Banjo Jamboree 2010

Generální partner BJ 2010:

Program BANJO JAMBOREE 2010

Pátek 18. června

WYRTON 18:00
GRUNT (Slovensko) 18:35
VOJTA ZÍCHA & DRUHÁ MÍZA 19:15
BLANKET 19:55
NOVÁ SEKCE 20:40
ALBUM 21:20
KŘENI 22:00
FUNNY FELLOWS (Slovensko) 22:40
POUTNÍCI 23:25

Sobota 19. června

Vítězové předkol - začátek 10:15

VIAGRASS
SILENT RAIN
GIANT MOUNTAINS BAND
ALL BELLS & WHISTLES

BARBECUE 13:00
LOG 13:35
Vítěz předkola 14:15
NEW RIVER TRAIN (Rakousko/CZ) 14:40
MODROTISK 15:20
FUNNY GRASS 16:00
BG TIME (Slovensko) 16:40
Kapela hvězd a foto banjistů 17:20
CIMPR-CAMPR 17:50
BG CWRKOT 18:30
BLACK JACK 19:10
SUE THOMPSON & Brandejs Band (USA/CZ) 19:50
G-RUNS´N ROSES 20:30
SVAŤA KOTAS BAND 21:10
LONESOME MOUNTAINEERS (Švédsko) 21:50
MONOGRAM 22:35
RELIÉF 23:15

Festivalem budou letos provázet Libor Babuljak, Michal Prusík a Pavel Brandejs. ]]> http://www.bg.hypotekypujcky.cz/?feed=rss2&p=568 http://www.bg.hypotekypujcky.cz/?p=558 http://www.bg.hypotekypujcky.cz/?p=558#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:28:03 +0000 admin http://www.bg.hypotekypujcky.cz/?p=558 Czech Bluegrass Spring.

This springtime I spent almost a month in Czech Republic.

I attended several bluegrass events and will report about some of them.

The first in a row were the incredible Kruger Brothers in Prague on March 30th.

The event was presented as usual by the banjo-maker Jarda Prucha in a nice concert hall.

Kruger Brothers, Jens, Uwe and the third “brother” Joel Lansberg are now based in North Carolina, moved there from Switzerland about eight years ago.

They always had a good connection to Czech audience.

On their last European tour they played several sold out concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and United Kingdom. Jens gave some banjo workshops as well.

For the first time we had seen the band with a drummer.

But he was very discreet and really enriched their music.

The fans came from all over the country and the place was bursting with people.

Some of less happy couldn’t even get in.

A Czech band The New Section opened the show; they performed mostly original songs with Czech lyrics. Audience loved them, but everybody was waiting for the Masters!

And finally the Kruger Brothers showed up.

We were listening almost without breathing, so beautiful the music was.

Toward the end Jens switched to Prucha banjo and played the last encore on it.

Who of you doesn’t know them yet, don’t miss their performance, when they are somewhere around your town. They are really awesome!

The next concert was in my hometown Brno April 7^th.

I am sure, also this great band is familiar to the most of you: Robert Krestan & Druha Trava.

I always loved their music. On that special night the band had to say good-bye to their long years bass player and friend Petr Sury. He is just too busy with different other music projects and will be replaced with a new, young one, named Tomas Liska.

Also this concert was sold out.

They had played a lot of their old favorites songs, mostly written by Robert Krestan.

Also some from his last recording “Dylanovky”- the Songs of Bob Dylan, which he translated into Czech. Audience loved also the instrumentals by the banjo player Lubos Malina, who also plays beautifully the Irish pipes.

The other members of the band are Emil Formanek on guitar, Lubos Novotny on Dobro and David Lanstof on drums.

The weekend April 10^th-11^th I spent in a little town Luka nad Jihlavou, where several time in the year an event called the Bluegrass Minifestival “U Kuritku” takes place in local restaurant.

That night three bands were on program.

