French Festivals!!

It was at Equiblues that I photographed (but alas did not buy) this iconic Heritage Authentic T-shirt. Photo (c) with Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Wow, a whole month has gone by since I said I had a lot of catching up to do .... which means I have even more catching up to do!

But -- it's a good moment to do so, as three of Europe's best Country/Western/Etc festivals are beginning -- all three of them in France, one weekend after the next: the Country Rendez-vous in Craponne; the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in La Roche sur Foron; and Equiblues in St. Agreve.

I've been to all three in the past -- I posted from Craponne and La Roche.   Each festival is quite different, and it would be fantastic to be able to spend three weeks in France going from one to the next and taking them all in. This year, though, it looks as if I will only be able to make it to Equiblues -- which combines concerts, line-dancing and a "scene" with a rodeo.

COUNTRY RENDEZ-VOUS, CRAPONNE

Country Rendez-vous  Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The annual Country Rendez-vous in Craponne got under way last night, with a five-band set including  ERIK SITBON & THE GHOST BAND (France), CROOKS & STRAIGHTS (Croatia!!), THE STEELDRIVERS (USA), THE TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS (USA) and TWO TONS OF STEEL (USA).

Country Rendez-vous is probably the most prestigious of the dozens of country music and western scene festivals that take place in France each year. Most of the bands are from the U.S., and the Festival's savvy director and guiding spirit, Georges Carrier,  travels to the U.S. each year to make contacts and see bands. The Festival also has representatives on the ground in Nashville and Austin.

A couple of festival-goers at the Country Rendez-vous, 2007 Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

LA ROCHE BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL

The La Roche Bluegrass Festival is one of the biggest and friendliest of the scores of bluegrass festivals that take place each year around Europe. This year there are 30 bands from 14 countries. All the concerts are free, and there are lots of street events in the lovely town of La Roche. The festival also entails a band contest.

EQUIBLUES, ST. AGREVE

If all goes well, I will make it to Equiblues for the first time in some years.

Different from the other two festivals, it combines country music with a full-fledged rodeo -- there is lots of line-dancing and a colorful "western market" scene. Equiblues was one of the first European western festivals I attended, and I am eager to see it again. I still have a special bottle of Equiblues wine that I purchased the first time!

Line dancers at Equiblues. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Earl Scruggs RIP....

The death of a towering figure....many obituaries, but I am posting the link to the obit by Peter Cooper in the Nashville Tennessean

A quietly affable presence, Mr. Scruggs popularized a complex, three-fingered style of playing banjo that transformed the instrument, inspired nearly every banjo player who followed him and became a central element in what is now known as bluegrass music.

But Mr. Scruggs’ legacy is in no way limited to or defined by bluegrass, a genre that he and partner Lester Flatt dominated as Flatt & Scruggs in the 1950s and ’60s: His adaptability and open-minded approach to musicality and to collaboration made him a bridge between genres and generations.

Rather than speak out about the connections between folk and country in the war-torn, politically contentious ’60s, he simply showed up at folk festivals and played, at least when he and Flatt weren’t at the Grand Ole Opry. During the long-hair/short-hair skirmishes of the ’60s and ’70s, he simply showed up and played, with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and The Byrds. And when staunch fans of bluegrass — a genre that would not exist in a recognizable form without Mr. Scruggs’ banjo — railed against stylistic experimentation, Mr. Scruggs happily jammed away with sax player King Curtis, sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, piano man Elton John and anyone else whose music he fancied.

“He was the man who melted walls, andhe did it without saying three words,” said his friend and acolyte Marty Stuart in 2000.

Read full article

Czech/US/Music -- Druha Trava and Shuttle to Bethlehem on U.S. national NPR radio

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

More DT and Shuttle to Bethlehem -- the band's English-language CD that mainly features my translations of Robert Krestan's original Czech songs.

A story on the band and the CD, by NPR political correspondent Don Gonyea, ran on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" show today. Read a short version of it HERE or listen to the full story HERE.

The first time I heard Druha Trava play was April 2009. I was covering President Obama's trip to the Europe. There was a big outdoor speech in Prague, and the band was playing Czech versions of Bob Dylan songs.

I did a short radio postcard story back then, figuring it was the kind of experience that every music fan knows: You stumble upon a great band somewhere and never see them again.

Now it's the fall of 2011, and I'm chasing candidates around Iowa. Who should be doing a show at the Czech and Slovak Hall in Cedar Rapids? Druha Trava.

"Shuttle to Bethlehem"

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I just spent three days with Druha Trava in California (around the Bay Area) helping out with some of the PR for the new CD "Shuttle to Bethlehem" -- the CD showcases my English language translations of Robert Krestan's original Czech songs, and I also wrote the liner notes for the album.

It was fun. Three good and very well received concerts in three quite different venues as part of the band's current five-week U.S. tour (a sold-out gig at a coffee house in Santa Clara, a crowded concert in someone's house in Redwood City, and a lunchtime show at a Mexican Restaurant called Don Quixote's near Santa Cruz....see clip below

I also took part in a two-hour radio show on the local KRCB NPR affiliate in Sonoma country about the CD and the band, hosted by my friend Linda Seabright -- and ahead of the Don Quixote gig, I spoke on-air between songs during a live performance by the band on KPIG FM. (The studio is located in a former motel in Freedom, CA, and is decorated with layers of pictures and posters testifying to 40 years of rock...)

KPIG studio. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The band's tour has been getting good write-ups: to me it's interesting how the sets  they sing are  different in the States from what they do in CZ. Here in the US, most is in English -- new songs from "Shuttle" and a range of covers -- and there's more bluegrass. But in CZ, Robert's songs make up the major part of the onstage repertoire, with only a very few songs in English.

Bluegrass -- Liz Meyer RIP

 

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The  bluegrass community on both sides of the Atlantic is mourning the singer-songwriter Liz Meyer, who has died 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 European World of Bluegrass Festival and Trade Show.

Liz performed and recorded with many of contemporary bluegrass's greats, including one-time roommate Emmylou Harris, guitarist Mark Cosgrove, banjo players Bela Fleck and Ron Block, dobroists Rob Ickes and Jerry Douglas, fiddlers Glen Duncan and Stuart Duncan, bass player Bryon House and mandolinist Sam Bush.

From the CDBaby web site, about her 2005 Cd The Storm, in which she sang songs she had written that reflected on her illness.

Meyer is an American who is married to Dutch mandolinist Pieter Groenveld and who has lived in Holland since 1985. She’s been very involved with the European bluegrass scene, and months before its release, this album was in the Top Ten of the Euro Americana Radio Chart. All lyrics are included in the CD jacket. Liz’s songs have been recorded by such artists as Del McCoury, Mike Auldridge, Emmylou Harris, and Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum. Liz’s association with Emmylou goes back to the early 1970s when they roomed together in the D.C. area. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, Liz kept touring, underwent alternative treatments, and managed to beat the cancer. Liz attributes music with giving her the motivation and determination to keep going. “The Storm” is dedicated to the people who saved her life when the Storm was at its darkest. In her poignant closer, “Running Out of Time,” she says she wants kindness, love and to feel alive. Movies where they tell someone they have a few months to live had made a big impression on Liz as a child. Rather than write a song like “My Favorite Things” with a list of all the things you want to do while you still have time, she tried to find the most painfully poignant way to express these feelings--wanting to have a lover and feel passion one last time.

Read a full obituary on The Bluegrass Blog.