Paul and Maria have just returned from a visit to the US, Mick is back from London, Wayne has a new house and unfortunately for Donal, the Dockers have pinched Ross Lyon from the Saints (with Donal being a Saints fan and the rest of the band being ardent Dockers supporters we aren't sure what this will mean for band politics :-). With everything almost back to normal, Bluegrass Parkway are set to revisit the Dorrigo Folk & Bluegrass Festival. This will be the festival's 10th anniversary and runs from 21 - 23 October. The festival features a host of Australia's top folk and bluegrass acts and also includes a number of workshops.
More details are available here: http://www.dorrigofolkbluegrass.com.au/
In November BGP make a return to the Bridgetown Blues Festival in WA's southwest then we head off on our annual pilgrimage to Harrietville for the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention. Attending the festival will be BGP's newest member, Wayne Perry whom most bluegrass fans will know. Wayne will be taking over on guitar duties from Guy who has decided to go into semi-retirement but will remain our 'backup' guitarist for those occassions when Wayne, who is a member of the AFP, can't make it. Welcome aboard Wayne.
On July 7th the band headed down to Albany in WA to perform at the Albany Entertainment Centre as part of the Harbourside Concert Series. This is a wonderful new venue and we had a fantastic evening performing to a sellout crowd. The acoustics in this place are great and we are looking into perhaps being able to head down there again to present our 'Live In '45-WSM Grand Ole Opry Radio Show'. The Entertainment Centre would be the perfect venue! I'll try to get some pics of the show up on the page soon.
We are currently in a bit of a 'winter recess' due to members heading off to do some traveling. At present Mick is over in London with his beautiful wife visiting their daughter and grandson. They'll be away for a few weeks and in early September Maria and I will be off to the states. I'll be presenting workshops and being one of two resident luthiers at the Monroe Mandolin Camp in Owensboro Kentucky and then we'll be off to the IBMA in Nashville.
Maria and I are also going on the trip as a holiday to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Boy, that come around quickly!
BGP will be back touring when Maria and I return and our first shows will be at Dorrigo Bluegrass Festival. This is a wonderful little festival in an incredible setting. Not to be missed!
It already seems like quite a while since we were able to share the stage with Mike Compton on many concerts in Canberra and WA. We surly do miss him! I bet a lot of music lovers miss him too. He certainly put on some wonderful shows. We are already thinking about how we can get him back in a year or so. He really does love Australia and always enjoys his visits.
The concert at Rosie O'Gradie's was a rousing success, played to a packed house of very enthusiastic people. Mike put on a great show and displayed his ability to hold an audience's attention doing his best solo material. We all got up for a final set which was a huge amount of fun.
A couple of weeks later BGP headed off to Victoria to play the 'Great Alpine Pick' at Harrietville and then on to Yinnar for a concert. Both events went very well. This was the very first Great Alpine Pick and we thought it was really well received. We enjoyed ourselves and so did the audiences. There were lots of workshops and the concerts were all well attended. I believe the organisers have already penciled in dates for next year. Yinnar has to be the most amazing example of experienced musicians supporting new-comers I've ever seen! Every one of them was up on stage having a go. This made for a band of a dozen or more but what a lot of fun! Simply inspiring; we wish we could see this taking place in more towns and cities around the country. Good on you Yinnar!
Mike Compton
will be performing a concert upstairs at Rosie O'Grady's on Friday night May 6th starting at 8pm.
Bluegrass Parkway will be the support band and tickets will be $25 and $20 concession.
If you would like to prebook a seat you can call Paul on 9339 6805 or email pduff@globaldial.com and leave your details.
Don't miss this opportunity to see and hear the man behind the music of the fabulous film 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?'
Well it has been a while since we last posted here but we've been dealing with a few personal issues so please excuse us. To all those folks who sent their best wishes for Isabelle's and Mick's Mum, Betty's recovery, we thank you so much for your kind thoughts. Both of them are doing very well and we are glad to have got through this tough period.
The band is back on the road this March with our first appearance at the Jamieson Jazz Festival in Jamieson Victoria along with shows in Melbourne. So, if you don't want to travel too far out of Melbourne you can catch BGP in Upwey and Brunswick! Check out the Gigs Page for details.
Wayne Perry will be joining the band for this tour and has now become the band's new guitar player. Guy will still be playing with BGP ocassionally though so you will still be able to catch up with him! Guy has said that he'd like to take it a bit easier from now on so he will be stepping in when Wayne can't make a date. We are so lucky as a band to have two such talented musicians available to us.
