Entries welcomed for BU's 2023 Festival Guide

Bluegrass Unlimited (BU) magazine invites all bluegrass festival organisers throughout the world to submit the details of their events for inclusion in the annual BU festival guide, which will appear in the Jan. 2023 issue of the magazine. NB: the BU list no longer includes instructional camps, workshops, and seminars.

It's clear that by no means all organisers of bluegrass festivals outside the USA take the trouble to see that their events are included; nonetheless, Ireland has always managed to come in among the leaders in the field. Details of your event can be entered on the BU festival guide submission form and sent in with one click. Completed forms must be received by 25 Nov. 2022. (This information is on BU's weekly newsletter no. 105, not on the submission form.)

© Richard Hawkins

Sore Fingers Advent Calendar going strong

Thanks to the EBMA Facebook for making us aware that the Sore Fingers Summer Schools (Europe's premier bluegrass and old-time music instruction institution, from which many pickers from Ireland have benefited) have presented since the first of this month the Sore Fingers Advent Calendar. On every day, a new video is contributed by musicians who have taught at Sore Fingers Week, presented with comments by co-chief organiser John Wirtz.

As might be expected, the guests include musicians who will be easily recognised in Ireland - not just by people who have gone to Sore Fingers, but by all of us who have seen them in performances here. The list so far includes Greg Cahill of the Special Consensus, Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones, Joe Newberry, and Chris Coole. All videos can also be seen on John Wirtz's YouTube channel.

BU, Jan. 2020

The BIB editor writes:

The January 2020 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine includes the annual Festival guide, and we're glad to report that once again Ireland shows up with more events on the calendar - three - than anywhere else outside North America. Of course, this understates our own festival scene as well as those of other countries.

Among other good things in this issue, Nancy Cardwell Webster gives a Highlight Review to the CD Bluegrass headquarters by Finland's Jussi Syren & the Groundbreakers, one of the few bands from outside the USA that gets frequent favourable mentions in BU - this is the third Highlight Review they've had. The review ends: 'Fans of Red Allen, Jimmy Martin, Jim Eanes, the Lilly Brothers, Don Stover, and the Stanley Brothers will enjoy the music of Jussi Syren & The Groundbreakers.'

While waiting for the annual BU instrument issue in March, instrument nerds may wish to follow up the ads for Mitch banjos (also to be heard on YouTube) and for the Fiddolin, an instrument combining fiddle and mandolin, invented by Wayne Jerrolds, a former fiddler for Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys. This is also to be seen and heard on YouTube.

Your 2020 festival - in BU

The deadline (1 Nov.) for getting details of your bluegrass festival published in the January 2020 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine is just two weeks away. BU asks festival organisers to submit completed entry forms as soon as possible and send them in by post (P.O. Box 771, Warrenton, VA 20188), e-mail, or fax (540-341-0011). Here's what should be entered about your event:

• CITY of Event
• STATE of Event
• DATES in 2020
• Name of Event
• Location (name of park, brief directions)
• CONTACT PERSON (1 only) NAME
• ADDRESS........................
• CITY.................STATE.................ZIP....
• Phone (1 only)
• E-mail (1 only)
• Web (1 only)

These categories are devised for the USA, of course, but giving equivalent information for here shouldn't be hard. If you run more than one event, a separate entry should be made out for each of them. If you can't complete a form in the next two weeks, it's not the end of the world: a supplementary list will appear in the following BU issue.

Ireland has always ranked high in the numbers of events shown in BU's list for countries outside North America, even though not all the festivals here have been entered. Please let the BIB know your 2020 dates too!

Update 18 Oct.: Thanks to Mick Daly at Dunmore East, Co. Waterford, who had already sent the necessary info to BU and announces that the dates for next year's festival will be 27-30 Aug. 2020.

More old-time news

The latest issue (vol. 14, no. 11) of the Old Time Herald includes - among many other good things - its '2019 festival and camp guide', in which the only entry for Ireland is the traditional Willie Clancy Summer School in Co. Clare (6-14 July). No dates earlier than March are in the guide; so FOAOTMAD's Gainsborough festival in England, and the Annual Irish Old Time Appalachian Music Gathering, both in February, do not appear. In 2020 the 26th Gainsborough festival will begin on St Valentine's day (14 Feb.) and the 3rd Gathering a week later (21-23 Feb.).

