This year’s Wharf Bluegrass Weekend is set for May 25th - 27th at the Stoke Prior Sports and Country Club near Bromsgrove.
The weekend will consist of picking sessions, workshops and slow jams, with concerts on Friday and Saturday evening.
The workshop line-up will be:
Banjo - Martin Blake
Guitar - Mansel Kedward
Mandolin - Roland Emmanuel
Fiddle - John Boston
Slow Jam - Roland Emmanuel
Sacred Harp and Shape Note Singing - Maria Wallace
Food and drink will be available on-site all weekend, with camping around the clubhouse. Tickets are £22 with no need to book in advance. Full details including directions to the site can be found at wharfbluegrass.com
John Dowling will be running a bluegrass banjo workshop on June 24th in London.
John has been playing banjo for 17 years and teaching for 15. He won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2000, and went on to become the only European to have won the USA National Bluegrass Banjo Championships in 2002.
The workshop is to be held at the Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London and “shall focus mainly on the techniques and methods required to play with others, but shall also cover general skills needed to forward your banjo playing ability, whilst serving as a fantastic platform to meet other like minded banjoists and gain valuable contacts.”
The day will include 5 hours of tuition as well as an evening concert featuring John’s band Doghouse Central. Full details and a booking form can be found in this PDF flyer.
The Weston Rock festival will be dedicating a whole day to bluegrass music on June 3rd.
The event will be held at the town’s rugby club, across four days from June 1st - 4th. The day of bluegrass will feature Flats and Sharps, The Hog Ranch (pictured), Chris Moreton and Roots and Galoots.
Camping will be available for the weekend, with bars, stalls and other amenities all on site.
A session featuring the teaching and tea staff at last month’s Sore Fingers Week was caught on camera by John Breese.
The video of Red Prairie Dawn shows Grant Gordy, Mike Witcher, Rex Preston, Laura Carrivick and Miranda Sykes playing in the grounds of Kingham Hill School.
In similar news, John’s popular documentary about bluegrass in the UK has been edited and re-released on YouTube.
In addition to last night’s gig in London, Punch Brothers will be appearing on BBC TV during their visit to the UK.
The band will perform on Later Live…with Jools Holland on BBC2 tonight (May 8th) at 10pm. They will also be on Friday’s (May 11th) Later…with Jools Holland on the same channel at 11.50pm.
The festival is now in its 6th year and will have concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, an open mic and workshops. This year there will also be an extended programme for old-time music and dancing. Bands playing include New Essex Bluegrass Band, Home Territory, Beverly Smith and John Grimm and The Leon Hunt n-Tet.
The event will be held from May 11th - 13th at the Hallowtree campsite in Ipswich, and the site will be open to festival goers from midday on Thursday, May 10th.
Congratulations to The Woodberrys, who have been announced as the winners of the band competition for the Ely Folk Festival.
The band will be rewarded with the opening slot at the festival which runs from July 13th- 15th in Cambridgeshire.
Since forming last year for the Sore Fingers student concert, the five-piece band has gone from strength to strength. They have performed at a variety of events, festivals and venues, including last year’s Didmarton, Orwell and Gower bluegrass festivals as well as the Bristol Bluegrass Day in March 2012.
The group are best known for their three and four-part harmonies, singing mostly bluegrass and original material by Liz Taylor (guitar), Sue Pomeroy (mandolin, guitar), Heather Bristow (fiddle) and Roger Jackson (guitar, mandolin, vocals). Richard Embery’s sympathetic bass playing provides the glue that binds it all together. The band is named for Cambridge-based Liz Taylor’s house - Woodberry - where the band, with members based across the country, convenes for rehearsals.
The Wagon Tales will be backing and collaborating with American singer/songwriter Krystle Warren on her UK tour in May.
Warren, a member of Rufus Wainwright’s group and currently his featured support act, is a friend and colleague of The Wagon Tales’ Ben Somers, who says that “Krystle’s music has an extremely eclectic range of influences, but is deeply connected to roots music so having a group that can provide this criteria is essential.”
The Wagon Tales will be appearing with Krystle Warren on the following dates:
22nd May at Dingwalls in Camden, London
24th May at Brighton Festival, All Saint’s Church in Hove
The band will also be gigging in Sweden in May, and their recently recorded CD, comprised of entirely original material, will be released later in the year. More about the band can be found at www.wagontales.co.uk.
