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Who's Appearing in 2009
- Cedar Hill
- Cedar Hill are a six piece outfit who hail from the Ozarks. Formed by its patriarch and mandolin player Frank Ray some 40 years ago, Cedar Hill is a traditional Bluegrass band made up of six accomplished musicians and singers who have stayed true to their Ozark roots. With Ferrell Stowe on resonator guitar, Jimmy Bunch on banjo and vocals, Earon Adams on bass/vocals, Britt McGarity on guitar/vocals and Mark Vaccaro playing fiddle, you will be hard pressed to find a better traditional bluegrass band anywhere…
- Cedar Hill has been pleasing audiences across the USA with their original, emotional, exciting brand of traditional Bluegrass!
- One listen to Cedar Hill and there can be no doubt that traditional Bluegrass music not only exists, but thrives in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas! Honest, emotive original songs, soulful, heartfelt vocals and great picking with driveis what Cedar Hill is all about!
- To find out more about the band visit the Cedar Hill website.
- The New Essex Bluegrass Band
- Since 1994, the NEBB has enjoyed over fifteen years as perhaps the most traditional sounding of all the UK bluegrass bands.
- The material comes from the repertoires of the early bluegrass bands, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Stanley Brothers, Reno & Smiley, and Jim & Jesse, as well as more modern bands who have created fresh new work in the same tradition. Banjo, mandolin and fiddle drive the faster songs, and provide subtle back-up to the authentic duet and trio vocal harmonies of the slower songs.
- From the outset the band adopted the single microphone as the most appropriate form of stage sound, and have inspired many of the other British bands to do the same.
- The New Essex Bluegrass Band have played nearly all of the UK festivals and have appeared three times at the European World of Bluegrass in Holland. At Didmarton in 2002 they closed the Saturday evening concert with no less than eight encores, and received four encores at the 2003 A1 Festival.
- With the addition of a fiddle player in 2005 they continue to delight UK festival audiences, from Guildtown in Scotland to Newquay in Cornwall and Llandudno in Wales, showing how authentic bluegrass should be performed. On Sunday morning the band will lead a traditional gospel singing session at the Mount Pisgah Chapel in Parkmill.
- Check out The New Essex Bluegrass Band website.
- Chris Moreton
- Chris is a very highly regarded Flatpicking Guitarist. He is less well-known as a banjo picker and even less as a mandolinist. Although flatpicking is his forté, he is almost as good on the other instruments.
- Chris has been playing guitar for 30 years and was five times Guitar Champion at the Edale Bluegrass Festival. In 1996 he won the Guitar Magazine's Acoustic Guitar Championship against 160 opponents.
- Li'll Kitties
- Lucy Ray and Mo Jackson were the driving force behind the popular Kitty Hawks who made a lot of friends at Gower two years ago and other festivals in the South of England. Lucy, now relocated in her home of North Carolina, and Mo have teamed up for a tour and happily are here for Gower where they make a welcome return.
- Roots & Galoots
- The hosts of Go Fest, the Galoots schedule is regularly busy. Playing all over the country. This year they have taken in the Orwell, Wharf and Snowdon Fiddle Festivals together with a session on the Earl of Pembroke (a tall ship at Milford Haven).
- The band currently features : -
Bill Steele: Guitar, Vocals; Roy Nicholls: Fiddle; Roland Emmanuel: Mandolin, Vocals; Chris Moreton: Banjo; Wes Reynolds: Bass and Vocals.
- The Brandywine Cloggers
- Formed in 1991,The Brandywine Cloggers perform fast and furious dance to Bluegrass or old-time string band tunes with fiddle and 5 string banjo.
- The dance originated in the Appalachian Mountains You can not be sad with clogging and bluegrass music through many different influences. Those with workday boots danced in them whilst poorer performers danced in bare feet. Today the dance is more stylised and cloggers wear leather shoes tapped at heel and toe.
- Black Mountain Bluegrass
- Our friends hail from the Brecon Beacons & Welsh Borders. This year the band played a terrific set at The Wharf, their harmonies and their attention to traditional detail ensure an authentic sound that all bluegrass fans will thoroughly enjoy.
- Featuring:- Christine Cleaton: guitar and vocals; June Ash: Bass & Vocals; Tony: Mandolin & Vocals; Dennis: Banjo, Guitar.