Billy Strings, Brittany Haas on the BGS

The latest Weekly Dispatch, issued by the Bluegrass Situation (BGS) online magazine, carries a feature on IBMA award-winning Billy Strings, who is scheduled to begin on 29 November in Oslo a European tour, finishing on 11 December in Glasgow. The penultimate show in the tour will be on 9 Dec. in Dublin; like other shows in the tour, this is shown as sold out, but Billy Strings's online tour schedule includes a link to a waiting list.

Eleven days before the tour begins, Rounder Records will release ME/AND/DAD, a fourteen-track album by Billy Strings with his father Terry Barber, supported by a band comprising Rob and Ronnie McCoury, Mike Bub, and Michael Cleveland, with guest appearances by Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter, and Billy's mother Debra Barber. The BGS feature includes a video of the ensemble recording 'Long journey home' (plus home photos of Billy in childhood), which can also be seen on YouTube.

Update 18 Nov.: The album is reviewed by Grant Britt on the Bluegrass Situation (BGS), including videos (also on YouTube) of 'Life to go' and 'Long journey home'.

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Brittany Haas and her sister Natalie came to Ireland in 2018 for the Baltimore Fiddle Fair, and their additional show at Naul gave your editor his peak musical experience of that year. You can now hear Brittany talk about her life in music on a fifty-five minute podcast, interviewed by Cindy Howes in the BGS's 'Basic Folk' series. Among other things, she talks about coming to clawhammer banjo from her fiddle background.

© Richard Hawkins