Inaugural International Pavilion at IBMA WOB 2023

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announce that this year's IBMA World Of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, will present for the first time an International Pavilion, featuring bands from South Korea, Slovakia, Canada, Australia, Norway, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the USA. The sponsoring bodies are Bluegrass in La Roche, Dark Shadow Recording, Bluegrass Ambassadors, and Ear Trumpet Labs. The full lineup (which includes several names familiar to bluegrassers in Ireland) can be read here.

© Richard Hawkins

Special C. to kick off IBMA WOB 2023

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announce that this year's IBMA World Of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, will open on Tuesday 26 September ('Sept 27' in the image above is a typo) with a Kickoff Party hosted by our old friends the Special Consensus, who have since 1995 visited Ireland more than any other bluegrass band in the world. The IBMA press release states:

Join Special Consensus, along with some special guests, for a special kickoff event at IBMA World of Bluegrass on Tuesday, September 26th at the Lincoln Theatre. Special Consensus has received six IBMA awards, as well as two GRAMMY nominations. We all know Special C likes to make things fun, so don’t miss this party as a great start to the week of music. And who knows, it might even be someone’s birthday!

© Richard Hawkins

News of US bands coming to Westport

Fog Holler, from the vigorous acoustic music scene in Portland, OR, will be playing at the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival three weeks from now, as part of a tour of Europe that began on 2 May. Earlier this week their manager Kianna Mott-Smith contributed to Bluegrass Today the first instalment of a commentary on the progress of the tour, together with eight photos taken during travel or shows. In the first week they played in the Netherlands, Germany (including Bühl, the main south German bluegrass festival), and Switzerland.

From tomorrow, Fog Holler will be playing ten dates in Belgium and six in the Netherlands (including the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival), five in Germany (including Grevengrass, the main north German bluegrass festival), two in Britain, and three in Ireland:

• Fri. 9th-Sun. 11th June: Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival
• Tues. 13th: The Red Room, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone
• Wed. 14th: The Moorings, Bellanaleck, Co. Fermanagh

The photo above right shows Lilian Sawyer (fiddle), Tommy Schulz (guitar, vocals), Casey James Holmberg (banjo, vocals), and Noa (bass).

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Thanks to 2911 Media for the news that the Kody Norris Show, who close the Saturday night concert at Westport, will be hosting this coming September the Mountain City Fiddlers' Convention in Johnson County, TN - the first time the convention has been held since 2019. Kody Norris, a native of Johnson County, says: 'Growing up in Mountain City, the fiddlers’ convention has always held a special place in my heart. Some of the greatest fiddlers in history got their start right here. Mary Rachel [Kody's wife and the band's fiddler] and I never dreamed we would be hosting this event but are super excited to breathe some new life into this Northeast Tennessee treasure.'

© Richard Hawkins

IBMA: applications for official WOB showcases are open

The International Bluegrass Music Association announces that applications are now open for artists and bands who want to take part in the official showcase schedule at this year's World Of Bluegrass, the central annual bluegrass event on Planet Earth, which will be held on 26-30 Sept. in Raleigh, NC.

Official showcases are the premier platform for introducing talent and new music to the bluegrass community during IBMA World of Bluegrass. Each selected showcase act will perform at least twice during the week — typically once during the IBMA Business Conference and once at a venue in IBMA Bluegrass Ramble (the festival part of the event). More details and a link for making applications are on the latest IBMA e-newsletter.

Note: The symbol above is the logo for the IBMA's latest invitation to become a member, at any of the four subscription levels shown on the IBMA website.

Update 23 Feb.: For comment on the new logo and its possible associations, the BIB recommends Chris Jones's column on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Westport 2023 headliners score high in SPBGMA awards

The 2023 awards from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) were announced in Nashville, TN, on Saturday night (28 Jan.), and the full list is presented on Bluegrass Today. As usual, the list includes names that are already (or soon will be) well known to bluegrass fans in Ireland. Seth Mulder & Midnight Run won the Song of the Year award for their 'My, my, my' on Mountain Fever Records; and from the Kody Norris Show, who will be headliners at this year's Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival, Kody himself won the Entertainer of the Year and Guitar Performer of the Year awards, Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris won the Fiddle Performer of the Year award, and the band as a whole were Instrumental Group of the Year.

