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Events

Peter Rowan – Brisbane Museum

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peterrowan1Peter Rowan is scheduled to play a number of gigs in Australia this year not the least of which will be at The Old Brisbane Museum Concert Hall on 11 March 2009.

Peter Rowan was one of the major cult bluegrass artists of the ’80s. Born in Boston, Massachusetts Rowan grew up surrounded by music of his parents and a great number of relatives.

Rowan formed the Tex-Mex band the Cupids during his time at high school. After college, he decided to become a professional musician. In 1964, after performing with Jim Rooney and Bill Keith, Rowan became a rhythm guitarist and lead singer with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. He remained with them through 1967, leaving to join mandolinist David Grisman in the folk-rock band Earth Opera.

Additional Information – Concert details and Tickets

Fairbridge Festival – WA

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Several bluegrass and ol’ timey bands are booked to play this years Fairbridge Festival WA to be held from the 17th to 19th April 2009.

Organisers have announced that Camping and Ticket sales are now open and available online.

Like many festivals and venues in Oz, Fairbridge Festival organisers have enlisted the online ticketing services of Seat Advisor Box Office (SABO) to manage their online ticket sales.

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Some of the acts featured this year’s festival are:

The Lawnmowers from NSW. Listed as Australia’s hottest exponents of the cutting hedge of bluegrass, way out there.
Dev’lish Mary from Vic. A good time, old-time “jillbilly” music – from Western Swing to Appalachia.
Bluegrass Parkway from WA. Australia’s best bluegrass band in the eyes of many.

Bookings available online at Fairbridge Tix

More information available at Festival Website

Melbourne Guitar Festival

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mgfIn December last year we brought news of the Melbourne Guitar Makers Festival to be held later this year on 16 and 17 May. Our endless web trawling has revealed yet another event featuring the guitar. The inaugural Melbourne Guitar Festival is planed for the 23 to 25 January 2009.

This event aims to bring together guitar players, teachers, luthiers and anyone else with an interest or an involvement in the guitar. The festival plans a number of presentations, including five masterclasses, catering for all levels of student players, seven concerts, featuring soloists and ensembles, and workshops with luthiers and composers.

Here is an opportunity for guitar enthusiasts, artists and luthiers to meet, discover and learn. The Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music is the venue – 45 York Street Richond, Melbourne.

Additional reading: Melbourne Guitar Festival

Redlands Bluegrass Boys Play Madass

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redlands-bluegrass-boysThe Redlands Bluegrass Boys – Madass Folk Club – Thursday 15th Jan.

The Redlands Bluegrass Boys hail from the Redland Shire just south of Brisbane. Collectively the band can claim about 200 years of music experience.

Together they perform a range of traditional bluegrass songs and instrumentals, demonstrating tight vocal harmonies and driving instrumentals epitomised by the bluegrass style of music. The band features Allen McMonagle on guitar and fiddle, Bill Turner on guitar, Tom Steginga on double bass, Fred Hudson on banjo, and Neil Wills on mandolin.

Banjo Worshops – Illawarra Folk School

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sammartinbluegrassJohn Taylor, the disgraced former President of the Board of Directors of the National Folk Festival – more on that later – advises that on Thursday 15 January 2009, he will be conducting two workshop sessions at the Illawarra Folk School.

John will be conducting a morning session on Bluegrass for Beginners, with the afternoon session on Intermediate Bluegrass Banjo.

John says; The Beginners session will concentrate on the basics of bluegrass, looking at timing, rhythm, kick offs for tunes and songs, endings, back up and basic soloing. There will be a focus on jamming etiquette – which is the key to everyone getting the chance to participate. I’ve taken a few pointers out of the sessions of this sort that I have seen at bluegrass events – such as Mike Kear’s Safety in Numbers jam, and the morning beginners jam in the Session Bar at the National Folk Festival. If nothing else what I want to come out of it are people with a lot more confidence to join in a session, not get overawed and make a contribution.

The Intermediate Banjo session is designed for those banjophonists who have got a few tunes and/or songs under their belt, have a few rolls and licks that they can pull off and are branching out into wider techniques. This session will look at more advanced arrangements for the standard tunes as well as getting into building a worked out break for a song or tune, with the idea being to wean people away from sole reliance on tablature and stepping into playing by ear.

The Illawarra Folk School is a fantastic concept, and I am really excited about being a part of it in 2009. I’ve been to the Illawarra Folk Festival a couple of times when it was sited at Jamberoo, and I am looking forward to seeing the new venue at Slacky Flat in Bulli. says John.

Why Disgraced?

