American Bach revisited, and more

Michael J. Miles announces that his new recording, American Bach revisited, will be officially released this coming Friday (4 Aug.). A special concert to mark the release will be held at Space Evanston in Evanston, ILL, on 17 Sept., featuring Michael (banjo, guitar) and Jill Kaeding (cello). The album can be pre-ordered on BandCamp.

Michael also announces his coming schedule of one-off workshops for playing country and classic pop/ rock on clawhammer banjo and fingerstyle guitar. Full details are in his latest e-newsletter.

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On Tues. 25 July the IBMA presented a webinar discussion on the topic of generative AI (artificial intelligence) within the music industry, its copyright implications, and its future relationship with human creators. A one-hour-and-fifty-minutes video of the discussion can be seen on the IBMA Facebook and on YouTube.

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The BIB sends a belated 'Happy birthday' to master fiddler Robert Caldwell 'Bobby' Hicks (left) of western North Carolina, whose 90th birthday was on Friday 21 July. Sandy Hatley describes on Bluegrass Today the celebrations in Marshall, NC, with three photos, a video (also on YouTube), and quotations from those present, including fiddlers Michael Cleveland and Aynsley Porchak. One of the places around the world where Bobby has been is Dublin, where he played c.1996 as a member of Ricky Skaggs's country music band, on rhythm guitar and banjo as well as fiddle. He was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017; the photo above is taken from his Hall of Fame bio article.

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The Birthplace of Country Music Museum (BCMM) in Bristol, TN/VA, announces a special screening of the film '"I've endured": the music and legacy of Ola Belle Reed' on Mon. 28 Aug., associated with their ongoing 'Women in old-time music' exhibit. A three-minute-plus trailer of the film can be seen here. More details are on the BCMM newsletter.

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Finally, more IBMA news: the Keynote Speech at this year's World Of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, will be delivered by fiddle/ violin maestro Matt Glaser on Tues. 26 Sept., under the title 'Hidden threads: bluegrass in the American musical tapestry'. More details are on the IBMA press release, and still more about other aspects of World Of Bluegrass in the IBMA July 2023 newsletter.

© Richard Hawkins

Westport Festival workshop schedule, 10 June 2023

Thanks to Uri Kohen, head of the organising team of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival (9-11 June 2023), for the news that tickets to the Festival's main concerts are selling fast. Tickets and details of all the events are available via the website, http://westportfolkbluegrass.com/.

As well as the main concerts, the team are very excited to announce the two new workshops for the festival weekend, both of which take place in Westport Town Hall Theatre:

Saturday 10 June, 12.30 p.m.: Dr Greg Reish of the Centre for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University and its Spring Fed Records label will make a presentation on pioneers of Old Time music, the Haley Family. Admission: €10

Saturday 10 June, 2.30 p.m.: Award-winning fiddle player Austin Derryberry [above right] will conduct a fiddle workshop and present his own unique fiddle playing style. Admission: €10

© Richard Hawkins

Westport 2023: very special workshops

Thanks again to Uri Kohen, head of the organising team of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival (9-11 June 2023), for this news, particularly exciting for old-time enthusiasts:

Each year Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival is staging two workshops, and for 2023 we have something very special in store.

* On Saturday 10 June at 12.30 p.m. Greg Reish of the Centre for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University and its Spring Fed Records label will present a workshop on the early recordings of the Haley Family and on the restoration of the Haley Family recordings.

Ed Haley was a legendary early-20th-century Appalachian fiddler whose music has influenced generations of old-time and bluegrass musicians. Although he never recorded commercially, in the late 1940s Ed and his wife Ella made a series of home recordings on lacquer discs. In this workshop, co-producer and Spring Fed Records director Greg Reish describes the painstaking process of restoring and reissuing these rare recordings in a landmark boxed set released in 2022 [above left]. He will also discuss the Haley family’s complex and lasting legacy in the canon of American old-time music.

* On Saturday 10 June at 2.30 p.m. old-time fiddle maestro Austin Derryberry [above right] will run a fiddle workshop, showcasing his unique approach to fiddle playing and old-time music.