© Richard Hawkins

Shane Hennessy - coming events

Carlow guitar maestro Shane Hennessy announces that he will be playing with the great Tommy Emmanuel (above, right), his friend and mentor, at two dates in Germany at the beginning of the coming week: in Darmstadt tomorrow (Mon. 7 Nov.) and Munich on Tues. 8 Nov. Shane will not now he playing the Dresden date (Wed. 9 Nov.) announced earlier. Tickets are available for his free-entry show at the Dean Crowe Theatre, Athlone, on 27 Nov. On the poster (right), Tommy Emmanuel is quoted: 'Shane transcends the guitar the same way Muhammed Ali transcended boxing'.

Shane will also be appearing as an official showcase artist at the 35th annual Folk Alliance International Conference, to be held in Kansas City, MO, on 1-5 Feb. 2023.

© Richard Hawkins

Familiar faces in photos from IBMA WOB 2022

During the IBMA World Of Bluegrass, now in progress, innumerable photographs of the artists (and others) in Raleigh are being taken, and some of special interest to bluegrass fans in Ireland are appearing on Bluegrass Today (BT).

Frank Baker's twenty-two pics from Tuesday night includes shots of Rick Faris, Becky Buller, Missy Raines (with Ellie Hakanson and Tristan Scroggins in her band), and two photos of The Foreign Landers (David Benedict and Tabitha Benedict (née Agnew), well known to us all as banjo player with Cup O' Joe and Midnight Skyracer). Bill Warren's eighteen photos from the same evening include Rick Faris again and Kristy Cox.

Tabitha Benedict appears in more Frank Baker photos from the Momentum Awards show, which she hosted, being a previous Momentum Award winner. One of these photos shows her with George Jackson, who won an Instrumentalist award this year. She and David Benedict appear in two monochrome photos by Jeromie Stephens, among twenty posted on BT yesterday. More photos from the World Of Bluegrass will continue to appear on BT.

© Richard Hawkins

JigJam picked for World Of Bluegrass official showcase programme

JigJam (originating in Tullamore, Co. Offaly) are among the sixteen bands in the first half of the showcase programme of this year's IBMA World Of Bluegrass (WOB). Like the other acts chosen by the IBMA as official showcase artists, they will be playing at select venues throughout downtown Raleigh, NC, during 27-9 Sept. 2022, in the 'Bluegrass Ramble' section of WOB. Congratulations to JigJam on being selected.

Other familiar names in the showcase prgramme include Cedar Hill, Kristy Cox, the Lonesome Ace Stringband, and Mile Twelve. The photo of JigJam shown above appeared on their Facebook exactly a year ago - 21 June 2021.

© Richard Hawkins

The past week at IBMA WOB 2021

The past week was dominated by the most important annual event in bluegrass music, the five-day IBMA World Of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC. A prodigious wealth of fine photos were taken by Bill Reaves, Tara Linhardt, and Bill Warren, and can be seen on Bluegrass Today in various posts throughout the week. The collection of photos from Thursday's Awards Show includes nice ones of Donna and Roni Stoneman, who accepted the induction of the Stoneman Family into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. John Lawless, in an article giving the list of award winners, wrote: '... nothing could top the spirited mini-set from the Stonemans. Ronnie and Donna are as entertaining as ever, and they joked and picked through a hilarious mashup of "House of the Rising Sun" with "Amazing grace", followed by "Bluegrass breakdown".' The award winners include many who, like Roni, have played in Ireland.

Alison Krauss, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, is interviewed by Stacy Chandler for No Depression magazine in the article 'Alison Krauss on daydreams, Tony Rice, and the road to the Bluegrass Hall of Fame'. It is now twenty-seven years since she and Union Station first performed in Dublin.

