The latest BBN

The BIB editor writes:

The latest issue - no. 93, spring 2021 - of British Bluegrass News (BBN), the magazine of the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA), has Tabitha Benedict on the cover (right) and a fine four-page interview with her by BBN editor Chris Lord, in which she gives thanks for the years of going to Omagh bluegrass festivals at the Ulster American Folk Park, talks about her Bulas banjo and other gear, and reveals that her first instrument was the bodhran.

Chris Lord also has a four-page interview with the US band Breaking Grass. Pete Wraith (who played at Dunmore East some years ago with the Ken Tardley Playboys) describes a trip to the US that resulted in the formation of the BBMA; three European albums are reviewed; the substantial 'Tab Corner' feature includes tablature for guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin on 'Blue Ridge cabin home' as played by the Bluegrass Album Band; and the many other features include 'Making lockdown videos, part 2' and an account of the 2020 online Banjo Summit.

Captions on more of the photos might have aided the reader, but apart from this, BBN remains a model of what the magazine of a national bluegrass organisation can be.

Update: Another media development from Britain: you may be helped by the 'Bluegrass Jam Along Podcast' presented by Matt Hutchinson in London. See this feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins