Midnight Skyracer
Southern Style, hosted by IBMA Award nominee Jan Dale will feature a double header next month (12th November) featuring Midnight Skyracer from the UK and The South Carolina Broadcasters from the USA.
Midnight Skyracer is a five piece, all-female Bluegrass band from England and Ireland just launched in the spring of 2017, and have found that immediate demand for live performances and a studio recording are intense. These talented young women, two of whom are siblings, got together after meeting at folk and bluegrass venues in the UK. After posting a number of videos on YouTube of their aggressive sound, requests started coming in from close to home, and from bluegrass lovers in the US and Europe as well.
Midnight Skyracer is Leanne Thorose is on mandolin, Tabitha Agnew on banjo, Laura Carrivick on fiddle, Charlotte Carrivick on guitar, and Eleanor Wilkie on bass. The band was nominated in the 2018 IBMA Momentum Awards for Best Band, and Tabitha Agnew on banjo in the instrumental section.
South Carolina Broadcasters
The South Carolina Broadcasters are the “real deal” when it comes to Old-Time Bluegrass music, with their razor sharp harmonies, exceptional multi-instrumentation, and fabulous song selection. Wherever they perform, audiences connect with the Broadcasters through their heartfelt songs and good old-fashioned entertainment. Their material ranges from the Old-Time mountain music of Appalachia, through Carter Family country classics, and Cajun music, to original tunes that sound like they’ve come from the past.
The trio consists of David Sheppard (guitar & vocals), Ivy Sheppard (banjo, fiddle, & vocals) and new band member, Jackson Cunningham from The Whitetop Mountaineers (mandolin, guitar, & vocals).
This is the Broadcasters’ first Australian tour, playing the Dorrigo Folk & Bluegrass Festival, the Maldon Folk Festival and MountainGrass Festival, and a number of other gigs in NSW, Victoria, and the ACT. However, Jackson has toured here a number of times with The Whitetop Mountaineers, playing all the major folk festivals including the National Folk Festival, Canberra, Port Fairy Folk Festival, and the Blue Mountains Music Festival, and numerous successful gigs around the country.
Jan Dale’s radio show, Southern Style, can also be streamed to your computer via the PBS website.
Recordings are archived for six months.
Southern Style with Jan Dale – PBS FM 106.7
Tuesdays 1:00pm to 3:00pm or online at www.pbsfm.org.au.
For my bluegrass dollar, Midnight Skyracer are the best bluegrass band in the world. No other band matches them in vocals, instrumentals, song writing, dynamics, arrangement and adherence to bluegrass tradition. I just wish we could have gotten them over to New Zealand while they were on this side of the globe!