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Murphy Henry's 'General store' column in the latest issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine reports the publication of Tommy Thompson: new-timey string band musician by Lew Stern, the author of the exemplary biography of Dwight Diller.

Lew Stern, together with David Brooks, has already published 'He could surely make a banjo talk' - 109 clawhammer banjo tabs by Tommy Thompson (£13.95 in paperback and £3.83 in Kindle from Amazon.co.uk). He is currently preparing a book on a Tommy Thompson bandmate, the late Bill Hicks (see the BIB for 26 Nov. 2018)

Banjo Babes calendar + CD for 2019 now out

Thanks to John Lawless and Bluegrass Today for the news that the 6th annual international Banjo Babes calendar and its accompanying CD (not to mention downloads of the individual tracks, T-shirts, and logo stickers) are now available and can be bought online. Brief bios and photos of the artists taking part (they include Cera Impala from Scotland) are also on the website.

Your festival - in BU

The deadline for getting details of your bluegrass festival published in the January 2018 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine is almost upon us. Festival organisers are requested to submit completed entry forms as soon as possible and send them in by post (P.O. Box 771, Warrenton, VA 20188), e-mail, or fax (001-800-258-4727). Here's what should be entered about your event:

• CITY of Event
• STATE of Event
• DATES in 2018
• Name of Event
• Location (name of park, brief directions)
• CONTACT PERSON (1 only) NAME
• ADDRESS
• CITY.................STATE.................ZIP....
• Phone (1 only)
• E-mail (1 only)
• Web (1 only)

These categories are devised for the USA, of course, but giving equivalent information for here shouldn't be hard. If you run more than one event, a separate entry should be made out for each of them. If you can't complete a form in the next few days, it's not the end of the world: a supplementary list will appear in the following BU issue. Please let the BIB know your 2018 dates too!

Banjo Babes Calendar for 2018 now available

Bluegrass Today reports that the fifth annual Banjo Babes Calendar (BBC) and compilation CD is ready for ordering. The BBC website says:

The Banjo Babes Calendar & Album (and Tour!) is a collective, grassroots celebration of professional women banjo players. Each year, we produce a lighthearted thematic calendar, professional compilation album, and exciting annual tour!

The range of merchandise now includes T-shirts. Order by 22 November 2017, and you could win a Deering Good Time banjo! Full details on the BBC website and Bluegrass Today.

The BIB calendar: work in progress

The BIB editor reports:

Yesterday (13 Sept. 2017) the calendar for 2017-18 was withdrawn from use, as all the items had somehow been replaced by those for part of 2012-13, and some information shown in the introductory headnote was obsolete. Work has begun on reconstruction, and it is now available; unfortunately, events from the beginning of 2017 to 13 Sept. will not be appearing in the calendar archive.

The opportunity is being taken to update the list of weekly regular sessions. Bands and event/venue organisers: if your session or event is not shown here (or not correctly), please contact the editor.

Banjo Babes 2017 calendar now out

Thanks to Bluegrass Today for the news that the fourth edition of the Banjo Babes calendar is published, with twelve splendid images of women banjo players, and their music on an accompanying CD.

The theme this year is 'Vote for Banjo!' but none of the images or tracks is likely to prove politically divisive. Full details, together with methods of ordering and images and tracks from past years, are on the Banjo Babes website.

UK festivals for 2017 listed on BBMA Facebook

Last Friday the British Bluegrass Music Association published on its Facebook a list of twenty-three bluegrass festivals and other events of one or more days in length, that will be held in the UK between March and September 2017. The 'other events' include the Sore Fingers Summer School in April (summer comes early in that part of the world). Please note:

• In over half of the list, the exact dates for 2017 have not yet been received, and last year's dates are shown [in brackets]. Updates are coming in - the North Wales Bluegrass Festival will be a week later (6-9 July) than it was last year.
• This is a list of UK events, so the Cairncastle Bluegrass Evening in July and the Bluegrass Music Festival at Omagh are both included - thanks to Sharon Loughrin, the BBMA's representative for Northern Ireland.

