fact, from his early twenties he was in influential and sometimes ground-breaking bands: from the Kentucky Colonels with his brothers, through years playing guitar as a Blue Grass Boy and mandolin with Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass, Country Gazette, the Dreadful Snakes, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and his own Roland White Band.

Roland White was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017, a year after his brother Clarence (1944-73), who had redefined the role of the guitar in bluegrass music. The photos here (above: Mickey Dobo; below, Nicole Christianson), together with more details, links to instructional material, videos, and other recordings, are on his website, and a wealth of additional photos on his Facebook. Bob Black's biography, Mandolin man: the bluegrass life of Roland White, is due to be published by the University of Illinois Press on 7 June.

The BIB sends our condolences to Roland's wife and family.

Roland White and his wife Diane Bouska

Update 6 Apr.: Roland White's funeral service was held today in Madison, TN. See also Richard Thompson's major memoir, 'Roland White remembered - his life in music' on Bluegrass Today, with seventeen videos, a dozen photographs, and a massive discography. 

 © Richard Hawkins

BU Apr. 2022

The April 2022 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited (BU), the Mother of Bluegrass Magazines, has Doyle Lawson (headliner at Omagh in 2006 with his band Quicksilver) on the cover, and a six-page retrospect of his career by Bill Conger inside, together with a feature by Sandy Hatley on Authentic Unlimited, the splendid new band with a core consisting of three members of Lawson's last lineup of Quicksilver.

The many other good things include a feature by Professor Jack Bernhardt on the cafe/ music venue run by Lorraine Jordan, and one by Hatley on Jordan's banjo player Ben Greene, who recalls his tour of Ireland and Europe in 2003 as a member of the James King Band. Joe Ross writes 'The Far East embraces Far Western: bluegrass and country music in Japan'; Dan Shaw interviews Mark Hembree about his book On the bus with Bill Monroe: my five-year ride with the Father of Blue Grass', due to appear later this month; David McCarty writes on the makers of Ellis mandolins; and that's by no means all.

BU's 73rd weekly newsletter includes a podcast with Butch Robins in which 'Butch will share with us his always insightful perspective about Bill Monroe and bluegrass music'; a bass lesson, jam track, and Spotify playlist; and an archive article from 1975 by Don Rhodes on Mac Wiseman.

© Richard Hawkins