Festival opened the Giant Mountain’s Band, from South Bohemia. I saw them for the first time; through they suppose to exist for several years. The band has an American mandolin player and lead singer Lucien Holmes, who moved to Czech Republic in 2006. Before he used to play with the Highwater Bridge and Turtle Mountains Boys from North Dakota.

I like their performance very much.

Also the next young band Jewelci from southern Moravia was new for me. They sang mostly in Czech and it was a pleasure to listen.

The highlight of the night, everybody was waiting for was, when the band Monogram came on stage.  They performed couple of songs from their newest CD“Hit the Road”.

As surprise Ralph Schut- (a young Dutch multiinstrumentalist, who moved to Czech Republic eight years ago, for the opportunity to play with young musicians on his own level. He plays with several bands now and speaks already well Czech and Slovak. His own main band is

G-Runs’n Roses, was just named the European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010 at the EWOB in Holland) showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and as a godfather christened the new CD.

The official release party supposed to be next Monday in the Gong Theatre in Prague.

I am sure, a great jam session followed, but I had a bad luck, picked up some strange virus and got sick. My friends brought me to their house.

Still ill I went home by train on Sunday and had to stay in bed for several days.

Anyway the next Saturday I was fit and on the road again.

There are very few white spots on my Czech bluegrass map.

The Old Rebel Pub in Sloupnice was one of them.

Saturday April 17^th one of five regional qualifying rounds for the Banjo Jamboree band contest took place there.

Bluegrass Cwrkot - a very traditional house band, playing in Lester Flatt & Earls Scruggs style (the guitar player Hombre Lzicar is the pub owner) opened the evening program.

They are quite famous in Europe, last weekend at the EWOB in Holland they were placed second by audience popularity award.

There were five bands competing. The best will be chosen to play the main contest at the Banjo Jamboree Festival, the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe, Saturday June 18^th.

The winner band will have then the opportunity to play next year in the main festival program. The bands were mostly new to me.

As first a band Early Times from Brno with a very good female singer Helena Novackova came on stage. Playing mostly traditional materials. If she will practice more on her guitar,

I can see a good future for them. I loved especially their encore, “Anthony” from Nickel Creek. Well done!

The next band was Twisted Timber. They play mostly progressive bluegrass with a lot of original materials. Their English was just perfect, with no accent. No wonder, their lead singer and fiddle player Matthews Whitten came from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I liked also their female mandolin player Zuzka Liskova, who also is a great songwriter. Their instrumental work was very good.

The next band I met already last weekend at the Minifestival in Luka.

The Giant Mountain’s Band came from South Bohemia.

Well dressed, with accent free English and great instrumental work they were about the favorites.

Bruno Unit represented the older generation and their leader Vlada “White” Bily is one of the Czech bluegrass pioneers. The band was found in 2000 in Northern Moravia, close the Polish border. I know some of band members, but heard them for the first time. And I liked it!

The last band was a young local Trautengrass. Although the guitar player broke the string at the beginning, they showed a lot of temperament and audience loved them the most.

The three members of jury (the audience was the 4^th one) had a really very hard job, because all the bands were about on the same level and it was pretty high.

The final decision felt on The Giant Mountain Band. But, if it were not in Czech Republic,

I am sure, all the bands could be chosen for any other festival…

The night jam sessions lasted almost till the dawn.

Sunday was held a huge Benefit concert in Lucerna Hall in Prague, near the Wenceslas Square. Organized by the instruments maker Rosta Capek.

He celebrated the 25^th anniversary of his trademark Capek Instruments.

We drove from Sloupnice with Peter Brandejs, who plays banjo with Bluegrass Cwrkot, since their original banjo player Milan Leppelt – a Czech banjo legend - passed away last summer.

But he has his own, Peter Brandejs Band and this band opened the mammoth concert in Prague. On the way we picked up another band member, the guitar player Ondra Kozak.

He also has his own band named Kreni, one of the best in the land.

We arrived to Prague just in time for the sound check.

Concert started at six o’clock.