© Richard Hawkins

Sacred Harp in No Depression - and from Cork, too

In its '50 States of Folk' series, No Depression magazine posted on 21 Aug. an article by Kara Kundert entitled 'The Sacred Harp of Henagar, Alabama'. Though Kundert singles out Liberty Baptist Church in Henagar, Alabama, as an important centre, the article is a much more wide-ranging survey of Sacred Harp singing and serves well as a general introduction to this powerful genre.

Moreover, one of the videos embedded in the text shows 146 'Hallelujah' being sung at the second Ireland Sacred Harp Convention (3-4 March 2012). This can also be seen on YouTube, where it is one of the many videos on the Cork Sacred Harp YouTube channel. (The Cork Sacred Harp logo is shown above because it's neat; with no disrespect to the Sacred Harp communities in Belfast, Dublin, and Galway.)

A playlist of thirty-second samples of shape-note singing is appended to the article.

Familiar names on the IBMA showcase schedule

THE International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announces the first round of Official Showcase Artists selected for the IBMA Bluegrass Ramble, the series of showcase performances at select venues in downtown Raleigh, NC, as part of this year's IBMA World of Bluegrass (29 Sept.-3 Oct.).

The acts selected include Wayne Taylor & Appaloosa (USA), who toured Ireland last autumn; the Stillhouse Junkies (USA), who were to have toured here this April; Kristy Cox (AUS) and her band, who should have been here this month as part of a European tour arranged by mygrassisblue.com; and the Kody Norris Show (USA), who were to have headlined the bluegrass part of the Westport festival next month. At present Jussi Syren & the Groundbreakers from Finland are the only European band on the showcase schedule.

And then there are our old Chicago friends the Special Consensus, who have had a personnel change and brought out a new album since last year. Their next tour of Ireland should be some time early next year. More acts and details are on the IBMA announcement.

Wide Open Bluegrass becomes IBMA Bluegrass Live!

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announces a new name for the public festival section of IBMA's annual World Of Bluegrass (WOB), which will be held this year from 29 Sept. to 3 Oct. in Raleigh, NC.

World of Bluegrass is a five-day annual bluegrass music homecoming and convention, comprising four events: the IBMA Business Conference (29 Sept.-1 Oct.); IBMA Bluegrass Ramble, a series of band showcases, taking place (29 Sept.-1 Oct.) in downtown Raleigh and at the Raleigh Convention Center; the 31st Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, scheduled for Thursday evening (1 Oct.); and (the new name) IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC, a two-day festival (2-3 Oct.). More details are in the press release.

Cork Sacred Harp celebrates a decade with 10th Annual Convention, 29 Feb.-1 Mar. 2020

Thanks to Laurie Skelton of Cork Sacred Harp for this logo and press release (a fine introduction to Sacred Harp singing for those who are new to it):

Cork Sacred Harp will host the tenth annual Ireland Sacred Harp Singing Convention on 29 February through 1 March 2020 at St Maries of the Isle on Bishop St. in Cork city.

The Sacred Harp Singers of Cork have been meeting every week to sing melodies from the Sacred Harp for over a decade. Drop by the Unitarian Church on Princes Street any Thursday at 7.00 p.m. and, as you walk through the front door, you’ll be met with a booming chorus of voices singing a cappella 'shape-note' harmonies. Once inside, however, you may be surprised to find the number of people singing rarely matches the impressive sound heard from the street. In the centre of the room, somewhere between seven and fifteen people are seated in a small cluster of chairs arranged in a square formation. Here, the community is small and the voices are big.

Sacred Harp music isn’t your typical choral music and Sacred Harp singers aren’t your typical choral singers. The music itself uses a system of 'shape notes' — comprised of squares, triangles, circles, and diamonds—as an extra visual aid for reading music. When singing a song from the book, singers first 'sing the shapes' on the page as syllables before singing the song with the words. Singers are typically — though not required to be —untrained, and sing in their full voice. Some come to singing through generations of family tradition, while others simply fall into it.

