My last post took note of a concert I attended in April by the Czech bluegrass band The Malina Brothers, with guest appearances by Charlie McCoy,
the Nashville-based harmonica virtuoso and member of the Country Music
Hall of Fame, and the Czech singer Kat’a Garcia. The concert was sold
out, and got a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd. And it was
being filmed for a live show DVD.
That concert took place in the Sono Center, a major venue in Brno, CZ, for contemporary music -- the audience numbered 700 or 800.
Less than a month later, the Malina Brothers, who are old friends of mine, visited Italy -- where they gave a house concert at the home of a friend.
I managed to live stream it from my phone, on Facebook -- and here it is. It was my first live streaming, so the visual quality is not the best (and it's vertical -- the program didn't let me rotate the phone)... but still. It's a testament to their talent that their same repertoire works in a big theatrical venue like the Sono Center -- and also in the intimate setting of a private living room.
In Brno, Czech Republic, the Imaginary Wild West leaps off a wall….
advertising “the best steaks” in the city at an eatery called “U Starýho Bill” (At Old Bill’s) that calls itself “a real ‘TEXAS’ restaurant.”
The wall here was a few steps away from the Sono Center, a major Brno
venue for contemporary music — where I was headed to attend a concert
by the Czech bluegrass band The Malina Brothers, with guest appearances by Charlie McCoy,
the Nashville-based harmonica virtuoso and member of the Country Music
Hall of Fame, and the Czech singer Kat’a Garcia. The concert was sold
out, and got a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd. And it was
being filmed for a live show DVD.
The Malinas are old friends of mine. Banjo player and
multi-instrumentalist Lubos Malina was one of the founding members of
the great Czechgrass group Druha Trava, and I met him (amazingly) nearly
15 years ago, at one of the many summer bluegrass/country festivals in
CZ, when I first started exploring the Imaginary Wild West in Europe.
Guitarist Pavel Malina used to play with DT, and fiddler Pepa Malina
still sometimes plays with them. The Malina Brothers band came together
informally at first, but over the past five years or so has developed a
remarkable following in CZ — as the concert in Brno demonstrated.
The three brothers visited in Italy six years ago and gave a house
concert at the home of a friend. It was the first of a series of house
concerts anchored by Lubos.
The brothers played this arrangement of Smetana at the house concert in
2013 — and at the concert in Brno.
On the night after the Brno concert, Pepa Malina performed with Druha
Trava at the start of a a week-long tour with Charlie McCoy — a
sold-out, standing-ovation gig in the town of Ceska Trebova.
Here’s a video of the run-through before the Ceska Trebova concert:
Charlie McCoy has had a standout career in the USA and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
I’ve written about him in the past, on my Sauerkraut Cowboys blog,
because he is quite wellknown in the country music scene outside the
USA. He tours regularly in Europe and elsewhere (i.e. Japan), and he
makes a point to play with European bands and also records with them; he
has released albums in France, Denmark, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Later this summer he will be touring in Sweden in England.
Onstage at the concert in Ceska Trebova, he recalled how he met up
with Druha Trava — it was at the festival in Strakonice, CZ, where he
was performing in 2001. DT was also on the bill and asked if he would
join them for a few songs — since then he has toured with them half a
dozen or more times in CZ, released a live album with DT and also
released a CD with The Malina Brothers.
Here’s a promo video about the Malina Brothers album (partly in Czech, partly in English):
I met Charlie back in 2005 during one of his tours with Druha Trava — the concert I saw was at a “Days of Texas” festival in the little town of Roznov pod Radnostem, in eastern CZ.
The festival, I wrote in an article
highlighted
the fact that from the mid-19th century until World War I, thousands of
people emigrated from Roznov and other towns and villages in the region
to Texas. Today, Texas has the largest ethnic Czech community of any
state in the United States.
There were
demonstrations of 19th-century farming customs used by the emigrants and
performances by American-style Czech country-western groups, as well as
local folk groups performing Wallachian songs and dances. An exhibition
of quilting featured a big patchwork quilt reading “Texas,” hung
prominently from the upper floor of the old Roznov Town Hall.
Like the Malina Brothers concert in Brno, the Druha Trava/Charlie
McCoy concert in Ceska Trebova drew a standing ovation from an energized
crowd — and lots of autograph-seekers and CD-buyers afterward.
This is slightly off topic, but here's an article I wrote for Hadassah Magazine about the involvement of American Jews in bluegrass and Americana music, focusing on the current crop of musicians but also providing some background on what is a decades-long involvement.
Banjo picker Eric Lindberg loves with a passion the
distinctive harmonies of the acoustic country music known as bluegrass.
However, he says, as a Jew, he long felt “a bit out of the loop.
“Much of the work from the inception and early days of
bluegrass is deeply spiritual and Christian based,” says the
dark-haired, darkbearded 30-something Lindberg, who also plays guitar.
“Musically, I could connect with the songs on every level, but my
identity as a Jew from Brooklyn always kept me from truly identifying
with them.”
The solution? He and his wife, singer Doni Zasloff, formed a bluegrass band called Nefesh Mountain whose
original songs meld bluegrass and old-time licks with lyrics reflecting
Jewish traditions. “Nefesh is a Hebrew word which loosely translates as
the soul or animating spirit of all living things,” they explain on the
band’s website. “The mountain is a cross-cultural symbol used widely in
Jewish text as well as in bluegrass and old-time musical forms.”
