New Essex Bluegrass Band: Old gigs 2009-2010

We enjoyed ourselves so much last year that we applied to be invited again (but this year we did not enter the band competition). We were delighted to have been asked back. We would encourage other UK bands to apply; you will have a wonderful time. We'd be happy to share our experiences with any band that is thinking of going.

Apart from the Cambridge Folk Festival, this is the first one I have been to for many years and it was very interesting to see how the Folk movement has moved on to encompass a broader range of accoustic music, while at the same time preserving the spirit of the Sea Shanties sung in a pub with a morris side stomping outside. The festival was great fun to attend, though the weather was ridiculously hot.

We played two full-length sets, plus performing in the Club Tent and we gave a Workshop on harmony singing. You can get a flavour of our performances from some videos that were posted to You Tube by Karl Bedingfield (to whom many thanks are due). The first is All I Ever Loved was You. The next is our first live performance of Long Black Veil, which didn't go too badly! True Life Blues. And if you got this far, this is the first minute of our encore (before the battery ran flat)!. I think that this is the fastest we have ever played this... Graham was feeling a bit frisky.

Another outing for the new tent. We now know that two people cannot put it up in a strong wind! At least this time we had a groundsheet, so we were all warmer that last week end. It was also a great relief to have Grahame back... it feels very odd to be banjoless.

This is a new addition to the Bluegrass festival circuit; the site is in the well-appointed village hall with camping in the adjacent field. Although it is called Bordergrass, the organisers are aiming at a broader spectrum of accoustic music than Bluegrass, and had a wide variety of bands, including international contributions from Canada and Germany. There were not that many folks camping, but the concerts and workshops were very well attended. Well worth considering if you are in the area next year.

There were several novelties about the NEBB at Orwell. The first was that our old tent, whose frame has now disintegrated into a complicated metal puzzle, was retired and we turned up with a new gin palace. Our first attempt at assembly resulted in a tent that stopped 4 inches from the ground all around, so Terry insisted we start again, this time following the instructions. Half an hour later we got to exactly the same position - four inches off the ground. At this point we realised that the tent was missing a zip-in groundsheet... so we enjoyed a couple of nights with the Cold Wind (geddit?) whistling around our ears. We hope to get a groundsheet in time for next week!

The second novelty was that Grahame was otherwise engaged at a family wedding, so we did not perform as the New Essex Bluegrass Band, but we were delighted to be able to support the very talented Heather Bristow, appearing under the title & Band as in Heather Bristow & Band.

This was an interesting departure for the NEBB as almost all the material was written by Heather and we had to assemble the entire set in the space of 24 hours. It was quite a challenge! As many of the songs required vocal harmonies of the female persuasion, we were delighted to be joined by Liz Taylor. You can find out more about Heather, her songs and her recent album Hope On The Vine, here. We will all be getting back together (with Grahame) to support Heather when she plays at the Didmarton Bluegrass Festival later this year.

We also hosted the Sunday morning Gospel session. This is always a pleasure; folks sang a great range of gospel material ranging from the early days of bluegrass to much more modern songs. Paul was able to lead the backing for most of the numbers, but his encyclopedic knowledge of bluegrass was finally defeated by a Bob Dylan number.

We have attended every Orwell festival since the very first, and we are pleased to report that this was the best yet (all the previous ones were pretty good, too!) Chris and Ralph and the team are to be congratulated on a well-run festival with a great site, showers (with hot water), a good and varied programme of British Bluegrass, a great main stage with excellent sound and lighting, workshops, wonderful beer (at very reasonable prices) and a good turnout from the British Bluegrass devotees. Even the weather was great. If you have never been to this festival, make a note in your diary now to go next year.

There is more information on this event at the Street Legal web site. Thanks to Mike Green for inviting us. This was originally scheduled for Jan 10, but was cancelled due to the terrible weather.

We got to play three songs Friday night in prime time TV on the top Lithuanian show, which is a cross between the X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and the White Heather Club. The show features villages competing in traditional dance, song and music, and although Bluegrass was a little distant from the music they played, they had lots of fiddle players, so Greg felt right at home. You can still see the show (if it is not visible above) by going here for the next few months. You can find us at about 20, then 43 minutes into the show, then finally at 1 hr, 11 minutes. The whole show is around 2 hours!

We played a concert at the town hall on Saturday night, with NEBB doing the first half and Peter Rowan playing the second. We also backed Peter Rowan for a couple of songs at the end.

We would very much like to thank Algirdas and his team for making us so welcome and for looking after us so well.