As I write this to you I'm afraid that it may have become obvious that we aren't going to be at Harrietville this year. We're very sorry about the late notice but we had intended to come right up until the day before our flights.
Maria and I need to be here in Perth as our daughter Isabelle has had to be admitted to hospital. Mick has also been faced with a serious family illness and, believe it or not, we found ourselves in the same hospital, and eventually the same ward. looking after family!
This will be the first Harrietville Bluegrass Parkway has missed in 14 years and we will truly miss catching up with all the folks there. I know they'll have a great lineup on at the festival though so enjoy the performances and picking.
We'll be back next year for sure!
Paul
Welcome to our website. Recent band news is that Paul has just returned from a sucessful trip to the IBMA, sucessful in terms of Mandolin business that is. A bout of food poisoning didn't help the adventures but having the opportunity to catch up with friends compensated for a few bad days!
News is that Mike Compton will be visiting Australia for a brief tour next year taking in the National and Fairbridge folk festivals to name a few. Mike has been asked to "play" the mandolin parts for a forthcoming movie on Bill Monroe, that should be one to look out for.
Next up for us is a gig at the Wanneroo Folk Club followed by the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention in November.
Hope to see you all there.
August already! This year has been rocketing by with Mick working in Melbourne for past three months and Paul off to the USA with a planned visit to the IBMA in October. He'll be back in time for Harrietville though and the band is looking forward to catching up with our many bluegrass friends.
We did however, manage to make it up to Redlands last month and as per usual, the festival continues to be a fantastic weekend of bluegrass music and jamming. The highlight of the weekend was the band "Midnight From Memphis" with our good friend and buddy, David Long. This young group impressed everyone with their high level picking skills and great harmonies. Hopefully they will return to Australia in the near future.
BGP will be performing on September 4 at the Greenhills Inn near York. This beautifully restored old pub set amongst the foothills surrounding York is an ideal setting for a great night of bluegrass. The accommodation at the hotel is excellent but limited, however, the pub is within easy reach of York where accommodation is plentiful. We are also playing at the Wanneroo Folk Club on November 12 so if you can't make Greenhill's then put the Folk Club into your diaries.
WSM RADIO SHOW AT KULCHA!
Bluegrass Parkway are going to be presenting the WSM Grand Ole Opry Radio Show at Kulcha in Fremantle on Saturday June 26th. For those of you who haven't had a chance to see the show, here's a chance to see lots of archival footage and typical radio banter from 1945. We first created this show way back in 1994 and it has become the vehicle for the way we present our shows ever since. After we first performed the show at Toodyay people kept telling us we should continue to wear the suits and '40s gear and play around the single mic. It was so much fun, we just kept on doing it! We've been refining the show ever since.
You can book tickets at www.kulcha.com.au or call the folks there on 9336 4544.
Early in July we will be heading up to the Redlands Bluegrass Festival in Queensland again and we're really looking forward to it. Neil, Cilla and all the folks there put on a great festival and it is in a beautiful location. This year David Long (Mandolin stomper) will be bringing out a band of great pickers and they will be well worth seeing. The festival starts Friday July 9 and runs through to Sunday.
Thanks to everyone who turned up to support us at the Rosie O'Grady's gig last weekend. Special guest and part time BGP fiddler Dave Clarke starting the proceedings with a great country blues bracket and BGP followed up with with two sets including a number of new tunes. All in all it was a great night and the atmosphere was fantastic with the hotel putting on some tasty snacks at intermission and serving the best Guinness in town! The Trinity Room upstairs turned out to be a great concert venue with really good sound and is proved ideal for a more intimate show.
On the bluegrass front, several great acts including the White Top Mountaineers and Uncle Earl are currently touring Austarlia so make sure you get along and support them if you have the opportunity.
For all the latest on the bluegrass scene in Australia check out Australian Bluegrass Blog
Bluegrass Parkway
In Concert
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Rosie O'Grady's Fremantle
Please join us for a night of Bluegrass music at Rosie's
7.30pm $15.00 at the door
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=317623851601
www.myspace.com/bluegrassparkway
Contact 0409 814 327 for details
Happy New Year to one and all.
The band kicks the new year off with a free gig Sunday January 24 at the Fremantle Art Centre compliments of the Fremantle City Council. The gig runs from 2 - 4pm so why not come along and enjoy the shady and beautiful surroundings of the Art Centre in Finnerty Street.
