Rawhide (Belgium) awarded honor at European World of Bluegrass

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 European Bluegrass Blog reports:

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.

First European Images of Native Americans?

Photo courtesy of Vatican Museums

The Vatican says that the restoration of a fresco from 1494 appears to have revealed the earliest European depiction Native Americans.

According to an article in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the tiny images of nude, figures wearing feathered headdresses came to light during the restoration of a fresco of Christ's Resurrection by Pinturicchio in the Borgia Apartments of the Vatican.

"The naked men, who appear to be dancing, were spotted by a restorer, Maria Pustka, as she removed centuries of grime," writes Nick Squires in The Telegraph. A sketched horse can also be seen.

In the Osservatore Romano article, Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums, suggests that the figures were inspired by Christopher Columbus's own description of native people encountered on his first trip to the "new world" just two years before the fresco was completed.

Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia became pope in August 1492, two months before Columbus set foot in the Americas, and, like other European leaders, he was "interested in the New World," Parolucci wrote.

“What if the early impression of those naked men, good and even happy, who gave parrots as gifts and painted their bodies black and red, came to life in the small dancing figurines in the background of Pinturicchio’s Resurrection?” he wrote. This would then be, he added, "the first figurative representation of native Americans."


See articles in The Telegraph  and Religion News Service

Kids Cowboy Costumes Stolen in Scotland

Hmmm.

Police in Scotland say hundreds of pounds' worth of children's cowboy dress-up costumes were stolen last week in the break-in to a shed in the northern town of Fraserburgh.

STV news quoted a police spokesman as saying:

“As a result of the incident, a quantity of children’s black and white cowboy dressing up costumes, worth a low three-figure sum, were stolen.”

Big Exhibition on the Iroquois Opens in Germany

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A major exhibition on the Iroquois has just opened in Bonn, Germany at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"On the Trails of the Iroquois" opened March 22 and will run until August 4. Accompanying it is an outfoor installation -- "The Iroquois Longhouse and The Iroquois Garden Landscape" -- which features the reconstruction of an Iroquois longhouse.

The exhibition description notes:

Of the hundreds of Native American peoples, only a few have over the centuries engaged the European and Euro-American imagination to the extent that the Iroquois did. This fascination is in a large measure due to the outstanding role the Five (and later Six) Nations played in the arena of colonial encounters in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century North America, which gained them a reputation as fierce warriors and skilled diplomats and is also reflected in a host of fictional literature. But European interest has always far exceeded this preoccupation with political and military excellence, and Western intellectual struggle with Iroquois culture has left enduring imprints not only on the history of anthropology, but also on popular culture, the peace and women's movements, and even efforts to establish the foundation of alternative lifestyes.

Curated by Dr. Sylvia Kasprycki, it states, the exhibition, 

will attempt to trace the development of Iroquois culture from its origins up to its vibrant articulations in the present-day United States and Canada, following their varied history through colonial times characterized by war, trade, and European missionary efforts; the subsequent weakening of their power through loss of land and political autonomy and the eventual break-up of the League after the American Revolution; the cultural transformations during the Reservation period; and their strive for sovereignty in the twentieth century up to very contemporary concerns.

Moccasins, Iroquois, Ca. 1820 
Deer skin, porcupine quills
© Museum der Kulturen, Basel

Bringing together for the first time art and artifacts from major collections in Europe, the United States, and Canada and conceived in close cooperation with Iroquois artists, curators, and intellectuals, the exhibition aspires to a multi-layered representation of both Western appropriations and imaginings of Iroquois culture as well as contemporary indigenous voices on their history and present-day identities. As Tuscarora artist and writer Richard W. Hill expressed it, "it can safely be said that today, the Haudenosaunee define themselves through their diversity," as each generation "adds to that layered definition, taking the artistic expressions of the past, the oral traditions of their ancestors, and add that to their own life experiences." This large-scale exhibition aims to portray this diversity and the Iroquois people's continuous creative adaptations to ever-changing living conditions over time, presenting approximately 500 objects on about 1600 square meters of representative exhibition space (in addition to parts of the 9000 square meters roof garden) at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn.

RIP Cowboy actor Dale Robertson

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Dale Robertson, an Oklahoma-born actor who specialized in cowboy and western roles in the movies and TV, has died at the age of 89.

I remember him best as the star of the old TV western "Tales of Wells Fargo," from 1957 through 1962.

The obit on CNN states:

The role of a cowboy was not a stretch for Robertson, who grew up on an Oklahoma horse ranch. He and his wife raised horses in Oklahoma until moving to a San Diego suburb last summer, Susan Robertson said. 

Robertson never sought formal acting training, based on advice that he should keep his own personality, according to his biography. 

In the 1966 TV series "Iron Horse," Robertson played a character who won a railway in a high-stakes poker game. 

He hosted, along with Ronald Reagan, episodes of "Death Valley Days" during the 1960s.
Film roles, also mostly Westerns, included "Devil's Canyon," "Sitting Bull," and "Dakota Incident."

UK shop sets banjo record sales

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

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.

The prescription bluegrass blog writes:

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

French Riviera Country Music Festival comin' up!

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The 14th annual French Riviera Country Music Festival will take place at the beginning of August, with a mix of European and U.S. artists. Looks like it will be a blast!

Here's the program:

Vendredi 2 août 2013

The Mariotti Brothers (F)
Steff Nevers (No)

FLYNNVILLE TRAIN (USA)

Samedi 3 août 2013

The Ranch House Favourites (NL)
TWO TONS OF STEEL (USA)
Paul Mac Bonvin (CH)

I saw Steff Nevers at the Equiblues rodeo and country festival in St. Agreve, France last summer, and he was terrific.

Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber