SPBGMA honours visitors to Ireland

They're not actually being honoured simply for visiting Ireland; but the list of award winners at the past weekend's convention of the Society for the Preservation of Blue Grass Music in America (SPBGMA) includes several bluegrass artists who have performed in this island on one or more occasions.

Josh Williams, who came over as a teenage mandolinist in Special Consensus some years back, is Guitar Performer of the Year; Dale Ann Bradley is Female Vocalist of the Year; Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver are both Vocal Group of the Year and Entertainers of the Year; and Frank D. Ray has been inducted into the SPBGMA Preservation Hall of Greats. The Lonesome River Band, past performers at the Omagh festival, played during the awards ceremony but without their leader and banjo-player Sammy Shelor, who is having a pacemaker fitted. Thanks to Bluegrass Today for the news.

This coming July, Ireland will be visited by another SPBGMA award-winner, Alecia Nugent, several times Female Vocalist of the Year, who will be performing with her band at the Woodbine Bluegrass Jamboree (12-13 July), at the Ardara Bluegrass festival (19-21 July) and on other dates.