We'll be following up with a night at the Mundaring Folk Club in February. Don't forget the Bluegrass pickers club also starts up again on the second Tuesday of February at the Italian Club in Fremantle. The club is a great venue for all pickers out there to come along and meet fellow bluegrass fans and jam (all levels welcome).
Hi Folks, we've finally found a wee bit of time to sit down here and let you know what we've been up to in the last few weeks. BGP has just finished what has been a pretty busy schedule of festivals with a fantastic weekend at the Harrietville Bluegrass Festival. We came in early because they wanted us to present the radio show on the thursday night. We've always wanted to do it at Harrietville but there is always such a packed program we never thought there'd be the time but we did!
It was just great to play to such a hardcore bluegrass crowd and be able to show them the archival footage. Bruce Packard did a brilliant job as our 1940s DJ and Andrea Packard has been elevated to Head of BGP Technical Crew for her great work on the video technology. Where would we be without these people! We love 'em dearly. You can check out a few pics I've just put up of the Radio Show on the images page if you'd like to see what we're on about.
Thanks again to Nick, Janet, Rod and Judy for all their work in putting together another memorable Harrietville Festival. This was our 14th year there in a row. Can you believe how quickly it goes!
Now to all those who asked where the Bluegrass Gospel CD that we promised to have done was.......I'm sorry but I double promise to have it there for next year! It was great to catch up with all our friends once again and a special mention must go to Wayne Perry who filled in on guitar and vocals because Guy couldn't make it this year. Wayne, you did a brilliant job.....and you look so good in a suit!
It has been an awfully busy time around here so I'm sorry we've been a bit tardy in keeping this up to date. Last weekend (Oct 30-Nov2) we were performing at the Maldon Folk festival. We had a great time there and what a beautiful location for a festival. We were asked to perform the 'Live In '45 WSM Grand Ole' Opry Radio Show' there and it went down brilliantly. A packed house got right into the show. One audience member even came sporting his Martha White Flour T Shirt! We are hoping we'll be able to get back there soon because we really enjoyed ourselves. Mick and I took a tour of a small Auto Museum with a wonderful old guy who showed us all the vehicles. Talk about knowing all your stuff! He was literally able to answer any question we came up with. What a fascinating old fella.
We've been back for a week and a half and in a few days we're off again to play at the Folkus Room in Canberra on Tuesday 17th Nov. This should be a great show because we're doing a shared billing with Coolgrass. Talk about 'Strange Bedfellows'! For more information visit the Australian Bluegrass Blog. This night will be a lot of fun. A couple of days after this show we head to Harrietville and we'll be doing the Radio Show again on the thursday night. We can't wait to get there and catch up with all our friends again. Remember to come up and say hi!
Gympie Music Muster worked out very well for Bluegrass Parkway with great turnouts for our concerts and many friendly folks coming up to personally let us know that they were pleased to see us back at the Muster. Doing the bluegrass breakfast shows was good fun and even though it meant a pretty early start for us we able to spend time having a great look around for the rest of the day after our shows.
Maria received a call last week totally our of the blue which has really changed any plans she had for the next few weeks. As many of you know, Maria is a Suzuki violin teacher and has played an active part in the association for many years including a stint as president. The call was from the main committee and they asked her if she would represent Western Australia at the International Suzuki Conference in Boston. This is taking place in 3 weeks so it's been a real rush to get things organised! Congratulations Maria...especially seeing as how it is all expences paid!
Bluegrass Parkway will be playing at the Maldon Folk Festival starting October 30th and we're really looking forward to it. We've never performed there but I'm told by many that it is a gorgeous town with many historic buildings. It should be a wonderful setting to play. We will be performing our 'Live In '45 WSM Grand Ole Opry Radio Show' at the festival as well as concert spots.
Two weeks later will be back in Victoria at Harrietville again and it will be great to catch up with everyone. The new venue for the festival in Harrietville worked very well last year and I'm told there are some surprise aditions for this year also.
Remember to come on up and say hi if you make it to any of our shows!
Well we're back from the US having had a fantastic and very sucessful tour and we are now getting ourselves organised to head to Gympie in Queensland. The Gympie Muster is a great country music festival and is on this coming weekend (August 25 -30). Once again, Bluegrass Parkway are performing the Bluegrass Breakfasts on Friday and Saturday as well as a Gospel Concert on Sunday. We will be sharing the Breakfast duties with local group "The Big Blue Fish" so it promises to be fun.