Austin is an awarded multi-instrumentalist, specialising in the fiddle, guitar, and banjo. He has been featured at the Country Music Hall of Fame and has performed at festivals and workshops throughout the United States and Europe. In addition to being a highly accomplished musician, Austin is also a skilled luthier who often performs with instruments of his own design and making. Austin was part of the inaugural class of the 2017 Tennessee Arts Commission Apprenticeship programme, where he studied violin making under Charles Horner. He won the 2019 Traditional Grand Masters Fiddle Competition in Nashville, Tennessee, and performed on the Grand Ole Opry.

© Richard Hawkins

Detached notes

Master fiddler Michael Cleveland (above; photo: Amy Richmond) is the Bluegrass Situation's Artist of the Month for March, and the BGS staff have marked this with an article that heralds his latest album Lovin' of the game (released last Friday), together with a video of the title track and a playlist of his recordings. There is also a link to a 2018 interview (well worth reading) in which he explains why Benny Martin is his favourite fiddler.

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For fans of Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, the Fretboard Journal features them in a one-hour podcast in which they talk about many things, including their latest album Living in a song. The FJ includes a link to the YouTube video of them playing and singing 'Moonshine run'.

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The Compass Records Group - in addition to Compass itself, a major bluegrass label - has a world-class catalogue of recorded Irish and Celtic music, on which the Group is holding a St Patrick's day sale with 20% off selected titles. The scores of albums in the sale can be browsed and shopped here.

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The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, TN/VA, announces its new special exhibition, 'I’ve endured: women in old time music', which will begin on 23 March and continue till the end of 2023. More details are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

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Today's bluegrass world is fortunate to have a crop of astounding young musicians. In the 1970s a similar wave of outstanding young talent included Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley, Tim O'Brien, Carl Jackson, Jerry Douglas, and Mark O'Connor. Mark O'Connor, who won the Grand Masters fiddle championship at the age of 13, is now releasing two books on his life and a CD of his early recordings. John Lawless on Bluegrass Today gives an overview (with video and audio recordings) of 'his meteoric rise from a teenaged phenom to a bluegrass music powerhouse in little more than a decade'.

© Richard Hawkins

Adventurous clawhammer

Dan Walsh of Staffordshire, England, was featured on 'Deering Live' on the Deering Banjos YouTube channel on 10 Sept. 2020, illustrating his command of clawhammer technique and his wide musical tastes. Thanks to Richard Fryer for the news that Dan Walsh will soon release an album that he has long wanted to make - O’Neill’s tunes: a collection of jigs, reels, and hornpipes from the O’Neill’s collection of dance tunes, arranged for clawhammer banjo. The album (Rooksmere Records RRCD 120) is due for release on 24 Feb.

Meanwhile, the next two classes in Ken Perlman's third season of online 'clawhammer clinics' are 'Demystifying "crooked" tunes in old-time music' on Mon. 30 Jan. and 'Those happy-go-lucky Canadian jigs, clawhammer style' on Mon. 27 Feb. Ken gives a clarification (and a warning):

Playing jigs (and other 6/8 time tunes) in clawhammer offers some special challenges; and we'll start by focusing on how to overcome them with relative ease. Our focus, however, will be - not Irish jigs - but the sing-songy, happy-go-lucky jigs from Atlantic Canada. The melodies are usually so 'catchy' that you can't help singing along (and you'll have a hard time getting them out of your head).

Samuel Bayard's book Hill country tunes (1944) gave several examples of fiddle tunes in 6/8 from his collecting in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but such tunes seem to have become much rarer in American traditional fiddling.

© Richard Hawkins

Foghorn Stringband and de Groot & Hargreaves at 2023 Baltimore Fiddle Fair

Good news for old-time music enthusiasts: at its main event in the coming year (4-7 May 2023) the Baltimore Fiddle Fair at Baltimore, Co. Cork, will be presenting (among many other artists) two leading acts from the old-time scene in the USA: the Foghorn Stringband (above) from Portland, OR, and the fiddle-and-banjo duo of Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves. About the Foghorns in particular, the Fiddle Fair website writes:

These guys are like gods here in at the Baltimore Fiddle Fair and are quite possibly the most popular band we've ever had at the festival. Its been 6 whole years since they were here so watch out!

At present the Foghorns' online tour schedule indicates no other dates around the time of the Fiddle Fair.

Update 31 Dec.,: It is now confirmed that the Foghorns will be on tour in Scotland and Ireland from 25 April to 15 May 2023 inclusive, details TBA.

© Richard Hawkins

The Irish element in Andy Leftwich's The American fiddler (for release 28 Oct.)

The latest e-newsletter from the Mountain Home Music Company announces the forthcoming release of The American fiddler, an all-instrumental album by Andy Leftwich, formerly fiddler with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder from 2001 to 2016. Since joining Mountain Home early in 2021, he has released as singles several exciting original compositions which will be on the new album, including 'Through the east gate', 'Over Cincinnati', 'Pikes Peak breakdown', and 'Kimber county'. It is the title track, however, that listeners in this island may particularly want to hear. Leftwich says:

Influenced by Irish and bluegrass fiddling, I wanted to write a piece of music that showcased both styles. [...] This song exemplifies what this entire project is all about, so I thought it was fitting for this to be the title cut. [...] The songs on this album represent some of my favorite styles of fiddling that have been passed down from Scottish, Irish, and Appalachian heritages.

The album is scheduled for release on 28 October and can be pre-ordered now. More details, with links, are on the Mountain Home e-newsletter.

© Richard Hawkins

Latest news from We Banjo 3

The latest newsletter from Galway's We Banjo 3 (above), masters of Celtgrass, includes a link to a 30-second trailer for their latest album, Open the road; a further link to their performance on stage at MerleFest of 'Dawn breaks' from their 2018 album Haven, which went to the top of the Billboard bluegrass chart; a report on Fergal Scahill's project to record a fiddle tune a day for a whole year; and more. Subscribe to the band's newsletter for further information and tour dates.

© Richard Hawkins

Fiddle Fair at Cork Folk Festival, 30 Sept. 2022 (update)

Baltimore Fiddle Fair announce that to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary they will present a Gala Concert at Cork Folk Festival next month:

[...] with musicians from Sweden, Finland, Shetland, Scotland and from every corner of Ireland. As well as some great tunes we’ll also be bringing the Fiddle Fair vibe to the big smoke for what promises to be a very memorable evening. We hope you can join us!

The lineup is shown on the poster image, and full details of the artists, together with ticket booking links, are on the Fiddle Fair website. BIB readers should note the information on Lena Jonsson:

In the new generation of contemporary folk music, Sweden's Lena Jonsson is one of Scandinavia’s most influential fiddlers. Lena’s style is unique in combining her deep knowledge of traditional Swedish folk music and the youthful sounds of rock, pop, jazz, American old-time and bluegrass [bold type added by the BIB].

See this YouTube video, in which her trio plays compositions by the fine American chamber/ progressive string band Hawktail, whose latest album Place of growth is reviewed by Braeden Paul on Bluegrass Today and by Nancy Posey on No Depression.

Update 25 Aug.: An interview/ review feature by Steve Hochman on the Hawktail album, 'Hawktail's instrumentals add a storybook spirit to "Place of growth"',with four YouTube tracks, appeared yesterday on the Bluegrass Situation.

© Richard Hawkins

'Rainy Sunday sessions' of fiddle music, from the McKernans

The BIB editor writes:

Many thanks to our friends in Australia, the McKernan family, whose 'browngrass' music has often been featured on the BIB in the past - and particularly to Joe McKernan, who sends this link to the one-minute video seen above, in which his son Donal introduces a new series of videos on the YouTube channel of the Bruderhof religious community to which the McKernans belong. The notes under the introductory video describe the original 'Rainy Sunday' on which the family began their music sessions. The series comprises all-instrumental recordings of fiddle tunes, which (as the notes state)

... spring from Appalachian, Cajun, and Celtic roots, including several 17th century Irish compositions from the blind harpist Turlough O’Carolan. May they lift your spirits, as they did ours, on that ‘Rainy Sunday’. We will be posting them here over the next few weeks.