The Lucerna Hall is one of the most beautiful historical concert halls in the country.

The seats were sold out months ago. So many people had to stand.

A proceeds of the event was dedicated to Jan Deyl Conservatory for blind music students, which is just celebrating its 100 years.

Petr Brandejs Band opened the night. They brought as guests another great banjo pickers,

Vojta Zicha and Ondra Ruml (who was placed 2^nd as a singer in a TV show X-factor last year)

They performed “Dixie Breakdown” with triple banjos.

That night we could see “who is who” in Czech music business.

Many artists came from different genres, jazz, bluegrass, country, Celtic and even classical music.

All linked by playing the Capek Instruments.

(Among his customers are also many U.S. artists, as Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Ricky Skaggs and others.)

Also the mandolin wizard Radim Zenkl performed that night with several formations.

The most success belonged to his original music, as instrumentals “Greenpeace” and “Happy Grass”, he played with Jakub Racek, the guitar player from on of the best bluegrass bands Monogram and some other musicians.

Next to mandolin, he loves the Irish pipes and people had even the opportunity to see him playing the cow horn.

After a break, the first lady of bluegrass Pavlina Jisova & Friends came on stage. The band consisted her daughter Adelka, Jakub Racek from Monogramand Pavel Peroutka of the best Czech vocal band Relief on bass. Petr Malasek, the famous piano player joined them.

The next not only bluegrass act were Eliska Ptackova & Friends, with her father Vlada Ptacek on banjo – (maybe some of you are familiar with Ptacek Hand Made Tone rings, Capos, Tuners and so on) and Radek Vankat, a young great Dobro player.

She also sang a duet with Ondra Ruml.

Marek Eben, famous entertainer and TV star called on stage Marko Cermak, who was celebrating his 70th birthday.

Marko Cermak is the father of the Czech 5-string banjo. He received the IBMA Distinguish Achievement Award in 2008. It was him, who started the first Czech bluegrass bands the Greenhorns and White Stars in the late sixties. His first banjo was made after a picture of the one with long neck from Pete Seeger, who visited as the first American artist Czech Republic in 1964.

Marko is not only a musician, he is a man of many talents: painter, illustrator, and writer.

He wrote and published the first Czech school of 5-string banjo - Marko Cermak - Petistrunne Banjo in 1975; Banjo z mlznych lesu (Banjo from the Foggy Forrest) in 1998 and his last book and is called Marko Cermak-Posledni romantik (Marko Cermak – The last Romantic) came out recently.

He received as a birthday present a little travel banjo, Rosta Capek made especially for him.

The high point of the night was, when the Deyl Conservatory received the money check from Rosta rounded up by some sponsors. I am sure; the money gets on the right place!!!!

The show continued with many others artists. On the end, all musicians came on stage.

On the side screens showed up the pictures of beloved Czech singer and banjo player Waldemar Matuska, who passed away in his home in Florida last year. To pay tribute to him, everybody was singing his big hit – “To vsechno vodnes cas…” (Originally “I am in the jail house now…”)

And the five hours long mammoth concert was over.

I will remember this very special event for a long time…

Next Monday April 19th I did some sightseeing. There is so much to see in Prague.

I also went to an exhibition by the Charles Bridge, about the livelong work of Marko Cermak. Called as his last book, Marko Cermak – Posledni Romantik(The Last Romantic).

I could see there all his recordings, awards, books, paintings, comics and illustrations of the famous books for boys by the Boy Scout writer Jaroslav Foglar and others.

In the evening the very last event was waiting for me.

In the sold out Gong Theatre started a Release party for Monogram last CD – “Hit The Road”. The CD exceed thirteen songs, eleven of them are originals written by the band members.

Monogram are: Jakub Racek - guitar, Jarda Jahoda - banjo, Zdenek Jahoda - mandolin and Pavel Lzicar – bass.

They started immediately with the firework of their wonderful music.