Over the past ten years, the group gathering to sing every week in Cork has fluctuated, occasionally growing and occasionally shrinking. Sometimes twenty people show up. Sometimes four. But the spirit has never wavered and the singing has never stopped. And, no matter how small the group becomes, their numbers swell exponentially each year in March as hundreds of singers from all over the world show up to Cork for the annual Ireland Sacred Harp Convention — come rain or sleet or snow.

The Ireland Sacred Harp Convention is one of the largest in Europe and draws quite the crowd of shape-note singers from all across Europe and North America. The sound is impressive and the atmosphere is both warm and welcoming. Singing along is highly encouraged. To get a sense of what the music sounds like, you can find recordings from Cork Sacred Harp on YouTube and Bandcamp. For those interested in participating, all voices are welcome and no experience is necessary. More details are available on Facebook, on Meetup, and at corksacredharp.com.

Thurs. 27 Feb. 2020: 19.00–21.00, weekly singing in the Unitarian, Princes St., Cork
Fri. 28 Feb. 2020: 19.00–21.00, Singing School with Sadhbh O'Flynn in St Maries of the Isle, Bishop St., Cork
Sat. 29 Feb.-Sun. 1 Mar. 2020: 10.30–16.00, Tenth Ireland Convention in St Maries of the Isle, Bishop St., Cork (09.30-10.00; registration on both days)

Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin news

Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin have just added the following new post, '2020 Vision', to their website. Links have been added by the BIB. For further details, see the Dublin Sacred Harp Facebook.

Hello singing friends!

We have some exciting plans for this year, beginning with an adventure singing trip to Florence on 15 February.

We have just updated our All-Day tab to include information for our full day singing event on Saturday 4 July 2020. We are fortunate to be singing in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks this year and we’re really looking forward to it.

Many of us will be making singing trips to other singing locations throughout the year – some of these include the Ireland Convention in Cork [27 Feb.-2 Mar.] and the Paris All-Day.

We will also be participating in Culture Night in September.

We sing every Friday, 19.00–21.00. All voices welcome, especially newcomers and beginners.

Hope to sing with you soon!

JigJam: tours in Germany and the USA

Tullamore's JigJam, founders of I-Grass, are now several gigs into a tour in Germany that will last till Sunday 19 January - shortly after that, they will be touring in the USA till the middle of April. Full details of the tours are on their website, and their dates in the USA are shown on the poster image (right), designed by Eric Larson.

JigJam write: 'Germany is going to be a place that we want to tour every year. We're already planning our follow-up tour for January 2021. Any suggestions?!' On this and many other matters, the band invite input from their fans and friends. Their next trip, immediately after the tour in Germany, will be to the 32nd Folk Alliance International Conference in New Orleans (22-26 Jan. 2020).

NTB: news for 2020

Thanks to Niall Toner for the news of two major commitments for the Niall Toner Band (NTB) in the coming year.

The NTB will be in Nashville, TN, showcasing and pitching songs at the 46th Annual Bluegrass Music Awards and 37th National Convention and Band Championship of the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA), to be held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel from Thursday 30 Jan. to Sunday 2 Feb. 2020.

Later, in the spring, the NTB will be performing in the 29th Annual Bluegrass Festival in the Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, to be held from Friday 22 May to Sunday 24 May 2020. We await an official confirmation of the dates.

And thanks also to Niall for the image above - the cover of his recently released single 'Last wolf on the mountain' (see the BIB for 25 Sept. 2019).

A win-win for the IBMA and its partners

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announce that this year's World of Bluegrass (24-28 Sept.) in Raleigh, NC, was attended by over 218,000 people and generated $18.65 million for the local economy in tourism impact alone. World of Bluegrass will be held in Raleigh for at least two more years; the next event is on 29 Sept.-3 Oct. 2020. More details are in this IBMA press release. The photos show audiences at the Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh.

JigJam prepare to Hiberniate (stet)

Jigjam (Jamie McKeogh, Cathal Guinan, Daithi Melia, and
Gavin Strappe) with Charlie McGettigan (centre)

JigJam, who ended a very full year of touring with their four dates in Ireland last week, announce in their latest e-newsletter:

When we began planning our world tour almost eighteen months ago the one absolute certain was that we wanted to finish our touring year performing at home. Every Irish group has the same feeling. We tour all over the world and rarely get to perform in our local areas so, for us, to finish our tour with an Irish tour was really special. But we could have never realised the response we would have gotten from the audience and media in Ireland.

Sold-out shows ranging from amazing sit-down theatres in Cashel and Mullingar, an intimate gig in wonderful Dundalk, and an absolute RAVE in Dublin city! We want to thank everyone for their support and all the radio stations, newspapers, and local people that made our tour something we won't forget. Thank you everyone!

A link is also included to Charlie McGettigan's Eurovision-winning composition 'Rock 'n' roll kids' (which can be imagined being played by the Seldom Scene, let alone New Grass Revival). In January the band will play an eleven-show tour in Germany; details are on their website and Facebook. Soon after, they will be official showcase artists at the annual Folk Alliance International Conference in New Orleans (22-26 Jan.).

See past visitors in action

Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers (left), who headlined the Omagh festival just over three weeks ago, present a new video, 'Bacon in my beans', showing Joe's struggles with the demands of fitness and healthy eating. It can be seen on the band's Facebook or through the link on their e-newsletter, which also shows their appearances at IBMA's World of Bluegrass, beginning tomorrow in Raleigh, NC.

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As well as solo work, Greg Blake plays in four bands, one of which is fiddler Annie Savage's group the Savage Hearts. A brief video (which opens with Greg's powerful voice) of them performing at Roots and Blues last month can be seen and heard here, or through the link on their latest e-newsletter, which also shows their appearances at World of Bluegrass.

Cork Sacred Harp hosts ninth All-Day Singing, 24 Aug. 2019

Thanks to Laurie Skelton of Cork Sacred Harp for this press release:

Cork Sacred Harp will host its ninth annual Sacred Harp All-Day Singing on 24 August 2019 at St Finbarre's Hall on Dean St. in Cork city. 



Sacred Harp singing, a folk tradition with strong ties to the southern United States, has been thriving in Cork for over a decade. There are a lot of peculiarities about the musical style, but the first thing most people notice is that it's loud. Very loud. Unlike conventional choirs, Sacred Harp singers sing in their full natural voices, which produces a powerful sound capable of booming down corridors and rattling windowpanes.

The second thing people tend to notice is the unfamiliar musical notation. Sacred Harp music uses a system of shaped notes — composed of squares, triangles, circles, and diamonds — to represent the solfège syllables (e.g. fa, so, la, and mi) of the scale. This system, dating from at least the late eighteenth century, was developed as a teaching aid to make reading music easier for beginners. To learn a new tune, participants first sing the notes on the page as syllables before singing the song with the words.



The Cork Sacred Harp All-Day Singing consistently draws seasoned shape-note singers from all across Europe. Spectators are welcome, but singing along is highly encouraged! To get a sense of what the music sounds like, you can find recordings from Cork Sacred Harp on YouTube and Bandcamp. For those interested in participating, all voices are welcome and no experience is necessary! More details are available on Facebook, on Meetup, and at corksacredharp.com.

Thurs. 22nd: 19.00–21.00, weekly singing in the Unitarian, Princes St., Cork
Fri. 23rd: 19.00–21.00, singing school with Matthew Parkinson of Bristol in the Unitarian, Princes St., Cork
Sat. 24th: 10.30–16.00, All-Day Singing in St Finbarre's Hall, Dean St., Cork

The Tenth Ireland Sacred Harp Convention will be held on the last weekend in February 2020 (details TBA). The Sacred Harp Singers of Cork can be contacted by corksacredharp@gmail.com, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.