Bluegrass and old-time are two different approaches to
traditional 20th-century American roots music, performed by ensembles
made up mainly of stringed instruments such as fiddle, banjo, mandolin
and guitar.
Nefesh Mountain’s 2016 debut album featured bluegrass
greats Sam Bush, Mark Schatz, Scott Vestal, Rob Ickes and Gary Oleyar,
and it included songs called “Singin’ Jewish Girl” and “Adonai Loves
Me.” Lindberg and Zasloff are among the current crop of musicians who
blend their deep-seated Jewish identities with an equally deep
connection to traditional roots music—a fusion that some performers and
critics dub “Jewgrass.”
[...]
New Orleans-based Mark Rubin, 51, a veteran of both the American roots and klezmer scenes, takes a different tack on his new album, Songs for the Hangman’s Daughter.
In songs such as “Southern Jews Is Good News” and “Teshuvah,” Rubin,
who was born in Stillwater, Okla., bluntly attempts to reconcile his
experience as a culturally Jewish musician in the American South.
“It is not religious music in the usual sense,” says music
critic Ari Davidow. Rubin “is in-your-face about who he is and how he
doesn’t fit stereotypes. He is not just making a statement to
anti-Semites who see Jews as aliens, but also to Jews of the coasts who
find it alien to imagine that there are Jews who live in redneck
territory, proudly embracing redneck values.”
The involvement of Jews with American roots music goes
back decades, to the folk and old-time music revival that kicked off in
the late 1950s and in which Jewish musician, musicologist and filmmaker
John Cohen was a key figure. (Today, one of the top bluegrass artists is
Jewish musician Noam Pikelny, recipient of the first annual Steve
Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass in 2010, though he
does not address his Jewish identity in his music.)
Mandolin and clarinet virtuoso Andy Statman and
award-winning scholar and performer Henry Sapoznik, now director of the
Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at the University of Wisconsin,
were both pioneers of the klezmer revival movement. They had been
steeped in old-time and bluegrass before turning to Yiddish sources in
the 1970s.
Last night was a homecoming of sorts, in Trnava, Slovakia -- an hours-long concert in honor of John Dopyera, who with his brothers invented the dobro, or resonator guitar.
Last night's concert was also billed as a "mini-Dobrofest" -- a much smaller, but still fun successor to the Dobrofest festival that for years took place in Trnava to celebrate the instrument and its creators.
Dobrofest was founded in 1992, just when Slovakia was gaining independence through its "velvet divorce" from the Czech Republic. The country was, subconsciously perhaps, looking for national heroes, and Dopyera became one -- the archetypical local boy who made good, even though he left the country to do so.... Dopyera was born in the village of Dolna Krupa, near Trnava, in 1893 and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1908. They ended up in California...
Year after year, Dobrofest brought top international musicians to Trnava, including the Americans Peter Rowan, Bob Brozman and Jerry Douglas -- as well as local bands.
Here's a video of Peter Rowan performing with the Czech band Druha Trava at Dobrofest in 2005:
I attended it several times, the first time in 2003, when main events were held in the town's main square as well as in other venues, including one of the synagogues.
Last night's concert took place in a music cafe that is part of a huge new stadium and shopping mall complex. I met up with some of my oldest friends in Europe's Imaginary Wild West and country music scene.
The headliner was Willie Jones and his band. A big bear of a man with a full beard, Willie (and bandmember Roman Ac) were two of the very first people I met in the scene -- back in 2003, when he was working as the "singing cowboy" of the Pullman City wild west theme park in Bavaria.
I was working on an article for the New York Times back then, and I followed Willie and Roman on an adventure into the Czech country world.
Willie Jones and Roman Ac in Trnava March 11, 2016
One of my first experiences in the Imaginary Wild West was, in fact, a cowboy-style party in a country-western roadhouse in a remote village in southern Bohemia....I was led there by Willie Jones, an American who at the time was working as a singing cowboy at the Pullman City wild west theme park in Bavaria. Along with a Slovak bluegrass group, we traveled in a three-car convoy from Pullman City into CZ.
The road house was in a village too small to appear on my map. From the outside it looked like an anonymous village restaurant, but inside it was decorated with Wild West paraphernalia including horseshoes, sepia photographs of Native Americans and Billy the Kid, and a framed arrangement of pistols and playing cards.
The occasion for the party was the 50th birthday of Franz Zetihammel, a figure well known on the Czech and German western show circuit for his portrayals “Fuzzy,” an “old coot” persona harking back to characters played by comic western actors such as Gabby Hayes or Walter Brennan. Fuzzy has long straggly grey hair and beard and never appears in public without his cowboy hat, cowboy boots and turquoise bolo tie and other jewelry.
A Czech country duo got the guests up and dancing with locally written Czech country songs and Czech covers of American hits such as John Denver’s “Country Roads” and even “I’m and Okie from Muskokee.”
One of the party guests, a man in his forties, was dressed head to toe in full cowboy attire, including sheriff’s star and a six-shooter – which Fuzzy at one point pulled from its holster, brandished at the dancers and then fired at the ceiling – fortunately, it was loaded with blanks....
Other artists on the line-up last night were the award-winning Czech guitarist Jakub Racek, the English singer Dave Peabody (who duetted with a Bratislava-born fiddler, the only woman onstage...), and the Slovak dobro player Peter Sabados.