I loved, where the boys thanked to the most important women in their lives: their mothers enabling them to learn to play musical instruments and wives, that they did not ban it.

The awaited moment came and the “Godfather” Misa Leicht of the band Cop from Pilsen

Showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and poured it over the new CD.

So the CD was baptized!

Misa stayed on stage and performed two songs with the band.

Everybody was laughing, when they told us, as they were invited to play a bluegrass festival in Rumania and they put on some costume wigs and shirts and play very fast “Rumanian” Bluegrass. People calmed down by Jakubs beautiful love song “Cure for You” and stand by the instrumental by Jarda Jahoda “Kyril” about the terrible storm which cut down thousands of trees a some years ago. I also loved the “California Dream”…

Many songs and instrumentals from he new CD followed.

You can order the CD on there home page http://www.monogram.cz and I can kindly recommend it to you.

I am sure; some of you can remember their performance at the IBMA Fan Fest 2005.

.

What a great conclusion of my Czech holiday.

The next day I already was on my way back to Switzerland, already looking forward for the next trip, to the European World of Bluegrass in Holland May 13^th-15th.

I returned from there three days ago and will write about it later…

Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, 22.5.2010

Czech Bluegrass Spring.

This springtime I spent almost a month in Czech Republic.

I attended several bluegrass events and will report about some of them.

The first in a row were the incredible Kruger Brothers in Prague on March 30th.

The event was presented as usual by the banjo-maker Jarda Prucha in a nice concert hall.

Kruger Brothers, Jens, Uwe and the third “brother” Joel Lansberg are now based in North Carolina, moved there from Switzerland about eight years ago.

They always had a good connection to Czech audience.

On their last European tour they played several sold out concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and United Kingdom. Jens gave some banjo workshops as well.

For the first time we had seen the band with a drummer.

But he was very discreet and really enriched their music.

The fans came from all over the country and the place was bursting with people.

Some of less happy couldn’t even get in.

A Czech band The New Section opened the show; they performed mostly original songs with Czech lyrics. Audience loved them, but everybody was waiting for the Masters!

And finally the Kruger Brothers showed up.

We were listening almost without breathing, so beautiful the music was.

Toward the end Jens switched to Prucha banjo and played the last encore on it.

Who of you doesn’t know them yet, don’t miss their performance, when they are somewhere around your town. They are really awesome!

The next concert was in my hometown Brno April 7^th.

I am sure, also this great band is familiar to the most of you: Robert Krestan & Druha Trava.

I always loved their music. On that special night the band had to say good-bye to their long years bass player and friend Petr Sury. He is just too busy with different other music projects and will be replaced with a new, young one, named Tomas Liska.

Also this concert was sold out.

They had played a lot of their old favorites songs, mostly written by Robert Krestan.

Also some from his last recording “Dylanovky”- the Songs of Bob Dylan, which he translated into Czech. Audience loved also the instrumentals by the banjo player Lubos Malina, who also plays beautifully the Irish pipes.

The other members of the band are Emil Formanek on guitar, Lubos Novotny on Dobro and David Lanstof on drums.

The weekend April 10^th-11^th I spent in a little town Luka nad Jihlavou, where several time in the year an event called the Bluegrass Minifestival “U Kuritku” takes place in local restaurant.

That night three bands were on program.

Festival opened the Giant Mountain’s Band, from South Bohemia. I saw them for the first time; through they suppose to exist for several years. The band has an American mandolin player and lead singer Lucien Holmes, who moved to Czech Republic in 2006. Before he used to play with the Highwater Bridge and Turtle Mountains Boys from North Dakota.

I like their performance very much.

Also the next young band Jewelci from southern Moravia was new for me. They sang mostly in Czech and it was a pleasure to listen.

The highlight of the night, everybody was waiting for was, when the band Monogram came on stage.  They performed couple of songs from their newest CD“Hit the Road”.