Come and listen to one of the best bluegrass bands in the country while cruising down the Grand Union Canal on one of the most amazing barges in the country, Elsdale II.

The New Essex Bluegrass band perform traditional bluegrass at its best, chill out to their music while supporting the work of Elsdale the West London Floating Classroom. Tickets sales go toward the boats educational outreach to schools and community groups.

Boat departs from Packet Boat Marina, Packet Boat Lane, Cowley nr Uxbridge UB8 2JJ. Booking is essential as places are limited. Tickets 10 pounds pre-purchased 12 pounds if bought on the day. Contact Vicky Tustian on 07545 924 868 or email her by clicking here

Elsdale is special as she is the only one of her kind on the canal. She is one of the biggest boats you will see operating on the canal and completely electrically powered, so no noisey engine or diesel fumes. She takes thousands of children onto the canal every year to learn about their industrial heritage and local wildlife. The name comes from the first floating classroom commissioned by the Rev. Elsdale about 70 years ago to follow the working boats and provide an education for the bargees children who didn't have the opportunity to attend school.

This was a great way to finish off the festival season for us, and the weather was also very kind. It is always nice to be here as the organisers make you feel very welcome, and being put up in a caravan is a treat for our old bones. It was especially nice to finish off the weekend with the Gospel session; however, it made it even sadder to leave for the long drive back home.

This year we were running a one hour workshop on the use of a single microphone. This came about because Audio Technica had provided an AT4033a microphone (the same model that we use) as a raffle prize in order to help raise money to sponsor young people to attend SFSS. Paul talked about our approach; you can read more about this here.

Each year, this festival improves, and we would warmly recommend it to all bluegrass fans and also to lovers of accoustic music.

Each year this festival holds a competition for the EWOB Bluegrass band of the year. This year, out of 60 applicants, 12 bands were selected to take part in the competition and I am delighted to say that we were one of the 12. We were thrilled to be placed second in the competition, behind Kreni. As soon as we find a little time and collect up a few more photos we will write up our experiences of a very pleasant trip.

We would like to thank all the kind folks who sat out in the very hot afternoon sun to encourage us when we were performing. We'd also like to thank TWS Engineering for their very generous sponsorship (some of you may know their connections with the Orwell Bluegrass Festival which we enjoyed so much earlier this year).

We have been sent a couple of DVDs of our performances by Eric and Sheila Rein who also very kindly sent us DVDs of our sets at Orwell. These have proved very useful in our practice for the La Roche Bluegrass Festival as we can see and hear what we need to work on. We may even post some of the songs somewhere once we've figured out the technology!

An interesting day at the seaside. We were playing in the Floral Hall, which is a very fine example of its type. We also had a walk along the prom to visit one of the few remaining piers in England that are solid enough for the public to be let loose upon. It even has a camera obscura (not operating when we climbed up to it) an the end of the pier.

We were delighted to be asked back to the third Orwell Bluegrass Festival. The festival lineup included lots of our mates (Chris Moreton, Home Territory, Kitty Hawks, Monroes Revenge, Hope Mountain Band, Chill Until Blue, Thunderbridge Bluegrass Boys, Longway...), the weather was glorious, the facilities excellent with splendid camping, hot showers, hot food all day and great picking.

Apart from the main stage, there was the opportunity for scratch bands to play around an open (single) microphone in the bar area and the standard was wonderful. The buildings on the site also provide five or six separate rooms for picking in the evenings so there was space for sessions of different characters without any acoustic interference.

The Orwell Bluegrass festival has now run for three years, and each year the organisation, facilities, bands, picking and weather have been great. Each year the attendance has gone up; all this festival needs to be truly great is more support from the Bluegrass fans. Congratulations to Chris and Ralph; we're already looking forward to next year.

Congratulations are due to Phill Morley and his team for putting on a really entertaining and instructive day of bluegrass. The concert by The Special Consensus was stunning; we were delighted to be part of it. Dave Bresnen did an excellent job as sound man and MC - how does he twiddle the knobs and talk from the stage at the same time? We'd like to thank the folks who sent us nice emails about our performance - it gives us a warm glow in these cold January days. Let's all look forward to the next bash in Steeple Morden.

Mike Green asked us to be the featured band at this annual event, and it proved a great way to start the year with lots of picking before the concert started. Mike Green prevailed on Greg to join him and Dave Tricker on stage - this time with 10 minutes to prepare (it was 2 minutes the last time they all played together) - Greg hopes he didn't ruin their set. Mike Green sent us a couple of pictures from the day.