Europe

**Philippe Bony** · Apr-10-2009, 6:16am

Bluegrass Music in Europe...
The New-York Times

**swampstomper** · Apr-10-2009, 8:17am

Philippe,

Thanks for spotting this! Amazingly it is a completly accurate and well-balanced report, surprising for mainstream journalism. It did not mention that Lily Drumeva spent some time in the USA and teamed up with Jesse Brock for a while. She has a lovely voice.

p.s. your signature seems redundant -- of course a Frenchman is left... n'est ce pas?

**Philippe Bony** · Apr-10-2009, 12:02pm

**Christopher Howard-Williams** · Apr-12-2009, 7:37pm

The report is written by Ruth Ellen Gruber a freelance American journalist living in Italy and well integrated in the European Bluegrass scene. She attends many of the festivals listed and was a participant at the European summit in Buhl (which I also attended).
Hats off to her for getting the article in such a high profile journal. It was printed in the Herald Tribune for Europe too.

**swampstomper** · Apr-13-2009, 6:05am

OK, see you all in Voorthuizen May 21-23 (you will recognize me by the Lebeda A5 shown in my avatar).

**Philippe Bony** · Apr-14-2009, 12:08pm

Or... see you all in La ROCHE-SUR-FORON July 29- August 2 2009. You'll recognize me... I'm lefty!

**swampstomper** · Apr-14-2009, 12:26pm

Hey, thanks for the link! Merci beaucoup pour l'enlace. I just might be able to make it... what a great location, far superior to flat, tiny, boring Voorthuizen :-) --- unfortunately a much longer ride for me.

**mandozilla** · Apr-14-2009, 1:55pm

Don't mean to hijack your thread Phillipe but I wonder, could you explain to me what is about bluegrass music that attracts so many people from around the globe?

I think it's a wonderful thing and it's amazing to me that people from wildly differing backgrounds and locales can get together with their instruments and have no problem picking 'Gold Rush' or singing 'Someday We'll Meet Again Sweetheart".

But I'm just curious. I suppose it depends partially on where you're from. In other words what attracts a European might be different than what attracts someone in Japan...I dunno...

**Philippe Bony** · Apr-14-2009, 2:28pm

I can't explain what attracts someone from Japan, or someone in Europe...
Maybe I can explain what attracted me, more than thirty years ago.
music! Fast and "happy" music, acoustic instruments, everyone taking breaks... and "music" of voices, songs in a foreign language you hadn't to understand to feel... that high lonesome sound?

**billkilpatrick** · Apr-14-2009, 3:30pm

... "like a letter from home."

**Christopher Howard-Williams** · Apr-16-2009, 9:42am

The people in Europe get the same buzz out of it: the jam and the sense of being part of a big family. If you play Bluegrass you're my friend.
In Japan, it is the same. I walked into a Bluegrass bar in Tokyo for the first time some years back and within about 15 minutes I was up on stage playing, playing with the band. They couldn't speak English, I couldn't speak Japanese.

**swampstomper** · Apr-17-2009, 4:37pm

It's just great music when played well, plus the high level of the community. Once you stand around in a circle and feel the magical mix of vibrations from quality instruments in tune and in time, with the solid bass keeping it together, and a tenor singer just HITS it.... well, there's no cultural barrier at all.

**Ivan Kelsall** · Apr-17-2009, 11:42pm

You're right on the button there swampy !. I've seen people almost literally blown away when hearing a Bluegrass band in top gear for the first time - a VERY moving experience indeed,
Saska

**mandolooter** · Apr-18-2009, 6:58am

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

... "like a letter from home."

exactly!!!!!

**Philippe Bony** · Apr-18-2009, 7:39am

Originally Posted by mandolooter

exactly!!!!!

Sure, if english is your native language...

**Plamen Ivanov** · Apr-18-2009, 12:33pm

Yes, Lilly Drumeva is doing great job for making the bluegrass music popular in Bulgaria! Jesse Brock was here some time ago and it is just one month ago since Radim Zenkl was also in Bulgaria. All thanks to Lilly. She is unfortunatelly what we call here "a white swallow", i.e. one of a kind, one and only, very rare, etc. in performing bluegrass. But she is doing great. She has also a radio and TV show for bluegrass music.

For most people here it is country music and country has been always very well accepted by the Bulgarian audience. We like also Irish music very much, so there are good chances for bluegrass to become more popular. What i would like to say is that any bluegrass musicians, especially mandolin players who are willing to visit Bulgaria are very welcome and shall be surprised by the warm and responsive audience!!!