As surprise Ralph Schut- (a young Dutch multiinstrumentalist, who moved to Czech Republic eight years ago, for the opportunity to play with young musicians on his own level. He plays with several bands now and speaks already well Czech and Slovak. His own main band is

G-Runs’n Roses, was just named the European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010 at the EWOB in Holland) showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and as a godfather christened the new CD.

The official release party supposed to be next Monday in the Gong Theatre in Prague.

I am sure, a great jam session followed, but I had a bad luck, picked up some strange virus and got sick. My friends brought me to their house.

Still ill I went home by train on Sunday and had to stay in bed for several days.

Anyway the next Saturday I was fit and on the road again.

There are very few white spots on my Czech bluegrass map.

The Old Rebel Pub in Sloupnice was one of them.

Saturday April 17^th one of five regional qualifying rounds for the Banjo Jamboree band contest took place there.

Bluegrass Cwrkot - a very traditional house band, playing in Lester Flatt & Earls Scruggs style (the guitar player Hombre Lzicar is the pub owner) opened the evening program.

They are quite famous in Europe, last weekend at the EWOB in Holland they were placed second by audience popularity award.

There were five bands competing. The best will be chosen to play the main contest at the Banjo Jamboree Festival, the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe, Saturday June 18^th.

The winner band will have then the opportunity to play next year in the main festival program. The bands were mostly new to me.

As first a band Early Times from Brno with a very good female singer Helena Novackova came on stage. Playing mostly traditional materials. If she will practice more on her guitar,

I can see a good future for them. I loved especially their encore, “Anthony” from Nickel Creek. Well done!

The next band was Twisted Timber. They play mostly progressive bluegrass with a lot of original materials. Their English was just perfect, with no accent. No wonder, their lead singer and fiddle player Matthews Whitten came from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I liked also their female mandolin player Zuzka Liskova, who also is a great songwriter. Their instrumental work was very good.

The next band I met already last weekend at the Minifestival in Luka.

The Giant Mountain’s Band came from South Bohemia.

Well dressed, with accent free English and great instrumental work they were about the favorites.

Bruno Unit represented the older generation and their leader Vlada “White” Bily is one of the Czech bluegrass pioneers. The band was found in 2000 in Northern Moravia, close the Polish border. I know some of band members, but heard them for the first time. And I liked it!

The last band was a young local Trautengrass. Although the guitar player broke the string at the beginning, they showed a lot of temperament and audience loved them the most.

The three members of jury (the audience was the 4^th one) had a really very hard job, because all the bands were about on the same level and it was pretty high.

The final decision felt on The Giant Mountain Band. But, if it were not in Czech Republic,

I am sure, all the bands could be chosen for any other festival…

The night jam sessions lasted almost till the dawn.

Sunday was held a huge Benefit concert in Lucerna Hall in Prague, near the Wenceslas Square. Organized by the instruments maker Rosta Capek.

He celebrated the 25^th anniversary of his trademark Capek Instruments.

We drove from Sloupnice with Peter Brandejs, who plays banjo with Bluegrass Cwrkot, since their original banjo player Milan Leppelt – a Czech banjo legend - passed away last summer.

But he has his own, Peter Brandejs Band and this band opened the mammoth concert in Prague. On the way we picked up another band member, the guitar player Ondra Kozak.

He also has his own band named Kreni, one of the best in the land.

We arrived to Prague just in time for the sound check.

Concert started at six o’clock.

The Lucerna Hall is one of the most beautiful historical concert halls in the country.

The seats were sold out months ago. So many people had to stand.

A proceeds of the event was dedicated to Jan Deyl Conservatory for blind music students, which is just celebrating its 100 years.

Petr Brandejs Band opened the night. They brought as guests another great banjo pickers,

Vojta Zicha and Ondra Ruml (who was placed 2^nd as a singer in a TV show X-factor last year)

They performed “Dixie Breakdown” with triple banjos.

That night we could see “who is who” in Czech music business.

Many artists came from different genres, jazz, bluegrass, country, Celtic and even classical music.

All linked by playing the Capek Instruments.