The show last night was MC'd by Peter "Bonzo" Radvanyi -- the bluesy local performer who had been the driving force behind Dobrofest. He ended the show by getting everyone to sing a sort of "Dobro chant" that had ended the festival events in its heyday.
And then he got everyone one stage to do this -- at the very end of the show
I sat with a table of friends in the front row -- they were people who really helped me in my quest to follow the scene over the years and explain the fascination with American country style, country music, bluegrass, and all that goes with it. Thanks guys!
American media including NPR (National Public Radio) and the Wall Street Journal ran stories recently about a homeless American singer in Nashville, Doug Seegers, who was filmed by a Swedish singer and her team for a documentary segment on down-and-out musicians for her TV show -- and ended up a star in Sweden.
From NPR:
People started sending money to help Seegers. A Swedish label offered him a record deal. A prominent record producer back in Nashville — along with a lot of big-deal session guys — signed on to make the record, and they finished it in three days. For one track, someone called in a favor with one of Seegers' longtime heroes, Emmylou Harris. Harris recorded her tracks separately — but she was so moved by Seegers' voice that she called him to let him know. "I pick up the phone and she says, 'Doug, this is Emmylou Harris,' " Seegers says. "And I immediately start crying. I couldn't even talk, I was crying so hard. It was a dream come true for me." When it was released in Sweden, Seegers' album went to No. 1 and stayed in the top five for 10 weeks. Seegers toured the country, selling out 60 shows. Everywhere he went, he says, people would ask him how he was doing in the United States.
It's a heart-warming story.
NPR got it wrong, however, when it said that Sweden "lacks for country music fans."
Sweden has a country/bluegrass/linedeance scene and a history of home-grown country and Americana music. There is a country music radio/internet station, and also various local country and bluegrass artists, such as the award-winning bluegrass group Dunderhead, and the Willy Clay Band -- (whose web site seems out of date, but the band has a Facebook page and seems still to be around.
Here's a 2010 blog post about a Swedish country concert.
The American banjo great Tony Trischka has come out with a gorgeous new CD, "A Great Big World." You can hear a preview of one track by clicking the link on the photo above.
The CD showcases Tony't thrilling virtuosity -- and includes guests such as Andy Statman, Russ Barenberg, Tristan Clarridge, Mike Barnett and others on a variety of songs -- including one of my favorites, Woody Guthrie's "Do-Re-Mi." All the tracks are winners -- but the one that really hit me was the oddly titled "Purple Trees of Colorado."Amazing.
"Everyone loves to play with Tony, because of his strong musical gifts and conception, and because he's one of the coolest dudes to hang around with and be yourself. Not everyone who asks you to play on their record actually wants that, but he does."
Though I've seen him in the U.S., I know Tony from here in Europe -- where he plays often, and where he has had considerable influence. This has been particularly so in the Czech Republic, where his progressive bluegrass style was a powerful inspiration to (among others) the musicians who went on to found the group Druha Trava.
In the 1980s, DT's singer-songwriter Robert Krestan and banjoist Lubos Malina were members of the pioneering Czech progressive bluegrass group Poutnici. (They left Poutnici and formed DT in 1991.) Robert at that time also played banjo. Tony was one of their heroes.
As I noted in an earlier post, Tony first toured the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1988, before the fall of communism, and he also returned in 1989, also before the Wall came down. During those stays, he performed as a guest on an LP by Poutnici, called "Wayfaring Stranger." In the liner notes, he describes Poutnici in much the same terms I have used to describe Druha Trava. "They … have a unique sound," he said. "Czechgrass instead of Kentucky bluegrass. In other words, they've made it their own, which is wonderful."
In addition to his Czech tours, Tony also plays elsewhere in Europe -- he teaches at a summer bluegrass workshop near Urbino, Italy, and this fall will be teaching at a "banjo camp" workshop in Germany.
I can't resist posting this rather fantastically bizarre video from 1983 of the seminal Czech progressive bluegrass band Poutnici....oh, that communist-era sense of humor!
The video shows several members of current Poutnice line-up and also Robert Krestan (heavily bearded on banjo) who went on to found Druha Trava in 1991.
I've posted several times about Lilly Drumeva, the Bulgarian singer and instrumentalist who founded and anchors the Bulgarian country/bluegrass group Lilly of the West, and who is in the United States for five months on a Fulbright scholarship to study bluegrass music and the bluegrass music industry. (The video above shows here on the Viva! NashVegas® Radio Show.
Lilly has just posted her own report of her recent research and activities -- and with her permission I am reposting it here. She's been busy!
Her research is to result in a book on the history, industry and social contexts of bluegrass music.
