Resourcefulness AND talent

Niall Toner, Godfather of bluegrass, 'roots', and related music in Ireland, triumphantly vanquished last weekend a challenge to his legendary resourcefulness. The Niall Toner Band (NTB) was scheduled to play two shows at the Kilkenny Roots Festival, and their rehearsals and performances were to be filmed for use in Niall's video contribution to this autumn's IBMA songwriter showcases (see the BIB for 24 Apr.). But - 60% of the band's regular members and most first-call replacements were either on holiday or already committed to play with other bands at that time...

Undaunted, Niall and Dick Gladney (NTB bassist) borrowed Lily Sheehan (guitar) and Paddy 'Paahto' Cummins (mandolin) from Mules & Men; and the photo above (l-r: Dick, Paddy, Niall, Lily), together with Niall's words on the NTB Facebook, show that all concerned were very happy with the results.

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Paddy Kiernan, whose outstandingly creative banjo work is usually heard with the NTB as well as several other bands, can be heard and seen in a succession of recent videos on his Facebook, which include his explorations of the contrapuntal possibilities of the fingerstyle banjo - the BIB can't say '5-string', because the videos show his custom-made Nechville 6-string (or '5+1', perhaps).

Update 4 May: Thanks to Niall for the information in his comment on this post, especially the photography credits.

© Richard Hawkins