(Among his customers are also many U.S. artists, as Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Ricky Skaggs and others.)

Also the mandolin wizard Radim Zenkl performed that night with several formations.

The most success belonged to his original music, as instrumentals “Greenpeace” and “Happy Grass”, he played with Jakub Racek, the guitar player from on of the best bluegrass bands Monogram and some other musicians.

Next to mandolin, he loves the Irish pipes and people had even the opportunity to see him playing the cow horn.

After a break, the first lady of bluegrass Pavlina Jisova & Friends came on stage. The band consisted her daughter Adelka, Jakub Racek from Monogramand Pavel Peroutka of the best Czech vocal band Relief on bass. Petr Malasek, the famous piano player joined them.

The next not only bluegrass act were Eliska Ptackova & Friends, with her father Vlada Ptacek on banjo – (maybe some of you are familiar with Ptacek Hand Made Tone rings, Capos, Tuners and so on) and Radek Vankat, a young great Dobro player.

She also sang a duet with Ondra Ruml.

Marek Eben, famous entertainer and TV star called on stage Marko Cermak, who was celebrating his 70th birthday.

Marko Cermak is the father of the Czech 5-string banjo. He received the IBMA Distinguish Achievement Award in 2008. It was him, who started the first Czech bluegrass bands the Greenhorns and White Stars in the late sixties. His first banjo was made after a picture of the one with long neck from Pete Seeger, who visited as the first American artist Czech Republic in 1964.

Marko is not only a musician, he is a man of many talents: painter, illustrator, and writer.

He wrote and published the first Czech school of 5-string banjo - Marko Cermak - Petistrunne Banjo in 1975; Banjo z mlznych lesu (Banjo from the Foggy Forrest) in 1998 and his last book and is called Marko Cermak-Posledni romantik (Marko Cermak – The last Romantic) came out recently.

He received as a birthday present a little travel banjo, Rosta Capek made especially for him.

The high point of the night was, when the Deyl Conservatory received the money check from Rosta rounded up by some sponsors. I am sure; the money gets on the right place!!!!

The show continued with many others artists. On the end, all musicians came on stage.

On the side screens showed up the pictures of beloved Czech singer and banjo player Waldemar Matuska, who passed away in his home in Florida last year. To pay tribute to him, everybody was singing his big hit – “To vsechno vodnes cas…” (Originally “I am in the jail house now…”)

And the five hours long mammoth concert was over.

I will remember this very special event for a long time…

Next Monday April 19th I did some sightseeing. There is so much to see in Prague.

I also went to an exhibition by the Charles Bridge, about the livelong work of Marko Cermak. Called as his last book, Marko Cermak – Posledni Romantik(The Last Romantic).

I could see there all his recordings, awards, books, paintings, comics and illustrations of the famous books for boys by the Boy Scout writer Jaroslav Foglar and others.

In the evening the very last event was waiting for me.

In the sold out Gong Theatre started a Release party for Monogram last CD – “Hit The Road”. The CD exceed thirteen songs, eleven of them are originals written by the band members.

Monogram are: Jakub Racek - guitar, Jarda Jahoda - banjo, Zdenek Jahoda - mandolin and Pavel Lzicar – bass.

They started immediately with the firework of their wonderful music.

I loved, where the boys thanked to the most important women in their lives: their mothers enabling them to learn to play musical instruments and wives, that they did not ban it.

The awaited moment came and the “Godfather” Misa Leicht of the band Cop from Pilsen

Showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and poured it over the new CD.

So the CD was baptized!

Misa stayed on stage and performed two songs with the band.

Everybody was laughing, when they told us, as they were invited to play a bluegrass festival in Rumania and they put on some costume wigs and shirts and play very fast “Rumanian” Bluegrass. People calmed down by Jakubs beautiful love song “Cure for You” and stand by the instrumental by Jarda Jahoda “Kyril” about the terrible storm which cut down thousands of trees a some years ago. I also loved the “California Dream”…

Many songs and instrumentals from he new CD followed.

