Dunmore East a spectacular cosy seaside fishing village on the sunny south east of Ireland, full of old world thatched charm and a full menu of get away from it all activities is also the home for an annual assembly of Bluegrass music’s finest local and international performers.
Mick Daly started the ball rolling twelve years ago and has kept it rolling with a singular focus ever since, when as then proprietor of The Spinnaker affectionately known locally as The Spanker, decided to put a bit of life into the quiet spot at the end of the summer by organising this Bluegrass Festival to help boost the commercial nature of the villages wares at the end of August each year.
So it was onto the M50 and down the N11 with the family for the 175 km trip to Bunclody native and musician Richie Roberts B&B Avon Lodge in Dunmore East to get my head around the world of Bluegrass.
The first performance for me was the from the USA called The King Brothers featuring John Catterall on Banjo, Mandolin and Vocals and Paul Kenney Guitar and Lead Vocal.
The King Brothers are an innovative mingling of Bluegrass, Country and Irish Traditional inspired primarily by the music of The Stanley Brothers pioneers of Bluegrass who released all their music on King Records in the 50’s hence the name.
Playing on a stage set up on the lawn of the Fawlty Towers look-alike Haven Hotel on a warm sunshiny Saturday afternoon the equally warm and friendly King Brothers embody a profound familiarity and grasp of the Bluegrass traditions.The easygoing presence of John and Paul on stage quickly earned them an equally warm appreciation from the audience as they worked their way through a repertoire of old folksy Blue Ridge mountain music with infectious mournful and joyous harmonies.
There were reminiscences of their sessions with the formative Dixie Chicks and a great version of John Denver’s Country Roads.They talked about the fascination prison songs have and song with delightful harmonies bringing a sad a beautiful poetic depth to the lyrics.The gateway to different musical forms for me has always been the guitar and there is no shortage of guitar-fuelled magic to be heard in Bluegrass music.
The chemistry of Paul’s walking bass lines and strumming patterns on his Martin six string acoustic fitted with a Fishman Thinline pick up combined with John’s Banjo picking was foot tappingly wonderful from this very pleasant professional duo.
I Lived A Lot In My Time was a rolling delight full of captivating lyrics and a catchy chorus:
” I fought the grim reaper down in the dark valley
I prayed where the sun didn’t shine
I look through the bars of this cold lonely prison
Yes I’ve lived a lot in my time”
A Dublin based group called Hog Rose provided the next musical delight up at the top of the town in Powers Bar. There was a singalong in full swing by the time we settled into their set featuring classics like the happiest song I think of all time” You Are My Sunshine.”
Plenty of blarney in between the songs and wonderful good time tunes like Take Me Back To Tulsa, I’m Too Young To Marry and a tribute to the late Dublin Traditional singer songwriter John Harte entitled “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”.
The most noticeable quality watching Hog Rose is the passionate love and admiration they have for the music, with each song given a 110% dose of love and affection from this group featuring Richard Hawkins whose commitment and passion for Bluegrass music promotions is a sparkling genuine down to earth treat for fans and musicians ensuring that the circle will remain unbroken thankfully.
“You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are grey
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you
Please don’t take my sunshine away”
Another Irish family keeping the bluegrass and old time music flame alight over the years with regular sessions in the Cork area are Kevin and Geraldine Gill and their two sons who I came across on my travels doing an un-amplified session in The Spinnaker on Saturday night with members of the Jack Danielle’s String Band from France and performing again on Sunday in the small but lovely front garden setting of The Ship Restaurant surrounded by Sunday diners tucking into the excellent food on offer.
The grace and simplicity of this fine seldom heard traditional music was like the icing on the cake on a warm seaside village afternoon.One of the fastest picking exciting groups performing over the weekend was The BlueGrass Boogiemen from Holland and they were lifting the roof off The Ocean Hotel on the Saturday night when we arrived.
There was a great sense of humour, fun, great musicianship being demonstrated by The BlueGrass Boogiemen jumping about the stage in minstrel black and white shoes and alternating vocal positions around the main microphone.The on stage energy of these melodic bluegrass rock and rollers was captivating and engaging with the audience on their feet from start to finish watching super pickers, hoe down fiddle playing, wonderful bluegrass instrumentalists and interactive duelling vocalists.
Like all of the other performers I witnessed over the weekend in Dunmore East I found that I was quiet familiar with the bluegrass repertoires featuring as it does music that has been the pinnacle tracks on the soundtrack of our lives in our favourite cowboy films, swing bands, country, old time traditional and new folk music performances not to mention contemporary movies like Johnny Cash’s Walk The Line and Oh Brother Where Art Thou with classics like Man Of Constant Sorrow flowing amongst songs with the purest strains of angelic Appalachian bluegrass.
Walking about listening to the different bands I soon realised the diverse array of styles under the Bluegrass/Folk/Country umbrella, from the fun songs to the beautifully poignant, that takes the audience willingly back to a time when life was less complex because of the strong spiritual nourishment in the soul searching lyrics and the upbeat arrangements.