In 2008, after 3 years as Board President, John stepped down – but 2008 was not without controversy. It can be reported that on opening night 2008 NFF Security, Production Managers and assorted hangers on responded to a noise complaint from the campgrounds behind the stadium, in an area known as The Swamp. Upon attending the incident they found Chris Jacobs, Kevin Parsell, Pete Hisco, Dave O’Neill (the NFF Artistic Director) and Taylor in a high octane session. OK, it was 1:00am and Chris was belting out Blue Yodel #4, but heck, there were about 40 others enjoying the blast. Very embarrassing but, what was amusing, said Taylor was the fact that that the complaint was about a group of youths, aged in their teens/early 20s, playing music on a ghetto blaster. We thought it quite a hoot, given that none of us is on the right side of 40

Seth Plunkett and Joe Cryle – Madass

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Seth Plunkett and Joe Cryle Seth was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1976. Growing up, he lived in several places around the U.S., including California and New England. His earliest musical experiences included singing Christian psalms with the other kids at church, and sitting next to his grandfather at the piano while he played and sang old show tunes. He also remembers his father’s family spontaneously breaking into 4-part barbershop harmonies.
Seth’s music has been described as “simple and direct”, and stylistically includes bluegrass, country, folk, blues, and acoustic rock. He considers his strongest musical influences to include Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and the Beatles. Seth plans to record a CD in the coming year. Seth will be joined by Joe Cryle for this Madass performance on Thu, 8th Jan at 7:30pm.

Yarra Junction 2009

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camp-eureka-venueThe 24th Yarra Junction Fiddlers’ Convention will be held at the usual venue, Camp Eureka, a bushland setting an hour from Melbourne Vic.

Bluegrass and Ol’ Timey musicians camp for the weekend to catch up with friends, play music and enjoys dances and performances for three days from 20th to 22nd Feb 2009.

‘Camp Eurek’, now over 60 years old, is the last surviving campsite in Australia used by the Eureka Communist League. The Campsite in the Yarra Ranges was originally a farmhouse of which only the barn remains. The land was given to the Eureka Communist League in 1945.

Head over to ‘Camp Eureka’ and find yourself a bit of cleared bush, set up camp and commence to picking. This is a rustic festival atmosphere for lovers of both music and camping. Yarra Junction Convention features old-timey, bluegrass concerts, workshops, lots of jamming and dances.

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Illawarra Folk Festival – NSW

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2009 program announced

Of the many performers scheduled to appear at the Illawarra Festival this year several bluegrass acts are included, including an international visitors.

The Whitetop Mountaineers – USA

Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham are from the highest mountains in Virginia. They grew up playing old timey, traditional music from the Southwest Virginia region and have deep family roots in music. Martha plays fiddle, claw hammer banjo, guitar, dulcimer, and sings. Jackson plays mandolin, banjo, and guitar, sings and clogs as well. The two are members of the Whitetop Mountain Band, and perform duet act featuring old timey/country singing and fiddle/banjo tunes. They have toured with the Crooked Road shows, played the National Folk Festival, Smithsonian, and many other venues.

Blue Mountain Bluegrass

Features Karen Lynne Australia’s foremost female contemporary Bluegrass artist joining up with her multi-faceted and talented sister Liz Frencham. Karen takes with her Martin Louis (Banjo), Nigel Lever (Mandolin and Guitar) and Quentin Fraser (Guitar and Dobro) along with Wen-Tjen Lim (fiddle).

Heather Mandich and The Southern Alliance

Heather Mandich is a seasoned vocalist and mandolin picker whose honest delivery will take you to foot stomping thigh slapping bluegrass highs and move you to tears with songs of lost love and gospel redemption. Southern Alliance boasts the rock solid talents of Bruce Fumini (Banjo), Ray Marshall (Guitar) and Matthew Hobbs (Double Bass).

More Info on the Illawarra Folk Festival website

Peter Rowan Plays Brunswick Music Festival

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peterrowanPeter Rowan is scheduled to play the Brunswick Music Festival on 20th March 2009.

Peter Rowan has been one of the most influential singers and songwriters in contemporary bluegrass for over four decades. A musical experimenter, he has blurred the boundaries between old-time country, folk, reggae, blues and rock styles, and has even received some notoriety recently on the jam band circuit. Peter has played with everyone from Bill Monroe to Jerry Garcia, and his recent collaboration with guitarist Tony Rice has brought him renewed critical acclaim.

Our international Roots component for 2009 comprises of all first time visitors to the Festival, and is headed up by Bluegrass and Americana legend Peter Rowan. Direct from Louisiana The Red Stick Ramblers, purveyors of all things Louisiana-Cajun, Zydeco, and hot New Orleans rhythms and from Canada the fabulous Old Man Luedecke, a young and totally original contemporary singer songwriter and frailing banjo player on his first tour of Australia. Festival Director John McAuslan

Brunswick Music Festival – 12 to 22 March 2009