You can order the CD on there home page http://www.monogram.cz and I can kindly recommend it to you.

I am sure; some of you can remember their performance at the IBMA Fan Fest 2005.

.

What a great conclusion of my Czech holiday.

The next day I already was on my way back to Switzerland, already looking forward for the next trip, to the European World of Bluegrass in Holland May 13^th-15th.

I returned from there three days ago and will write about it later…

Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, 22.5.2010

Czech Bluegrass Spring.

This springtime I spent almost a month in Czech Republic.

I attended several bluegrass events and will report about some of them.

The first in a row were the incredible Kruger Brothers in Prague on March 30th.

The event was presented as usual by the banjo-maker Jarda Prucha in a nice concert hall.

Kruger Brothers, Jens, Uwe and the third “brother” Joel Lansberg are now based in North Carolina, moved there from Switzerland about eight years ago.

They always had a good connection to Czech audience.

On their last European tour they played several sold out concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and United Kingdom. Jens gave some banjo workshops as well.

For the first time we had seen the band with a drummer.

But he was very discreet and really enriched their music.

The fans came from all over the country and the place was bursting with people.

Some of less happy couldn’t even get in.

A Czech band The New Section opened the show; they performed mostly original songs with Czech lyrics. Audience loved them, but everybody was waiting for the Masters!

And finally the Kruger Brothers showed up.

We were listening almost without breathing, so beautiful the music was.

Toward the end Jens switched to Prucha banjo and played the last encore on it.

Who of you doesn’t know them yet, don’t miss their performance, when they are somewhere around your town. They are really awesome!

The next concert was in my hometown Brno April 7^th.

I am sure, also this great band is familiar to the most of you: Robert Krestan & Druha Trava.

I always loved their music. On that special night the band had to say good-bye to their long years bass player and friend Petr Sury. He is just too busy with different other music projects and will be replaced with a new, young one, named Tomas Liska.

Also this concert was sold out.

They had played a lot of their old favorites songs, mostly written by Robert Krestan.

Also some from his last recording “Dylanovky”- the Songs of Bob Dylan, which he translated into Czech. Audience loved also the instrumentals by the banjo player Lubos Malina, who also plays beautifully the Irish pipes.

The other members of the band are Emil Formanek on guitar, Lubos Novotny on Dobro and David Lanstof on drums.

The weekend April 10^th-11^th I spent in a little town Luka nad Jihlavou, where several time in the year an event called the Bluegrass Minifestival “U Kuritku” takes place in local restaurant.

That night three bands were on program.

Festival opened the Giant Mountain’s Band, from South Bohemia. I saw them for the first time; through they suppose to exist for several years. The band has an American mandolin player and lead singer Lucien Holmes, who moved to Czech Republic in 2006. Before he used to play with the Highwater Bridge and Turtle Mountains Boys from North Dakota.

I like their performance very much.

Also the next young band Jewelci from southern Moravia was new for me. They sang mostly in Czech and it was a pleasure to listen.

The highlight of the night, everybody was waiting for was, when the band Monogram came on stage.  They performed couple of songs from their newest CD“Hit the Road”.

As surprise Ralph Schut- (a young Dutch multiinstrumentalist, who moved to Czech Republic eight years ago, for the opportunity to play with young musicians on his own level. He plays with several bands now and speaks already well Czech and Slovak. His own main band is

G-Runs’n Roses, was just named the European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010 at the EWOB in Holland) showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and as a godfather christened the new CD.

The official release party supposed to be next Monday in the Gong Theatre in Prague.

I am sure, a great jam session followed, but I had a bad luck, picked up some strange virus and got sick. My friends brought me to their house.

Still ill I went home by train on Sunday and had to stay in bed for several days.

Anyway the next Saturday I was fit and on the road again.

There are very few white spots on my Czech bluegrass map.

The Old Rebel Pub in Sloupnice was one of them.

