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