Best,
Plamen

**Chris Keth** · Apr-19-2009, 9:24pm

That's pretty interesting to me, because I've always had the feeling that most people who listen to bluegrass, or even know about it, are the people who grew up with it.

**papawhisky** · Apr-19-2009, 11:04pm

I was living in Germany in the mid 90's and met up with a great guy that was really into clawhammer banjo. We played a lot together and bacame pretty good friends. We even made a trip back to Wieser Idaho for a week. He was totally blown away by that. He jammed himself silly.

As an American abroad, I was so happy to see someone from another culture find something worth pursuing in our folk tradition.
Goodness knows we have plenty to answer for when you see kids in other countries in baggy clothes, listening to rap, glued to a PS2.

**swampstomper** · Apr-20-2009, 6:40am

Originally Posted by PanaDP

That's pretty interesting to me, because I've always had the feeling that most people who listen to bluegrass, or even know about it, are the people who grew up with it.

No, I don't think that's true even in the USA. People get turned on to music in different ways and at different stages in life. When you hear something new, if it grabs you, you will follow it. A good example are the "revival" old-time bands like Highwoods, or the city bluegrass people like the Dawg or Pete Wernick. If you read their own statments they make it clear that they didn't grow up with the music, they heard it and liked it and then pursued it. Many bluegrassers both in USA and Europe knew some kind of folk music but then when they hear bluegrass they're blown away.

**billkilpatrick** · Apr-20-2009, 7:29am

me, for one - for "europe" read "new york city" ... in terms of exposure to anything other than 40's swing and dixieland jazz (my parent's tastes) and east coast, '50's am radio (mine), the first lp i bought which even came close was "the weaver's at carnegie hall." within a few months of moving to manhattan i was down at washington square soaking up old-time and bluegrass like it was the only music on earth. in terms of being familiar with it or brought up with it, it could have just as easily come from mars.

**mandozilla** · Apr-23-2009, 1:14am

What i would like to say is that any bluegrass musicians, especially mandolin players who are willing to visit Bulgaria are very welcome and shall be surprised by the warm and responsive audience!!!

Plamen, I've always wanted visit Bulgaria and someday I will...Hell, I'd like to buy a beach house on the Black Sea in Bulgaria...the photos I've seen are quite stunning.

But I'll tell you what, If I ever do make it there I'll be sure and bring a mandolin and seek out bluegrassers! Like I said in an earlier post, I think it's cool that bluegrass music is sort of a language unto itself. If I met up with you and a Japanese tourist, who also played bluegrass, in your country I know that we'd all know many of the same songs and tunes and be able to jam with no problem and that is just too cool.

**farmerjones** · Apr-23-2009, 7:49am

Indeed, you'd think the hearthland would be knee deep in Bluegrass, not so much. This is the birthplace of Glenn Miller, and Buddy Holly's last ride. It was that guy playing banjo at the student union, that made me spend my book money on a banjo. It was thirty years ago.

**abuteague** · Apr-23-2009, 8:56am

Canada is not Europe, but I visited Edmonton, Alberta from the states for a half a week. I was there for a work related conference.

It didn't matter that I didn't bring my mandolin.
It didn't matter that I play celtic music 99% of the time.
It didn't matter that I didn't plan to attend any music events and that most of my evenings were planned for other stuff.
It didn't matter that I didn't rent a car, or have transportation.
It didn't matter that I didn't even know of the Northern Bluegrass Circle.

But somehow and some way on a snowy night I found myself playing bluegrass on a borrowed mandolin (a nice one I might add, generous folks!). My third instrumental break made me smile for the rest of the week. I didn't know that improvisational stuff was in there. I also had no idea that I was so readily adoptable into a new family.

**oldwave maker** · Apr-23-2009, 10:11am

Three more fine and fun american pickers are heading that way this summer, Jesse of Albuquerque's Squash Blossom Boys is moving to Geneva for a job in physics, son Ezra and Tara to Marseilles for the same:

**Plamen Ivanov** · Oct-28-2009, 2:13am

Two Hungarian bluegrass musicians - Zsolt Pinter and Geza Kremnitzky from the leading Hungarian bluegrass band "Acousticure" were in Sofia last week and performed at the "Tea House" together with Lilly Drumeva and her band.