César Benzoni, Roger Green, and Fergus Packman sing 'Blue Ridge'

Thanks to César Benzoni (left) - sound engineer, video maker, operator of the Yodel Recording Services studio, and mandolin- and guitar-player in the Rocky River Bluegrass Show based in Galway - for the latest video to appear on his YouTube channel. Yesterday (14 Mar.) César added this video, recorded in 2018,

... a few months after arriving in Ireland. Soon I met some great people to play bluegrass with, in this case, Roger Green (mandolin and vocals) and Fergus Packman (bass and vocals). This was one of our favorites to play and sing harmonies and it's called 'Blue Ridge'.

Roger Green, with a long and distinguished bluegrass career, has brought his band Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition over to Ireland for several very welcome tours over the years. César has been giving advice and instruction in harmony singing (together with much more) on his YouTube channel. Earlier this year he recorded 'Blind Bartimus' as an a cappella quartet.

César is originally from Brazil, where he ran the São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association in succession to its founder, Erio Meili. He will be one of the artists featured in this year's Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival.

© Richard Hawkins

César Benzoni - how to sing harmony in bluegrass and country music (update)

Thanks to César Benzoni (left; see the BIB for 6 Apr. and 21 Apr.), who sends this news from Galway:

I'm putting a series of videos on my YouTube channel on how to sing harmonies, and I'm trying to find a sweet spot in being bluegrass but also country music, to get a wider range of people.

This is number one, and this is the full performance of the song mentioned in the lesson ['I don't believe you've met my baby', as sung by the Louvin Brothers].

BIB editor's note: César's first video, twelve minutes long, deals with the fundamentals of harmony, and demonstrates duet singing with 'I don't believe you've met my baby' and 'When I stop dreaming', ending with an opportunity for the viewer to sing both parts of the first of these.

His skill as a video editor makes it possible to show him accompanying himself, and this is taken a stage further in the shorter second video, where two Césars perform the duet with guitar and mandolin. The following videos on trio and quartet harmony should be equally well worth watching.

Update 8 June: César has now added the third video in the series, on three-part harmony, to his YouTube channel. Eight minutes long, it can be seen here. The song 'Cool water' is used for examples.

© Richard Hawkins

New year and new features on Oldtime Central

The editors of Oldtime Central (OTC) announce:

We're hard at work here at Oldtime Central, and wanted to share a few things that we are working on RIGHT NOW to further our mission of supporting the Oldtime Community. We are:

• Overhauling our festival guide, which means adding an interactive map, reaching out to even more festivals, and making the search function more user-friendly
• communicating with state folklorists to bring you more articles about the history and evolution of oldtime music
• planning cross-country interview trips to continue painting a picture of what oldtime music is today
• recording more lessons with more teachers to help beginners learn how to play
• Retooling our resource pages to be more comprehensive and useful

And that's all just the first half of this year! Thanks to everyone on this newsletter for your ongoing support and faith in us. We hope to keep delivering for the oldtime community, and are sure that our site is only going to keep getting better. Stay tuned!

New items published on OTC over the holiday period are:

Missouri Rules of Harmony

Liza Jane: Banjo Lesson with Hilarie Burhans

Decolonizing the Music (Room)

6th Ireland Sacred Harp Convention in Cork, 5-6 Mar. 2016

The Sacred Harp Singers of Cork announce that the 6th Ireland Sacred Harp Convention will be held on 5-6 March in St Marie's of the Isles primary school, Bishop St., Cork, across the road from St Finbarre’s cathedral, as in the past few years. Registration opens at 10.00 a.m., and singing starts at 10.30 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

Events will spread out on both sides of these dates into 'a fine five-day extravaganza', to quote the website. The Cork Sacred Harp circle will hold its usual weekly Thursday sing (7.00-9.00 p.m.) on 3 Mar. at the Unitarian Church, Princes St., with social drinks locally to follow. On Friday 4 Mar. the Convention's singing school (6.00-8.00 p.m.) will be taught by Fynn Titford Mock at St Marie's of the Isles.

A Saturday Social will be held at the Cork Cricket Club from 7.00 p.m. (instruments welcome), and on Sunday night the circle will be featured guests at the Cork Singers Club upstairs in An Spailpín Fánach. Finally, there will be Monday brunch from 12 noon at the Woodford, Paul St., followed by some Christian Harmony singing from 3.00 p.m. in St Finbarre’s cathedral hall, Dean St.

Full details, including accommodation, are on the Sacred Harp Singers of Cork website.

Vincent Cross: October Global Newsletter

Thanks to Vincent Cross in New York for his October Global Newsletter, with glimpses of NYC roots music events that took place in September.

Prominent among these is the 10th Washington Square Reunion; Vincent attends the reunion each year to meet the legendary folk, bluegrass, and old-time musicians who were a part of the '60s folk revival. The newsletter includes a fine photo by Jeannie Myers of several deservedly well known pickers from thirty or more years ago.

Vincent also includes a brief film-clip collage from the 15th Annual Parkslope Jamboree in Brooklyn: the soundtrack is a galvanising harmony delivery of the song 'Guess I'm doing fine' from Vincent's Home away from home album, and the lyrics are available on his website. Read the full newsletter here.

Sacred Harp Singers in the Clé Club, Dublin, 12 Dec.

Thanks to the Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin for this news:

We will be singing as guests of the Clé Club, in the basement of the Stag's Head, Dame Court, Dublin 2, from 8.30 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday 12 Dec.) evening. Hope you can make it!

Brendan Taaffe: shape-note singing workshops in Ireland, 13-22 Nov. 2010

Thanks to William Duddy of the Belfast and District Set Dancing and Traditional Music Society for the news that the Society is bringing multi-instrumentalist, singer, and dancer Brendan Taaffe (USA; left) up to Belfast on Saturday 20 November during his Irish tour.

Brendan will be running a shape-note and Appalachian singing workshop during the day (10.30 a.m.-4.30 p.m.) and performing a concert in the evening (from 7.30 p.m.) - all in the newly refurbished Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. Tickets can be booked online from the Centre. For further info, contact William Duddy (tel. 028 90701313; mob. 07803799387; e-mail).

Here's the full schedule for the Brendan Taaffe tour as it appears at present on his website. Some of the workshops are specified as being for American harmony singing, and it's likely that all of them will be.

Sat. 13th: Hollywood, Co. Wicklow - singing workshop at Ballymore Hall, 12.30-5.00 p.m.; singing session at Phil Murphy's pub at night. Contact Phil Callery by e-mail for more details.

Sun. 14th: CREATE, 10/11 Earl St. South, Dublin - singing workshop at Create (in the Liberties, off Meath St.), 11.00 a.m.-4.00 p.m.

Wed. 17th: The Pavilion, Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare - singing workshop, 7.30-9.30 p.m. €10

Sat. 20th: Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast - singing workshop, 10.30 a.m.-4.30 p.m. Solo concert, 7.30 p.m.

Mon. 22nd: Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh - singing workshop, 7:30 p.m.