The BBMA's events page at present shows the 2016 list, which also included the Westport Folk and Bluegrass festival.

Get your event on the EBMA and BBMA website calendars

Thanks to Sharon Loughrin, area rep for Northern Ireland in the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA), for this news:

BBMA member Stu Vincent is compiling a list of 2016 bluegrass festival dates in UK / Ireland for the European Bluegrass Music Association website. Any organisers who would like to be included can e-mail me or contact Stu through Facebook.

This also prompts me to ask anyone who would like a bluegrass event or a regular picking session added to the calendar on the BBMA website - send the details to me and I'll forward it. Also worth checking out is Stu Vincent's online 'Bluegrass From Yonder' show on www.bluegrassmix.com every Wednesday night 7.00-10.00. Stu plays a really interesting mix of old and new, traditional and contemporary bluegrass music, well worth checking out.

Update 27 Oct.: See Stu's comment on this post, below.

June calendar now also on the BIB front page

As an experiment intended to assist BIB readers, the events currently on the BIB calendar for next month are now displayed in the right-hand column of our front page, below all the links, lists of recent posts, archives, and site meter.

The main BIB calendar remains unchanged. Both it and the new display will be updated whenever necessary. The editor will be glad to know readers' views on whether this innovation is helpful.

Banjo Babes 2015 calendar/CD - deadline imminent

Thanks to John Lawless of Bluegrass Today for the news that the deadline for entries for the Banjo Babes 2015 calendar is now less than a week away - 26 Sept. 2014. The Calendar's Facebook page says:

Applications due September 26th! Be a part of the world's most comprehensive annual anthology of lady banjo artists! And have a little fun with us. All are welcome! Open to all professional/semi-professional lady banjo artists - all ages (18+), banjo styles, nations, etc. welcome!

For aspiring participants - an application form is here. The calendar is accompanied by a CD. The image above shows the 2014 calendar; the BIB mentioned the original project on 11 Aug. 2013.

We also drew attention a few days later to the original Bluegrass Banjo Babe, Roni Stoneman, who would certainly be eligible and (we suspect) not averse to the 'little fun' aspect of the project. At any rate, here's a new version of the flyer for Roni's latest release, as announced on the BIB a week ago. Her new single 'The day the banjo dies' came out on Tuesday 16 September.

Detached notes

Thanks to Sean McManus, Ireland's #1 bluegrass supporter, for the news that the splendid High Plains Tradition (USA) are scheduled to play the Pillo Hotel, in Ashbourne, Co. Meath, on Thursday 16 Jan 2014 - the first venue of their forthcoming Irish tour.

The date has been added to the BIB calendar. Sean promises more details later; and an updated schedule for the whole tour will be published shortly, with full details from the tour organiser, the indefatigable John Nyhan.

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The FOAOTMAD news blog reports that Tim Rogers in Westport, Co. Mayo (recently voted Ireland's most desirable place to live), is with regret selling his Dave Stacey 'Sodbuster' banjo, at a price of €800 (approx. £670) for a first-class, optimised-for-clawhammer banjo by a premier maker. Photos can be seen here, and Tim can be contacted by e-mail.

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Flatpicking guitar wizard, master instructor, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Kaufman (USA) sends good wishes for the holiday season, and a reminder of his cornucopia-like online store and downloadable/always current catalogue.

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Thanks to Good Home Grown Music for a reminder that 1 December will be the forty-seventh anniversary of the death of Carter Stanley, shown in the photo with his brother Ralph at the height of their career as the Stanley Brothers.

Good Home Grown Music (Tom T. and Dixie Hall, whose composition 'I wish that I could have met Carter' is doing very well with a lot of bands) propose that 1 December be celebrated as a day of musical tribute to the Stanleys.

Accept no substitutes

Following the recent BIB post about the new Banjo Babes calendar, here's a photo which you will not find in the calendar, showing the Original Bluegrass Banjo Babe - Roni Stoneman. Roni and her husband Tom send their warm thanks to all who made their visit to Ireland in May and June such a memorable experience. A return trip is under consideration.