BGP are also performing at the Maldon Folk Festival (Oct/Nov) and the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention (Nov) on the Thursday evening and will be performing our "Radio Show" at both events so we hope to see you at one of the gigs (or both!).
Look out for a more comprehensive US tour run breakdown with the pics!! Coming Soon
Well I just can’t believe where the time is going but it is difficult to fit in any time to do this properly. Sorry about the gaps but here’s what we’ve been up to. We have played lots of shows since the Festival of the Bluegrass, namely Nicholasville, Bean Blossom Indiana, Georgetown and Renfro Valley. The schedule keeps us busy but we are having a ball of course. Bean Blossom was a huge success and we were received very well. After a rushed trip up from a gig in Kentucky we were there ready to perform our first spot with 30 minutes to spare.
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The performance went off just fine and we were made to feel right at home by the crowd. We had rain at this first performance but we were told people tune in on their radios from their campers and listen to your performance anyway. It is always a great experience to be a part of Monroe’s own festival and it can be quite moving just being there.
The second performance on the main stage was even better and we got a request for ‘A Girl From The South’ from the audience. After Bean Blossom we were back down to Georgetown Kentucky to a fantastic cafe called the Upbeat. This show was absolutely packed and the crowd just got right into it from the first song. This was really encouraging because we were starting to get people follow us from show to show. We have started to build a bit of a following.
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After a trip to Nashville we played at The Red Barn in Renfro Valley. Of course we drove down the Bluegrass Parkway to I 65 to get there. This place has a lot of history. On our last tour we got to perform with Bobby Osborne here.
Bluegrass Parkway has just released details of our planned tour to the United States in June 2009. The details of the shows we will be playing are up on our 'Gig Page'. Our last US tour was in 2005 and this time we will be focusing our shows mainly within Kentucky. We will be venturing out to perform at Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Festival in Indiana however. The other festivals included in our tour are The Festival Of The Bluegrass in Lexington Kentucky and ROMP 2009 in Owensboro Kentucky.
The tour is another relatively brief one but once again, we are cramming a heck of a lot into these three weeks with appearances at three festivals, concerts, a charity concert for a children's hospital, radio appearances and a performance at a very cool coffee house in Georgetown Kentucky that harks back to the 60s folk music cafe scene. Our first concert, about 36 hours after we arrive, is at the southland Jamboree in Lexington. This will be a bit of a homecoming for Maria and the crowd is sure to be packed with relatives and friends. What a great way to start the tour!
We are hoping to run a bit of a journal as the tour progresses and Greg McGrath at australianbluegrass.com will be posting any entries we can organise. Hopefully these will include pics and clips as well as comments as we progress through the tour.
For those of you who are into Youtube, we have put up a few clips from various appearances including the recent Peter Rowan concert in Fremantle. If you put Bluegrass Parkway into the search engine you should be able to find them. There is also a clip of Peter and Paul doing a duet; just put Peter Rowan and Paul Duff into the search engine for that one.
If you're in the area we will be performing at the Mount Beauty Muster on the Anzac Day weekend and the Merry Muse Folk Club in Canberra Friday May 1, then Ausgrass in Tumut on Saturday May 2. Come up and say hi!
Well the Peter Rowan show is over and we can't believe it's already done! What an honour it was to be able to perform with an absolute legend of the bluegrass genre. Peter, as you may have guessed if you were at the show, is a really beautiful human being, a pleasure to be around and has a great sense of humour. We were able to learn so much about performing our music in such a very short time with him. We wish he could have stayed longer!
Some of you may have noticed that over the last year or so we have had a big tall fella at the back stomping out the bass notes for us. Stephen Loss has done a great job for Bluegrass Parkway over the last year and we want to take this opportunity to thank him for his hard work, his boundless enthusiasm and his conitinued friendship. Stephen is a strong bass player and always contributes to any performance. Maria is returning to the bass but keep an eye out, you may well see Stephen leap onto the stage to grab the double bass when we're doing a twin fiddle tune!
Great news folks; Peter Rowan will be performing in Fremantle as part of his Australian tour and Bluegrass Parkway will be his support band for the big show at The Fly By Night Club on WEDNESDAY MARCH 18th.
Rowan is a Grammy Award winner and five-time nominee whose forty or so year career has seen him perform and record with the likes of Tony rice, Jerry Douglas, Norman Blake, David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Vassar Clements and Clarence White. He was a Bluegrass Boy in Bill Monroe's band and went on to develop what was seen as the cutting edge of bluegrass in the late '60s and 70's.
