François Vola (F/ USA): Back to bluegrass

The BIB editor reports:

Thanks to guitarist François Vola (F/ USA) for news of his new album Back to bluegrass, released in Dec. 2018 and comprising all original material. He is joined by top-flight American musicians - Darol Anger (fiddle), Matt Flinner (banjo), and Emory Lester (mandolin), together with Laurent Paris on tenor vocals and bass. Leading Continental musicians contribute to several tracks, including Belgium's Thierry Schoysman, who visited (and jammed in) Dublin last month.

In addition to being well known to US guitar wizards such as Tony and Wyatt Rice, Dan Crary, and Steve Kauffman, François is the godson of Louis Vola (bass player with Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli) and his albums include a bluegrass one (1983) with Byron Berline and John Hickman and an acoustic jazz CD (1997) with Emory Lester and Babik Reinhardt (Django's son).

The common ground shared by bluegrass and acoustic string jazz is also being explored by (for instance) Cup O' Joe, so anyone who likes their music should be interested in this album. More of François Vola's music can be heard on his YouTube channel.