HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD The European Bluegrass Music Association has announced the 6th European Bluegrass Summit will be held March 14-16, 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic. The Lonesome River Band will play a special show. Visit www.ebma.org/ebs2014 for more details. The Stetson Family from Australia announced they’ll have a new album out in 2014. In the meantime, they have a slew of tour dates all over Australia. Visit www. thestetsonfamily.com for details.
“Broken Circle Breakdown” is a Belgian film drama about a love story; the male is a banjo player in a bluegrass band and much of the film is circled around bluegrass music. The film has received a lot of attention not just from ‘grassers, but the film critics across the globe. We asked our friend EBMA chair and former IBMA International Rep, Rienk Janssen of The Netherlands to give us his take on the film. *Spoiler alert* This review contains a revealing of some plot points.
Switzerland’s Mala & FyrMoon have almost finished with recording their first band album. Mala says “it was an interesting, long and exciting process, with lots of learning and laughter!” The Moniaive Michaelmas Bluegrass Festival, held in Moniaive, UK, will be held on September 26-28 2014. The full lineup will include two American, two Scottish, and two English bands: The four-piece band of Carpenter & May (USA), Whitetop Mountain Band (USA), Dirty Beggars (Scotland), the Mairs Family Band (Scotland), Dalebilly (England), and the Jaywalkers (England). Tickets will be on sale starting in April. More details are on the Festival website
WestWend has been added to the lineup for the 15th Spring Bluegrass Festival in Willisau, Switzerland on May 24, 2014 as part of a tour in Europe. They will be backed by a stellar band of Slovak musicians including Richard Cifersky, Michal Barok, and Anton Naroda. The Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music Society of Australia reports the Peter Rowan Trio – made up of Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, and Chris Henry – will be at the Blue Mtns Folk & Roots Festival in Victoria, Australia in March.
--Final proof: Bluegrass = Heaven! Not long ago - and much too late, I know - I finally went to a movie theater to see the Belgian blockbuster production “Broken Circle Breakdown.” It was in Borne, NL, and before and after the showing of the film, the Bordertown Bluegrass Boys - Johannes Bodingius, Paul van Vlodrop & Ronnie Snippe showed the people in the foyer what bluegrass music is all about. I experienced the film as a bluegrass song becoming reality. The story, and the music as part of it, confirmed my belief
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International Bluegrass
that bluegrass essentially is a very sad kind of music. Despite the very beautiful sights and sounds, of which the movie has plenty, everything in it turns out for the worst. For those who have not seen it, here’s the shortest possible summary: two good people find each other, they get a beautiful little daughter who dies of cancer, and their ways of dealing with the grief diverge quite drastically, until a bitter end.
But, in the course of the story, bluegrass music is sung and played (and the small amount of factual information about the music in the film is actually correct!), up until the scene around the final death bed. At that moment all is lost, but there still is the music. Which left me with the feeling that, at the end of a life of misery and desolation, you end up in bluegrass music. But wasn’t that the definition of heaven, when many of us still believed in it?