Update 25 Aug.: Joe sends word that a new tune is posted on YouTube every Thursday at 6.00 a.m. 'Aussie time' (i.e. eight to ten hours ahead of GMT/UTC, and so at 2.00 to 4.00 p.m. here). This week's tune is the Carolan composition 'Loftus Jones', played by Geordie McKernan (fiddle), Nancy McKernan (whistle), and Johann Bazeley (guitar).

© Richard Hawkins

Jake Blount and band in Britain, 19 May-5 June 2022

Thanks to the FOAOTMAD news blog for the information that (thanks to the UK's True North music agency), the award-winning banjo- and fiddle-player and singer Jake Blount (right; also on Facebook) will begin in a few days' time a tour of England and Wales, accompanied by a powerful three-piece string band. The tour comprises twelve shows, ending with two sets at the Fire in the Mountain festival in west Wales. Bio details, a full itinerary, and links to venues are given on the True North tour page.

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Playing fiddle in the Jake Blount band touring Britain will be George Jackson, born in New Zealand and now based in Nashville, TN, who was featured on Oldtime Central two years ago and has released a striking album, Hair & hide. Introducing his review of the album on Bluegrass Today, Braeden Paul writes: 'The combination of the fiddle and the banjo is one of the world’s oldest musical traditions, dating back before the beginning of the Civil War.' In that sentence 'the world', of course, means 'the United States of America'.

Be that as it may, Hair & hide is not just an album by an outstanding fiddler; it's a milestone among recordings of fiddle-and-banjo duets, with seven different banjo-players taking part in the fourteen tracks. On two of the tracks, Jake Blount plays banjo; on another two, Jackson's fellow Kiwi B.B. Bowness, whom audiences here have seen as a member of Boston's Mile Twelve. And another of the tracks is Jackson's own composition, 'Neighbor Mike', with which he won the 2021 Mike Auldridge Instrumental Contest.

© Richard Hawkins

Win £100 + Prosecco, win a Martin, learn body percussion, and much more at Crossover (29 Apr.-2 May 2022)

The fourth newsletter for 2022, issued by the organisers of the Crossover Festival of bluegrass, old-time, and Americana music (and dance) in England, gives details of some of the extras complementing the main programme. Weekend tickets bought before the end of March can enter the buyer in a raffle to win £100 and a bottle of Prosecco; another raffle during the Festival is for a Martin guitar. 'Fiddle Friday' gives opportunities to learn and play half a dozen tunes; an open mic concert, with eight slots open, will be held on Saturday between 5.00 and 7.00 p.m.; instrument workshops for kids are offered on Sunday; and a Body Percussion (or 'Body Music') workshop will be given on Monday. Videos illustrating all these can be seen on the e-newsletter and on the Festival's YouTube channel.

© Richard Hawkins

Thirtieth anniversary of the Baltimore Fiddle Fair, 5-8 May 2022

Tickets are now on sale for this year's Baltimore Fiddle Fair, to be held in Baltimore, Co. Cork, from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 May inclusive. Previous Fairs have often hosted major acts from the other side of the Atlantic such as the Foghorn Stringband, the April Verch Band, and Dirk Powell. The travel restrictions of the past two years have hindered this, but on Saturday 7 May Mairi Rankin and Eric Wright, who were Instrumental Group of the Year in the 2019 Canadian Folk Awards, will be in concert with multi-instrumentalist Tim Edey (BBC Radio Two's Musician of the Year 2012), 'showcasing the very best of Cape Breton fiddling, old-time cello, and simply awe-inspiring guitar and melodeon playing'. The Fair's website says: 'Don’t miss the chance to see this thrilling musical combination'. Aside from musical events, the programme also includes 'sessions, workshops, walks, films, exhibitions, and much more'.

© Richard Hawkins

'Steps from the heart' presentation, performance, and workshop, 8-9 Jan. 2022

In addition to the Christmas album with Joe Newberry (see the BIB for 3 Nov.), April Verch sends news of the special new step-dance project which she is working on with UK dancer Simon Harmer:

Our 'Steps from the heart' presentation, performance, and workshop will be the culmination of our collaboration, celebrating two of our greatest influences, the Ottawa Valley’s own Donnie Gilchrist and Alex Woodcock of England.