Here's her report (updated from Nov. 3)
Background:
Since August 2013 I have been working in the US as a Fulbright scholar, researching the history and industry of country and bluegrass music. I have read a number of books and conducted around 50 interviews with music professionals, asking questions such as: Why do you like country/bluegrass music? What is so special/exciting about it? What are the songs about? How did you get involved? What is the future of these genres in a digital world? When I return to Bulgaria I am going to write a book on the subject in Bulgarian language. A summary of it and a survey in English will be published in several European magazines and internet blogs. August: I spent it mainly in Bowling Green, KY at Western Kentucky University (WKU), where I researched the history of bluegrass music. I worked closely with Prof. Erika Brady, at the Department of Folk Studies. I studied many books from the extensive library collection and had informal conversations with faculty professors and fellow students. My research also involved traveling to Owensboro, KY, visiting the International Bluegrass Museum and of course the birthplace of Bill Monroe. I had memorable meetings with Gabrielle Gray (museum director) and RaShe Jennings (curator of collections). Gabrielle offered me an amazing hospitality and we discussed future collaborations. I attended a small bluegrass festival in the town of Annetta, near Leitchfield as well as several jam sessions around Bowling Green. I was humbled by the attention I received by the local press and media including Radio TV and Newspaper. Here are some links to the interviews: Live on WKU radio, hosted by Kevin Willis: http://wkyufm.org/term/lilly-drumeva Article at the “Messenger Inquirer”: http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/8/24/bulgaria_s_lilly_of_the_west.htm, Article in the WKU Herald: http://wkuherald.com/diversions/article_93668c34-0eb1-11e3-8bfb-0019bb30f31a.html September and October were two busy months for me, spent mostly in Nashville!, TN It included many interesting meetings, conferences, music festivals and concerts while absorbing interesting material from books and magazines to further my research. I visited two States where I had not been before: North Carolina and Colorado. Early September I moved from Bowling Green, KY to Nashville, TN where I established contact with my host institution, the International Bluegrass Music Association. At my hotel, the “Scarritt Bennett Center” I attended part of Darrell Scott’s songwriting seminar. Later in the same month, I watched his show together with Tim O’Brian at “3rd and Lindsley”, a renowned Nashville live music venue. I enjoyed an Italian lunch with my friend, singer/songwriter and teacher at Belmont University, Kathy Chiavola. I attended two interesting jam sessions, at Andy Wyatt’s house (bluegrass) and Brian Christiansen’s “Fiddle house” shop (old time). I interviewed legendary fiddle player Buddy Speicher, who performed with some of the major country music stars in the 60s/70s. I attended also the “Grandmasters fiddle championship”, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame, where I spoke to the event manager Harold Harries. Twice I watched shows at the Grand Old Opry, featuring Thompson Square, Craig Morgan, Love and Theft, Little Jimmy Dickens, Jim Lauderdale, The Whites and others. I had an interesting conversation/interview with Sharon, Sheryl and Buck White backstage, which was made possible through my friend Mike DeVillez. My interview program continued with feedback from Don Cusic (professor at “Mike Curb College of Music”, writer of many country music books), Bart Herbison (Nashville Songwriter’s Association), Craig Havighurst (radio DJ “Music city roots” and IBMA board member), Jeff Walker (music industry professional, head of “Aristomedia”, CMA board member). A real highlight in my career was when I was called to perform on stage with the Time Jumpers, a fantastic western-swing band, that featured Kenny Sears (fiddle), Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar), Vince Gill (electric guitar and vocals) and other top notch musicians. My live performances continued with a slot on the Viva Nash Vegas show, hosted by George Hamilton V at Handy Hardware Store in Franklin, TN. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qExDOYGX47k Middle of September I attended the Americana Music Conference, which was held at the Sheraton hotel, Nashville with gigs in the famous music venues downtown. I was at the Ryman during the Americana awards ceremony and enjoyed performances by Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Duane Eddy, John Fulbright, Holly Williams, Liza Marie Presley and others. I made friends with Texas singer/songwriter Kim Townsend and “Music row”, “Nashville Sports and Entertainment” journalist Steve Morley. I discovered a very talented singer/songwriter named Nora Jane Struthers, whose acoustic music really impressed me. Her voice reminds me of Natalie Mains’ of the Dixie Chicks. Right after “Americana” I flew to Raleigh, North Carolina in order to attend the International Bluegrass Music Awards. I performed my original song “Turn away”, which was selected for the songwriters’ showcase; I teamed up with Japanese mandolin virtuoso Akira Otzuka for couple of showcases in the pubs. A memorable event was to meet the mayor of Raleigh, Nancy McFarlane. I conducted also several interviews with leading bluegrass music professionals: Ken Irwin (Rounder records), Fred Bartenstein (award winning author), Tom Gray (bass player of legendary band “Seldom scene”), Chris Jones (musician, songwriter and radio presenter) and many others. I returned to Nashville early October and continued to meet and interview interesting people. Among them were: Paul Kingsbury (writer of the “Country Music Encyclopedia”, Country Music Hall of Fame), John Lomax III (music writer and music distributer, grandson of America’s first musicologist. John Lomax I), Don Light (legendary music agent, worked with Keith Whitley, Jimmy Buffett, Dailey & Vincent). I had interesting conversations with John Pannell (musician, writer, author of Alison Krauss’ early hits), and Russ Barenberg (acoustic guitarist and composer, part of the “Transatlantic sessions”). I thoroughly enjoyed the concert of Irish singer Maura O’Connell at the Franklin Theatre, Franklin, TN in the company of my friend, Dobro player Al Goll. We attended also the famous “Music city roots show” at