Mike in the USA - Part 3
Well, it's been a strange old trip, what with all the Presidential stuff going on and the world economy going down the pan. I logged on to online every day just to check what's happening back home since the news there is aimed at people with the attention span of a wasp.
I managed to get a good collection of music while I was there; in no particular order: Steve Schneider and Paul Oorts are a hammer dulcimer player and guitarist whose CD is a cracker. Their version of the old standard Nola is amazing. , probably the world's greatest slide guitarist, has a terrific new CD out called Glide Country, and banjo ace has a CD out called Territory on which he's joined by people like Bela Fleck, Pete Seeger, Bill Keith and Bruce Molsky - great stuff.
The surprise of the trip for me though were whose eponymous album is described on iTunes as 'Alternative & Punk'. Nothing of the kind. It's hard to describe them, and on first hearing the flawless production and the packaging made me wonder if they were not some kind of well-marketed Irish American boy band. I bought the album and played it several times - it is produced very much with an eye to the mainstream but the four members of the band all have a good track record and two of them - Finbar Clancy and Martin Furey - the sons of Bobby Clancy and Finbar Furey, have no explaining to do.
I landed back in England just in time to head off for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 2 Young Folk Award semi-final in Stratford-upon-Avon. There was a Mop Fair on, which meant I had to park somewhere in Solihull, but otherwise all was great. As usual, the standard of singing and musicianship was startling and you'll be able to find out who the six acts going through to the final are on my programme this Wednesday.
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