Unfortunately it proved impossible to get around all the bands and often you met musicians on the sidewalks rushing from one venue to the other along the hilly streets with their musical instrument cases tucked under their arms from The Ocean to The Haven or from The Strand to Powers, The Ship or The Spinnaker.
On the Saturday and Sunday night I mingled with the thousands of local fans wandering outside the Harbour side Strand Stage with their young exuberant flaps closed looking for a familiar face in the crowd, humming along young and old to the melodic waves of Blue Moon of Kentucky coming in off the nearby Atlantic Ocean.
Blue Moon Of Kentucky is one of the great signposts on the musical route of every music fan just as it was on a young impressionable Elvis in one of Bill Monroe’s travelling tents on the outskirts of Memphis in the early fifties so much so that he developed it down at the crossroads with some thumping blues and laid it down with Sam Philips and Scotty Moore and The Wranglers on the B Side of his first single to make the world spin on a musical revolution that has carried us to where we are now in present day music fashion.The ~Blue Ass Festival in Dunmore East each year is a gathering of the faithful, a family reunion that ends in a midnight jamboree in the bars and out on the streets.The groups do what they feel like doing until all the instruments are packed up and goodbyes are exchanged.
After a walk through the marvellous woods with its labyrinth of natural pathways, that span the rear of Dunmore East on Sunday morning we stopped by The Ocean Hotel once more to get toe tapping again while the Clarksville Mountain Band rally the troops with storming versions of Old Tom Tucker, Last Train to Clarksville and a Funkgrass version of Stevie Wonders Superstition before moving next door to Powers to get some good seats for a session from Blue Railroad Train featuring American Bluegrass veteran James Field and four French musicians with a shared love of old traditional bluegrass and driving traditional country music full of virtuoso passionate playing and with both English and French harmonic vocals.
Straddling the fence between Saturday night drinking and Sunday morning church, Blue Railroad Train had plenty of Honky Tonk Blues, Steel Driving tales of lonesome heartbreak and all night cafe’s with a repertoire that included Chuck Berry’s 30 day’s, Big Bill Bronzy, sorrowful trails, slow trains and created an atmosphere in Dunmore East on a Sunday morning of where the deer and the antelope roam to the rhythm of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and newgrass legend Ricky Skaggs.
Sunday afternoon in the Haven Hotel was buzzing and packed for the superb Boxcar Preachers from Austin Texas who specialise in fast picking Texas Bluegrass oozing with fast and furious charisma and excitement.
Craig High was fantastic and in top form with super charged washboard, jaw harp and hollerin good old fashioned vocals surrounded by a cacophony of musical expertise gushing forth like an oil strike from Bruce Mitchell and the boys including some amazing steel guitar picking from Ian Mitchell playing with his guitar angled almost horizontally to use a tapered stainless steel bar on the strings for single string accuracy.
This is barnstorming humorous lovin music straight off Walton’s Mountain full of good times and hard living yarns from a seasoned bunch of good time musicians.We got a sermon from the hill outside the Haven Hotel and a rip-roaring version of Folsom Prison Blues.
” I hear that train a coming, its rolling around the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when
I’m stuck at Folsom Prison and time keeps dragging on
But that train keeps rolling on down to San Antoine”
There was much dancing high on the hill from young and old inspired by waltzing Texan Lady Connie from Austin who told me to go down and see the magnificent statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan in the Boxcar Preachers hometown of Austin Texas.
This music is the embodiment of a set of values where the present can come to terms with the past, nomadic troubadours emulating their idols with the crowd in their corner because they know how they feel about this music they love.
Playing with a feeling because this music going back to fellow Texan, Jules Verne Allen has meaning and a literal truth that will remain on the road as long as there is anyone to listen, motivated to play it, because if its not your time now, play it loud and proud until its your time again.
As the evening moved into the final sessions of the Festival we stopped into The Ship to sample some of Dunmore East’s finest Monkfish and Crab Claws washed down with a bottle of Marques de Riscal Reserva 2001/02.This classic Rioja with its vanilla and oaky aroma and full bodied ripe rich fruit flavoured lengthy delight was the perfect complement for all this acoustic rootsy rare auld mountain vibe.It left me in flying form for the finale in the Spinnaker later when the Boxcar Preachers put on another splendid performance and put it all into focus singing:
“Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down
Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down
When the Boxcar Preachers play
I’m gonna get up out of the ground
Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down”
The Dunmore East Bluegrass Festival was Honky Tonk boogie music with a traditional country beat with a logic of approach and the sureness of artistic intent featuring:
– The Boxcar Preachers
– The King Brothers
– Bluegrass Boogiemen
– Clarksville Mountain Band
– Hog Rose
– Kevin & Geraldine Gill
– Jack Danielle’s String Band
– Tennessee Hob
– Blue Railroad Train
– Mean Eyed Cats
– Richie Roberts& Friends
Mick Kenny aka MTW