the Loveless barn, hosted by Jim Lauderdale, who also contributed to my research. My work continued in Fort Collins, Colorado, where I stayed with my friends Carl Hammerdorfer and Kathy Lynch, who lead international programs at the Fort Collins State University. I focused on reading during the days. In the evenings I played music and enjoyed the company of local singers and musicians such as Barbara Clark (singer/songwriter) and Chat Fisher (mandolin). One of the musical evenings was dedicated to John Denver, one of Colorado’s most significant artists, writer of “Take me home country roads”. I performed live on the radio with Colorado bluegrass band “Lineage”, a program hosted by Vincent Burkhart. http://www.spreaker.com/user/vincentblive I had a glimpse of the nightlife in Fort Collins, visiting the “Swing house” and watching local band “Bluegrama”. A highlight of my time in Colorado was the concert of Boston singer/songwriter Katie Curtis at Avo’s, Fort Collins. Exhausted, but happy I returned to Nashville where I resumed my meetings and interviews. It was a real honor to meet Robert K. Oermann, a renowned music journalist (“Country Music Journal”), author of several books and documentaries. At lunch I talked to Kari Estin, an artist manager and consultant, who worked for many years with Tony Rice. I had an informative conversation with Mike Drudge, one of the leading bluegrass music agents, who shared some interesting inside stories. At dinner with IBMA’s director Nancy Cardwell I learned everything about the organization and preoperational work for its annual conference. A memorable day was my visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the meeting with its chief historian John Rumble. I interviewed Douglas Green (“Ranger Doug”, of the legendary western band “Riders in the sky”), who is also a renounced writer and scholar, lovely singer/songwriter Irene Kelly, who had a brand new album out. I was invited back to perform on the Viva Nash Vegas show in Franklin, TN, where I interviewed George Hamilton IV (legendary country singer from the 60s/70s) and Kayton Roberts (steel player of country legend Hank Snow) The Bulgarian community around Nashville organized a party in my honor on which I performed a mix of Bulgarian folk songs. Stella Antony, a moving spirit among the Bulgarian group, had prepared a delicious Bulgarian dinner. The night before, Stella treated me to a wonderful performance of Oscar Wilde’s “The importance of being Ernest” at the Johnson Theater and to a memorable visit of President Andrew Jackson’s residence at the Hermitage. I spent also wonderful evenings with my friends Emmanuel & Suzan Lozanov and Alex & Susannah Petrunov who live around Nashville. At the end of October I had lunch with Nashville musicians/songwriters Barry and Holly Tashian (The Remains, Emmylou Harris) and Nashville cat Scott Newbert (Hal Ketchum, Trace Adkins). I interviewed also Jeremy Garrett (top fiddle player and founder of the “Stringdusters”), Becky Buller (top fiddle player, singer and songwriter). In November I had interesting meetings with award winning sound engineer Bill VornDick, renowned music journalists David Ross (Music Row), Peter Cooper (The Tennessean), IBMA board member Jon Weissberger, well known bluegrass festival MC Sam Jackson (Bean Blossom), editor of CMA’s trade magazine “Close up” Bob Dorschuk, legendary country music TV host and writer Hazel Smith and many others. I had the opportunity to visit legendary recording studios such as RCA Studio B (Elvis, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton), Ocean Ways (Faith Hill, Tim McGraw), Studio 19 (Tony Rice) as well as world famous music venues: The Ryman, The Station In, Robert’s, Tootsie’s and many others. I watched the Country Music Association Awards live on ABC television in the company of my friend Maya Campbell. I attended also the CMA Christmas party, live at Bridgestone Arena, featuring top country music acts. Before the show I could network at the CMA International reception, meeting music country music professionals from around the world. I was delighted to talk to Bobbi Boyce (CMA’s international director), Bob Harris (BBC Radio 2), George Lang (RTL, France). A Fulbright alumni meeting took place in Nashville as well, thanks to the efforts of Fulbright alumni Molly Chatterjee and Kathryn Skinner. I met interesting scholars from Finland, Germany, China, India and Bangladesh. The second week in November I spent in Baltimore, Maryland where I continued with my research and worked closely with music promoters and close friends of mine: Archie & Priscilla Warnock (Delaware Valley Bluegrass Music Festival). I met and interviewed also award winning journalist Stephanie Ledgin and banjo player of the year Mike Munford. All in all, a most memorable time. More on www.lillydrumeva.net.
For some reason the Belgian movie "The Broken Circle Breakdown" never appeared on my radar. It should have -- it sounds fascinating: a love story/drama set against the background of the European (and particularly Belgian/Dutch) bluegrass scene. Directed by Felix Van Groeningen, it is based on a play by Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels, which was published in 2008 in book form.
John Lawless has just written about the movie in Bluegrass Today, as the film, which been shown at festivals, is about to hit selected theatres in the U.S., with screenings at 13 art house cinemas in the south next month and then limited engagements elsewhere in November and December:
The two primary characters in this dark drama share a passion for each other, and for American music. Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) plays banjo in a bluegrass group, and Elise (Veerle Baetens) runs her own tattoo parlor. She sings with the band, and the pair falls hard for each other, a romance that is followed both on and off the stage. Things runs smoothly for these two, until a tragedy tears them apart. Original music for the film was composed by Bjorn Eriksson, but all the music in the band scenes is performed by the actors, a testament to the active Dutch and Belgian bluegrass scene.
Congratulations to Lilly Drumeva, the Bulgarian singer and instrumentalist who founded and anchors the Bulgarian country/bluegrass group Lilly of the West, who is in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship to study bluegrass music and the bluegrass music industry. She plans to write a book about bluegrass, for publication in Bulgaria.
