More news of past visitors

The BIB has just mentioned Chris Jones & the Night Drivers (right) in connection with the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire (where they played on their first tour of Ireland in 2018). Chris and the band have now made their debut appearance on the Grand Ole Opry last Saturday night (2 July). This follows a string of chart successes on bluegrass radio, with seven consecutive #1 singles from their current project, Make each second last, on the Mountain Home Music Company label. More details are on last Friday's Bluegrass Today, which also reveals that the Opry lineup on the same night with Chris & Co. would include Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, headliners at the Dunmore East festival in 2016.

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The Fretboard Journal magazine announces that its #50 issue will include an interview with Béla Fleck conducted by Tristan Scroggins in which Fleck speaks about his return to bluegrass, the making of his latest album and of his new signature Gold Tone banjo, and the profound influence of Chick Corea, and much more.

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Jim Hurst, wizard of the flat-picked and finger-picked acoustic guitar (with or without sound enhancement), has released his new album From the ground up, his first in seven years, on Pinecastle Records. It comprises eleven tracks, four of which Jim wrote or co-wrote. More details and a full track listing are given on the Pinecastle press release.

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Fast Track (below) have had their latest album Heartache and trouble released by the Engelhardt Music Group; it is their third in three years with the label. The album is very warmly reviewed by John Curtis Goad on Bluegrass Today, who gives special praise to the songwriting and singing of Ron Spears. Ron plays bass with Fast Track; a multi-instrumentalist and multi-part-singer, he toured Ireland in 2007 as mandolin-player with the Special Consensus.

© Richard Hawkins