The BIB editor also recommends this YouTube video - in which the Stoneman Family band are prominent - as a glimpse of a time when country music and bluegrass had not become separated, and also as an introduction to an important archive of sounds and images from that time, compiled by Leon Kagarise.

... and Banjo Babes

The photo above (showing a beautiful Nechville, not to mention Janna Kim of Tashkent, Uzbekistan) comes from the Banjo Babes 2014 Calendar and CD. The calendar can be considered a bit of fun to draw attention to the CD, which showcases the talents of twenty-two young banjo-picking women.

If you're considering buying a 2014 calendar, or perhaps giving calendars as presents, take this one into consideration - but act quickly. As John Lawless points out on Bluegrass Today:

There will only be a single, limited production run of the 2014 Banjo Babes calendar and showcase CD. What isn’t pre-sold by September 8 will be distributed among the Babes for sale at their respective merch tables. If you pre-order now you can not only guarantee that you receive a calendar, but also help finance their production costs.

The music of the CD can be heard both on the Bluegrass Today feature and on the Calendar website.

A succession plan for the BIB

The BIB editor writes:

The Bluegrass Ireland Blog began operating in November 2005, seven years and just under one month ago. In that time, over 3,000 posts have been put on it - nearly all are still there - and the number of visits is coming within sight of the quarter-million mark. (Just to keep things in perspective, Bluegrass Today gets that many visits in three or four months.)

The many kind words that have been said to me about the BIB and its usefulness are very greatly appreciated. Friends have also remarked that running it must take up a lot of time; and indeed, doing this the way it needs to be done takes up more time than I can continue giving to it. I shall therefore retire from bluegrass blogging as of 15 February 2013.

This is an opportunity to ensure that the really useful functions of the BIB will be continued - and perhaps improved and augmented - after that date. The blog headnote says 'The calendar is the main point of the BIB'; and I'll try to ensure that some form of interactive calendar, on which dates of events can be entered, is available before I quit.

The more 'human interest' aspects of the BIB could perhaps best be served by a Facebook page - which I'll have to leave to someone else to set up and administer. This would also add a forum function, which has been suggested in the past. Forums don't suit me, so I haven't taken this up. This is another way that the bluegrass and old-time communities in Ireland can end up getting an improved service after I retire.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who is willing to take this on - though 'anyone' is not the best word. More than one person should be involved, so that no one has to face doing it every day.

International Bluegrass Music Appreciation Day, 12 Dec. 2012

Thanks to the Prescription Bluegrass Blog in the USA for news of an initiative open to all lovers of bluegrass music and everyone involved with it, all round the world. Lee Marcus (USA) has set up a Facebook page for International Bluegrass Music Appreciation Day (IBMAD), planned to be an annual event, with the first being held on 12 December 2012 (12/12/12).

Read more on the Prescription Bluegrass Blog. The PBB is now marking IBMAD by offering free advertising on that day for any bluegrass business (band, record company, festival, etc.); details are here. If you're on Facebook, drop in on the IBMAD Facebook page.

Give me the banjo: update

Thanks to Derek Lockhart of Dangem Quality Instruments in Craigavon, Co. Armagh, for the following information. Dangem is among the 'Kickstarters' for the Banjo Project - that is, the company helped to provide financial support for the decisive early stages of the Project, which is documenting, and producing a documentary film about, the banjo. The film, now entitled Give me the banjo, is to be broadcast by PBS in the USA on Friday 4 November. The Project's update bulletin says:

Check your PBS station for exact time, but in most markets it will be 9.00 p.m. (or 8.00 p.m. Central). This is the program that your support helped to make possible. Kickstarter backers are acknowledged in the underwriting credits before and after the program. Look for additional content coming soon - including segments on the 4-string banjo and Ralph Stanley - online at PBS Arts.

A brief 'taster' of the film can be seen here on Vimeo, consisting of a compilation of some of the participants and musical performances in 'Give me the banjo', with the tune 'Sally Ann' played by Stevie Barr (banjo) and Wayne Henderson (guitar) as background music, and narration by Steve Martin.

Update 28 Oct.: US photographer Darwin K. Davidson, who specialises in photos of bluegrass musicians, has produced a 2012 calendar entitled Women of banjo - full details are here.