Lilly has been profiled in or given interviews to several local publications, in which she has described her fascination with American bluegrass and country music and her experience in bringing this type of music to Bulgaria.
What made a nice girl from Bulgaria get interested in American bluegrass and country music?
“That’s a long story. It started 20 years when I was a student in Vienna, Austria. I was studying economics, and I heard country music for the first time when Emmy Lou Harris had a concert in Vienna. So I got hooked and started buying CDs.
I had a boyfriend then who played guitar, and he taught me to play a few chords. And I started buying bluegrass and country music CDs, and when I returned to Bulgaria I formed a bluegrass band, and I called it “Lilly of the West”, because Lilly is my name and also my favorite flower. And—for the Bulgarians—I came from Austria, which is in the west, so I was the “Lilly from the West.”
In 1998, we went to the Netherlands where there was a big bluegrass festival and competition. And we won it—we were voted “European Bluegrass Band of the Year.” And since then we started touring Europe, and we’ve released nine albums to date.”
When you gathered these fellow Bulgarian musicians, did you have to explain to them what U.S. country and bluegrass music was all about? Did they have any knowledge about it before you spoke to them?
“When I came back from Austria, I brought lots of CDs, so we had lots of material to learn from. But also, the three guys I found—a banjo player, a guitar player, and a bass player—they already knew a little bit about bluegrass, because in 1990 Tim O’Brien visited Bulgaria. So the American Embassy invited bluegrass musicians from the states to celebrate the fall of communism. So in 1990, the U.S. Embassy brought Tim O’Brien, Laurie Lewis, and Sam Bush who gave a concert. And that’s when my colleagues heard bluegrass music for the first time.”
In June, she organized Bulgaria's first country and bluegrass festival, "Country West Fest," in Bankya.
"We had about 300 people," Drumeva said. "It was a little small, but it was great."
This year, she won a Fulbright scholarship to come to the United States to research the history of bluegrass and country music as well as the music industry.
She's been researching in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University's folklife archives. And Thursday and Friday, Drumeva was in Owensboro researching in the archives of the bluegrass museum.
"This is a bluegrass paradise," she said. "These archives are so great."
"Lilly is one of the rare beauties whose music is as gorgeous as she is," said Gabrielle Gray, the museum's executive director. "She has everything it takes to succeed in any form of roots music. She's an extraordinary talent, quite brilliant with a huge heart. She's the total package."
Earlier this week, Drumeva visited Bill Monroe's grave and boyhood home in Rosine.
* I will move to Nashville, TN, where I will work closely with the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), researching bluegrass and country music as industries: record labels, promoters, management, publishing, songwriting etc.
* I will attend the Americana Music Conference in Nashville (18-20 Sept.), where I will be part of Aristo Media's international panel. Before that I will make another trip to Owensboro, KY, where I will take part in the bluegrass mandolin camp (13-15 Sept.).
* The main event of the month will be IBMA's annual conference in Raleigh, NC (23-28 Sept.). I am very proud that one of my original songs, 'Turn away', has been selected for the songwriters' showcase on Thursday 26th at 1.00 p.m. I will perform it then, and later the same evening I am part of the 'Foreign affairs' suite with a short set at 11.00 p.m. See this article.
Italians seem to be succumbing to the public expression of the Imaginary Wild West.
The phenomenon isn't as widespread as in some other countries, but it's certainly now there, or beginning to be there -- as testified by the upcoming "Colosseum Country Festival" to be held near Rome at the beginning of October, whose main attraction seems to be line-dancing.
Western riding and horsemanship have long been at the heart of the trend in Italy
Already half a dozen years ago I attended the "Western Games" at a "ranch" near Lake Bracciano northwest of Rome, which was a mini-rodeo and riding competition set among displays, Indian dancing, and general wild west themed family entertainment attractions. There were even "live" American cowboys brought over from Oregon.
The prime mover behind that festival, Andrea "Drew" Mischianti, has long been a key figure in Italy's western, horse, riding and cowboy scene for many years and long wrote a column about the cowboy life for an Italian wild west magazine. He and his wife Natalia Estrada run a "Ranch Academy" to teach and take part in "buckeroo" skills and lifestyle. They also take part in competitions and exhibitions of skills.
But country music -- unlike in other countries -- had little, if any, attraction. At festivals I've attended in France, Germany, CZ, Austria, Switzerland and PL, for example, music and line-dancing were major and something THE major, draws. But at the Western Games, this band played to an audience of ZERO.
Line-danging, bluegrass and country music now seem to be making some inroads in popularity, particularly in northern Italy, where there have been some festivals. The Genoa-based Italian bluegrass group Red Wine is considered one of the best in Europe and tours in the U.S. The Rome-based banjoist Danilo Cartia also has been making a name for himself. This month, the American banjo great Tony Trischka will be performing with Red Wine before going on to at banjo workshop in Urbino.
Even in the little village festival in Collelungo, in Umbria, a (sort of) country duo called Western Strings was one of the acts chosen to perform in the piazza. Among the songs they played were the two all time European favorites -- Country Roads and Sweet Home Alabama.
More news from Lilly Drumeva of Lilly of the West -- she reports that her original song "Turn Away" has been selected for the songwriters showcase at IBMA's World of Bluegrass Conference 2013, in Raleigh, NC, which precedes the Wide Open Bluegrass festival. The song is featured on the album "Lovin' You" that was recorded in Prague with the Czech bluegrass band Monogram.