This is a show not to be missed. Rowan has become an icon of bluegrass music and has spread his innovative style into Tex-Mex, Country and even Celtic music.
Tickets are on sale through the Fly By Night Club and he is here for one show only.
I can tell you first hand that Bluegrass Parkway's commitment to presenting bluegrass music in its original form with the full suits, hats and 1940s dresses was surely tested at Woodford. We did it though and by the end of the festival we had come to a group consnsus that we were easily 'the hottest band playing at Woodford'. With so many people at the festival (we were told up to 130,000 over the week) it is easy to worry that you might get lost in all the programming but we were received really enthusiastically by big crowds at each of our shows and especially the bluegrass gospel harmony workshop where the participants were spilling out of the marquee. Folks at this festival are out to experience everything and carry an open mind with them to each act they go to see.
A highlight for us was getting to see and meet Martha and Jackson, The Whitetop Mountaineers from the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. These two wonderful people provided an authentic old time country musical experience that included singing, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar and some fantastic clogging. They are on tour throughout January so try to catch their show, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
This was our fourth Woodford Festival and it amazes every time, if not simply on its scale. Everyone should do it at least once and we intend to do it again some time; once we recover!Welcome to the December edition of our BGP Report. The band has had a busy couple of months performing at the Dorrigo Bluegrass & Folk Festial in NSW. We presented our "Live in 45" Radio Show to an appreciative audience and had a great weekend at the festival which featured our fellow bluegrassers "Karen Lynn and Acoustic Shock" as well as the exciting young band "Twisted Oak". This small festival is located in the beautiful town of Dorrigo in the hills above Coffs Harbour and is well worth the visit. Many thanks to Brigit Sommers for her tireless work on the festival and to Greg Hertzler for his time, effort and smooth voice on the Radio Show, thanks also to Dianna Hertzler for her assitance and photos! :-)
Last month we attended the 20th anniversary Harrietville Bluegrass Convention in Victoria and this year featured three great bands from the US (Bing Brothers, RFD Boys and the Petuxent Partners) as well as a host of local bands from around Australia. All the bands were fantastic but special mention must go to the RFD Boys who kept us entertained at the local ice creamery all weekend. The new site was a hit with everyone and takes the convention up to a whole new level. Well done to Nick & Janet, Rod & Judy and everyone involved in organising Australia's top bluegrass event . A thumb down though to those pickers that make the effort to travel all the way to Harrietville but aren't prepared to contribute to making the great event that it is. A self defeating excercise ultimately.
Have a look at some great pics oif the weekend here http://bluegrass.org.au/index.cfm?pid=111727And don't forget to check out The Australian Bluegrass Blog for the latest news http://australianbluegrass.blogspot.com/2008/11/harrietville-2008.html
Our next gig is the Woodford Folk Festival so hopefully we'll see you there.
Welcome to this Spring edition of the BGP News. BGP have been taking a break over the winter with Maria visiting her family in Kentucky and Mick working in South Australia for the past three months.
Maria managed to take in a couple of concerts whilst in the US including the Nashville Bluegrass Band and the Del McCoury band and had the opportunity to visit Roland White and renew aquaintances. Back from her action packed visit she has taken the reins as full time fiddle player and abandoned the double bass playing to the capable hands of Stephen Loss. With Maria and Donal on fiddle we will now feature regular twin fiddles (and a bit of clogging).
Bluegrass Parkway will be presenting our "live in 45" show as a precursor to the Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival on Thursday 23 October (Festival runs from 24-26 October) http://www.dorrigo.com/festival/ . The festival is great fun and located in a lovely part of Australia. This year features a number of great bluegrass acts and will be a fantastic weekend so hopefully we will see you there!
And don't forget Harrietville (Nov 14 -16) which this year features a number of international acts http://www.bluegrass.org.au/index.cfm?pid=111727 BGP has already booked its fares - don't miss out.
And don't forget to check the Australian Bluegrass Blog - http://australianbluegrass.blogspot.com/
Welcome to the new website. We are still working on it so keep watching. New features include a Guest Book for your comments (be nice) and a more user friendly photos area.
On the BGP front the band has a taken a breather after a fairly hectic start to the year touring with Mike Compton and performing around Western Australia.
Don't forget to check The Australian Bluegrass Blog for the latest in Australian bluegrass news
Upcoming gigs