The BIB editor (retired) writes: My warmest thanks to Tony O'Brien and Uri Kohen for the way in which they have marked my retirement on their respective Facebooks, and to all members of our community, in Ireland and the wider bluegrass world, who have added their own comments. All your words are greatly appreciated, and I feel fully repaid for any effort that may have gone into the BIB over the past eighteen years. Finally, it seems appropriate to repeat the thanks I gave when the BIB was launched on 21 Nov. 2005 - to Alice Toner who built the BIB for me and set it in working order, and to E ..read more

The BIB editor (retired) writes: On 31 Aug. it was announced that news that came in during my absence (14-19 Sept.) would be dealt with on my return. Here it is: Dark Shadow Recording announce that Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers, Bluegrass Ambassadors to the world, and headliners of the bluegrass section of the 2022 Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival, released on Friday 15 Sept. their latest album, Lead and iron, comprising eleven tracks, all written or co-written by Prowler members. Full details are on the Dark Shadow press release. * South London's The Vanguards (Jack Baker, mandolin; Alex ..read more

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announce that this year's IBMA World Of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, will present for the first time an International Pavilion, featuring bands from South Korea, Slovakia, Canada, Australia, Norway, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the USA. The sponsoring bodies are Bluegrass in La Roche, Dark Shadow Recording, Bluegrass Ambassadors, and Ear Trumpet Labs. The full lineup (which includes several names familiar to bluegrassers in Ireland) can be read here. © Richard Hawkins ..read more

BIB editor's note: Thanks again to banjo historian Tony Thomas for his additional notes below on the 2020 BIB post 'Alan Lomax, the banjo, and bluegrass (CORRECTION):' Just want to underline my comments about Stu are based on not only my extensive research, but on the last years of Stu's life in the 2000s. I knew Stu when he moved to Florida. He was increasingly restricted by his final illness for years, but I had hours and hours of telephone conversations with Stu over the last several years of his life about banjo issues, especially about Gribble, Lusk and York, and more recently I have bee ..read more

The FOAOTMAD news blog, organ of the UK's old-time music and dance association, carries news of a show on 21 Sept. in Narberth, Wales, by the duo of Martha Spencer (right) and Archer Broughton. As appears from Martha's online tour schedule, this show will be part of a tour of the UK starting on 14 Sept. at the Green Note in London and culminating on 23 Sept. at the Moniaive Michaelmas Bluegrass Festival in Scotland. Martha toured Ireland nine years ago as a teenage singer, dancer, and musician with the Whitetop Mountain Band of Virginia, and is now forging an active career as a solo performe ..read more

The BIB editor writes: Exactly a year after my retirement as editor, the BIB reopens in order to make public a welcome and important contribution from Tony Thomas, a leading scholar of banjo history; one of his works is cited below. The contribution arrived in the form of a series of comments on the BIB post Alan Lomax, the banjo, and bluegrass (CORRECTION) of 14/18 Aug. 2020, which mentioned the Black banjo-player Murphy Gribble and the white folklorist and banjo-player Stu Jamieson. Mr Thomas's contribution follows: First, Stu's views should be primary since Stu is the one who found Murph ..read more

My mother was classically trained, but she could play anything on piano by ear, and my father sang with her. But for them music was not about formal classical music. It was about gathering with friends in your own home and sharing music until the early morning hours. Music was about improvisation, laughter, and friends. I learned early on that you could do it yourself, and that it’s natural for music to be created and shared right in your own home. Alice Gerrard, quoted by Louisa Branscomb on Bluegrass Today, 11 Sept. 2013 ..read more

The BIB editor writes: A substantial part of Well of souls is dedicated to showing the development of the cultures of black enslaved people in the New World. It is a task for which Gaddy feels her being white may disqualify her, but which she sees as a necessary reparation for the ways in which those cultures have been ignored or misrepresented in the past. In this overall cultural survey, the banjo at times falls out of sight and hearing. As regards sight, the publishers could have partly remedied this. They chose, however, to print illustrations on the same paper as the text; this works w ..read more

Playing in bars is traditionally part of the bluegrass life. Doing it in this country can carry the additional burden that - even more than in the USA - a solidly bluegrass repertoire is likely to be unfamiliar to the audience, and making the connection between band and audience is consequently that mugh harder. One possible way round the problem is shown by the recent single release from Pinecastle Records by Robert Hale - a remake of the Stonewall Jackson hit 'I washed my hands in muddy water', which (like many country songs) works perfectly well as bluegrass and will be familiar to country ..read more

For those who saw Nickel Creek at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on 30 August - and also for those who didn't but wish they had - Bluegrass Today has many dramatic and evocative photos of them, taken by Bryce LaFoon at the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in Bristol, TN/VA, last weekend. Other artists in the photo gallery include Sierra Hull, Marty Stuart, and their bands. © Richard Hawkins ..read more