The annual Banjo Jamboree in the Czech Republic, held now in the town of Caslav, is the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe. It's one of the first festivals I went to when I started following the country and bluegrass festival circuit in Europe. This year's festival, June 21-22, was the 41st edition of the event. It included concerts, workshops, jam sessions, etc. The line-up was almost all Czech bands, with acouple of Americans and others. And there was the tradition jam session -- and photo -- of as many banjo players as possible performing Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
I didn't attend this year. But Lee Bidgood -- whom I met at the Banjo Jamboree in 2004 -- was there, presenting a sneak preview of Banjo Romantika, the documentary about Czech bluegrass that I helped on -- and in which I am featured as a "talking head" expert.
The oldest Bluegrass festival in Europe takes place in a suitably historic spot. The part of its history that you can see in this post is a bit more recent – the Republic of Czechoslovakia (founded in 1918 out of the still-warm ashes of the Hapsburg empire and the rubble of the first World War). The First Republic, as it is termed by Czechs (“Prvni Republika”) is a golden age, during which the country was the 10th larges economy in the world (think about who the major players were and weren’t in that period…don’t think folks in Europe were counting Indonesian or Chinese cottage industries in their tallies…). The traces of the first republic in Caslav include the site for the Banjo Republic festival, an outdoor letni kino (summer movie theater) and swimming pool. The building has the modernist flair of the first republic, including the elegantly minimalist metal railings that characterize villas and office buildings from the period. There is something slightly nautical mixed in with this style: an occasional round, porthole-like window, the railings that look like the top deck of the Titanic, etc. ...
My friend, the Bulgarian singer and fiddler Lilly Drumeva (who fronts the Bulgarian group Lily of the West), has recorded -- with the Slovak bluegrass band Candy Floss -- what she describes as the first bluegrass song in Bulgaria.
The song was recorded in two countries: Bulgaria and Slovakia. Instrumental tracks and arrangement are by talented Slovakian band Candy Flossfeaturing Michal Barok(mandolin), Dusan Hronec(guitar), Simona Schmidtova(banjo), Michal Kovac(fiddle), Anton Naroda(double bass). Lead and harmony vocals were added in Sofia by Lilly Drumeva, mixed and mastered by sound engineer Stamen Ianev. “Кънтри в душата” ('Country in my soul') is inspired also by John Denver’s 'Take me home, country roads', which is one of the most popular country music songs in the world. Lilly deliberately quotes fragments of its chorus, in order to raise more attention. In Bulgaria the term 'bluegrass' is relatively unknown and people only hear about it through country music.
Congratulations to the Belgian band Rawhide, which received the 2013 "Liz Meyer-European Innovation of Bluegrass Music Award" at the European World of Bluegrass festival and trade show (EWOB) May 9-10-11..
The most active band throughout the history of EWOB -- having performed in Voorthuizen every year since 1998 -- Rawhide was selected as the winner of this year's Liz Meyer European Innovation of Bluegrass Music Award in recognition of their long-running success in bringing bluegrass music to a broader audience.
In its 35-year history, the band has developed its own unmistakable and immediately recognizable sound, and has become an undeniable presence and driving force in the European bluegrass scene.The members of Rawhide have combined their vocal and instrumental proficiency, their love of traditional bluegrass and their expertise in numerous other musical genres with imagination, creativity and humor, to create a unique sound and stage show that has extended the borders of bluegrass music in Europe.
Liz Meyer, a singer-songwriter, died in 2011 at the age of 59 after a decade-long battle with cancer. Liz, an American who had lived in the Netherlands for a quarter of a century, was a leading figure in the European bluegrass scene and a major organizer and promoter for the EWOB.
The Eagle Music shop in Armitage Bridge, Yorkshire, in the UK has been presented an award for the sixth year in a row for selling a record number of banjos. Though I'm just catching up to the news now, the award was presented in November.
Having officially sold over two thousand Deering Banjos, more than any other retailer worldwide, Eagle have set a benchmark within the traditional music retail industry. The award is also in recognition of Eagle’s unrelenting dedication to customer service.
Founder of Eagle Music Shop and seasoned musician Steve Noon stated: “When you consider that Deering are the largest banjo manufacturer in the world, having over 350 Dealerships throughout America and the rest of the world, it puts it into perspective what our UK business has achieved in the world of banjos”.
See details about the award ceremony, including a photo of the plaque, HERE
The remarkable attraction of bluegrass music in parts of Europe/segments of Europeans was brought home to me this month when I attended -- albeit briefly -- two bluegrass workshops, one in Germany, near Munich, and the other in the Czech Republic.
The two events, which were held on successive weekends, had similarities and differences.
The annual Banjo Camp Munich, a workshop founded in 2007, took place Oct. 5-7 at Aschau, near Chiemsee in Bavaria, in a sprawling country hotel complex. Dozens of people attended -- I don't know the full number, but there were a lot! Far from just being banjo, there were classes and workshops on mandolin, guitar, dobro, fiddle, singing and harmony, and more. Teachers came from Germany and other countries and included American banjo player Bill Evans, British banjo player John Dowling, American dobro player Jimmy Heffernan and a list of others.
I got in too late (on a rainy afternoon) to observe any of the classes, but you can see photos from this year and from previous editions by clicking HERE.