Simon has been performing and teaching step dance for over thirty years, from English clog to Appalachian styles. We’ve been working on new choreography which will be filmed later this year, and we look forward to sharing that performance with you and talking about our research. We’ll also be leading a Zoom workshop to teach key parts of the new piece. We hope this will be a special treat for our fellow step dance lovers!

The presentation and performance premiere, lasting from 75 to 90 minutes, will be on Saturday 8 Jan. 2022; the workshop (60-75 minutes) will be on Sunday 9 Jan. Both events will be live on Zoom, starting at 11.00 a.m. EST/4.00 p.m. UK time. Tickets are on a 'name your price' basis. Much more information, together with online booking, is here.

© Richard Hawkins

For the 21st-century fiddler

More info from FOAOTMAD today: Sue Taniguchi of Taniguchi Violins in Brixham, Devon, south-west England, is now selling Incredibows, made of carbon fibre, in an assortment of colours (right) at £125 each. She also re-hairs traditional wooden bows with Incredihair, a polymer filament that, by report, never wears out.

An independent assessment of the Incredibow can be seen on YouTube. Full details are on the Incredibow website. Sue Taniguchi can be contacted by 'phone (+44 01803 858739) or e-mail. Does any BIB reader know of an Incredibow supplier in Ireland?

© Richard Hawkins

Kenny Baker, 1926-2011

Kenneth Clayton 'Kenny' Baker of Kentucky, considered by many (including Bill Monroe) to have been the supreme bluegrass fiddler, died ten years ago today (8 July 2011). He had been inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 1999, the second fiddler to be so honoured - Chubby Wise was inducted in 1998. Thanks to Niall Toner for the photo above, which he took at Belfast in 1975 during a backstage warm-up by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.

© Richard Hawkins

To mark Independence Day

The BIB editor writes:

Here's a YouTube link to a recording of the fiddle tune 'Liberty', played by Ray Legere from New Brunswick.

For a long time this tune has suggested to me the exuberance of freedom achieved, and it would be pleasant to imagine an origin somewhere around 1776 for it. However, according to the Traditional Tune Archive, the first recording of it was made by Bob Wills in 1947; earlier recordings under the same title are of different tunes.

Ray Legere's homeland, of course, still groans under the oppressive weight of being, in the words of a distinguished American commentator, 'a commonwealth of Britain'.

© Richard Hawkins

World Fiddle Day

Today (22 May) is World Fiddle Day. No one in this island more completely embodied bluegrass, old-time, and Scottish and Irish traditional fiddling than Geordie McAdam (1938-2021), so a picture of him seems the most appropriate way of marking the day.

© Richard Hawkins

World Fiddle Day, 22 May 2021

The BIB sends a reminder that World Fiddle Day will be held this year on Saturday 22 May. Above all, it's inclusive, welcoming all styles of fiddle music from all cultures. Players of the other bluegrass and old-time instruments can be part of it, too, by picking a few fiddle tunes, even without a fiddler being present.

The World Fiddle Day website gives more details and advice about the Day, which originated in 2012 with two Donegal men: fiddler Caoimhin Mac Aoidh and designer Alan Reid.

© Richard Hawkins

Bonaparte and his retreat (update)

The BIB editor writes:

Today is the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. To deal with his vast historical significance would be outside the BIB's remit; but to mark the occasion, here are links to a few of the most notable performances of the tune 'Bonaparte's retreat' by American traditional musicians.

In 1937 William Hamilton 'Bill' Stepp of Kentucky recorded this version, which was adapted by Aaron Copland as part of the music for the ballet 'Rodeo'. Also in 1937, Luther Strong of Kentucky recorded this version. And Thomas Jefferson 'Tommy' Jarrell of North Carolina played it this way.

Many other versions of the tune, some under different titles (or different tunes under the same title) can be heard on YouTube. See also the Traditional Tune Archive, and the comments posted below.

© Richard Hawkins