I did get to see the concert Saturday night. The various workshop teachers performed the first half and then the second half was given over to a German "nouveau bluegrass" group called 54 Idaho -- one of whose leaders is one of the organizers of the Banjo Camp. I thought they gave a great show -- very iconoclastic, giving a slightly ironic bluegrass take on pop/rock tunes, with a charismatic singer fronting the band.
My friend Willie Jones, an American based in Germany who is one of the first people I met in the country music/western scene in Europe, taught singing and harmony. Willie now plays with groups in Germany (the Huckleberry Five) and Slovakia (Neznami).
He got me jamming, of sorts -- for the first time ever -- on my uke....
The very next weekend found in me the village of Male Svatonovice, in the north of the Czech Republic near the Polish border, for the 17th annual autumn Bluegrass Dilna (workshop). There were a lot of top Czech bluegrass musicians taking part as teachers -- from banjoist Petr Brandejs and members of the band Bluegrass CWRKOT, to fiddler Jiri Kralik, to my friend the banjoist Lubos Malina, of Druha Trava and other groups, who got me to go there.
Petr told me that there were about 120 students and 11 instructors, at classes featuring banjo, bass, guitar, mandolin.....It all took place in a big school building (we all had to take off shoes and put on sandals to enter). I sat in on Lubos's banjo class, which had 10 students and ran simultaneously with about three other banjo classes.
Barry Mazor writes in the Wall Street Journal about an interesting collaborative project that intersects bluegrass and Appalachian mountain music with the traditional music of the Himalayas....
Itinerant musicians who play simple, almost instantly recognizable tunes on four-string fiddles, chickens running in the yard, and some strong homemade drink nearby to match the homemade music. These images, surprisingly, come from both Virginia and . . . Nepal. The people of the Appalachian and Himalayan ranges have rarely been depicted as comparable, but their lives and music are compared and intersect in "The Mountain Music Project," a film released in July on DVD, with a set of related intercontinental musical collaborations released on CD under the same title.
The film and album were the result of encounters in Katmandu between two traditional musicians from Virginia—Tara Linhardt and Danny Knicely—and such rural Nepali musicians relocated to that capital city as Buddhiman Gandharba, a maker and player of the eye- and ear-catching homemade Nepali fiddle called the sarangi. (His surname, Gandharba, is that of his caste; the Gandharba are a longstanding class of performers traditionally avoided by others in Nepal except when they need adept musicians for a wedding or other event.)
Last summer, when I went into the studio in Prague to help with the recording of Druha Trava's CD Shuttle to Bethlehem, I ended up hanging out and traveling a bit with Lee Bidgood, an American fiddler and mandolinist who teaches at East Tennessee State University, which has a Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Studies program -- and his colleague from ETSU, the documentary filmmaker Shara Lange.
Lee did his PhD on Czech Bluegrass (we met in 2004 at the Caslav Bluegrass Festival in CZ) and he and Shara are making a documentary film on Czech Bluegrass music and musicians -- I am thrilled to be onboard as a sort of consultant or production assistant....
The film now has a web site -- you can click HERE to find out information, see some video, hear some music and find out more about the project, screenings, events, etc.
One upcoming event is a concert August 8, in Johnson City, TN, at which Lee and fellow musicians will perform Czech translations of bluegrass classics as well as original material by Czech bluegrass musicians, in both Czech and English.
Here's a clip I took of Lee jamming late a night with Lubos Malina, of Druha Trava.
During out brief travels last summer, we also visited Marko Cermak, the godfather of five-string banjo playing in CZ, at his cabin in the woods.
Interviewing Marko Cermak. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber
According to his own and other accounts, Cermak, who was active in the Czech tramp music scene, built his own long-necked, five-string banjo by studying photographs taken of Pete Seeger at Seeger's seminal 1964 concert in Prague concert. Cermak went on to become one of Czechoslovakia's first banjo virtuosi.
Marko Cermak. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber
Among other things, Cermak founded one of Czechoslovakia's first American-style country and bluegrass groups, the Greenhorns. The Greenhorns became extremely influential by playing Czech language versions of American folk songs, copying arrangements they heard on American Forces Radio. In doing so, they, and similar groups, brought these songs firmly into the local musical tradition, fostering a total assimilation of many songs into the Czech repertoire.
After visiting Marko, we went on to spend the night at the home of banjoist and banjo-maker Zdenek Roh, near Jihlava, where I had visited the previous year with Lubos Malina and Robert Krestan of Druha Trava.
For several years I've been exploring the imaginary wild west in contemporary Europe -- observing and experiencing the many ways that Europeans embrace the mythology of the American Frontier to enhance, imbue or create their own identities. (Or, indeed, just have fun.) On this blog I will post pictures, stories and links relating to this multi-faceted subculture, from European country music to rodeos, theme parks, round-ups and saloons....
I'm an American writer and photographer who has researched and written widely on Jewish culture and heritage issues for more than three decades. I've written several books on the topic and manage the website www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu, a project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe.
I also am working longterm on "Sturm, Twang and Sauerkraut Cowboys: Imaginary Wild Wests in Contemporary Europe," an exploration of the American West in the European imagination for which I won a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEH summer stipend grant. In 2015 I was the Arnold Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, SC. My other honors and awards include Poland's “Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit" and the Michael Hammer Tribute Research Award from the Hadassah Brandeis Institute (HBI).
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