Saturday April 17^th one of five regional qualifying rounds for the Banjo Jamboree band contest took place there.

Bluegrass Cwrkot - a very traditional house band, playing in Lester Flatt & Earls Scruggs style (the guitar player Hombre Lzicar is the pub owner) opened the evening program.

They are quite famous in Europe, last weekend at the EWOB in Holland they were placed second by audience popularity award.

There were five bands competing. The best will be chosen to play the main contest at the Banjo Jamboree Festival, the oldest bluegrass festival in Europe, Saturday June 18^th.

The winner band will have then the opportunity to play next year in the main festival program. The bands were mostly new to me.

As first a band Early Times from Brno with a very good female singer Helena Novackova came on stage. Playing mostly traditional materials. If she will practice more on her guitar,

I can see a good future for them. I loved especially their encore, “Anthony” from Nickel Creek. Well done!

The next band was Twisted Timber. They play mostly progressive bluegrass with a lot of original materials. Their English was just perfect, with no accent. No wonder, their lead singer and fiddle player Matthews Whitten came from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I liked also their female mandolin player Zuzka Liskova, who also is a great songwriter. Their instrumental work was very good.

The next band I met already last weekend at the Minifestival in Luka.

The Giant Mountain’s Band came from South Bohemia.

Well dressed, with accent free English and great instrumental work they were about the favorites.

Bruno Unit represented the older generation and their leader Vlada “White” Bily is one of the Czech bluegrass pioneers. The band was found in 2000 in Northern Moravia, close the Polish border. I know some of band members, but heard them for the first time. And I liked it!

The last band was a young local Trautengrass. Although the guitar player broke the string at the beginning, they showed a lot of temperament and audience loved them the most.

The three members of jury (the audience was the 4^th one) had a really very hard job, because all the bands were about on the same level and it was pretty high.

The final decision felt on The Giant Mountain Band. But, if it were not in Czech Republic,

I am sure, all the bands could be chosen for any other festival…

The night jam sessions lasted almost till the dawn.

Sunday was held a huge Benefit concert in Lucerna Hall in Prague, near the Wenceslas Square. Organized by the instruments maker Rosta Capek.

He celebrated the 25^th anniversary of his trademark Capek Instruments.

We drove from Sloupnice with Peter Brandejs, who plays banjo with Bluegrass Cwrkot, since their original banjo player Milan Leppelt – a Czech banjo legend - passed away last summer.

But he has his own, Peter Brandejs Band and this band opened the mammoth concert in Prague. On the way we picked up another band member, the guitar player Ondra Kozak.

He also has his own band named Kreni, one of the best in the land.

We arrived to Prague just in time for the sound check.

Concert started at six o’clock.

The Lucerna Hall is one of the most beautiful historical concert halls in the country.

The seats were sold out months ago. So many people had to stand.

A proceeds of the event was dedicated to Jan Deyl Conservatory for blind music students, which is just celebrating its 100 years.

Petr Brandejs Band opened the night. They brought as guests another great banjo pickers,

Vojta Zicha and Ondra Ruml (who was placed 2^nd as a singer in a TV show X-factor last year)

They performed “Dixie Breakdown” with triple banjos.

That night we could see “who is who” in Czech music business.

Many artists came from different genres, jazz, bluegrass, country, Celtic and even classical music.

All linked by playing the Capek Instruments.

(Among his customers are also many U.S. artists, as Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Ricky Skaggs and others.)

Also the mandolin wizard Radim Zenkl performed that night with several formations.

The most success belonged to his original music, as instrumentals “Greenpeace” and “Happy Grass”, he played with Jakub Racek, the guitar player from on of the best bluegrass bands Monogram and some other musicians.

Next to mandolin, he loves the Irish pipes and people had even the opportunity to see him playing the cow horn.

After a break, the first lady of bluegrass Pavlina Jisova & Friends came on stage. The band consisted her daughter Adelka, Jakub Racek from Monogramand Pavel Peroutka of the best Czech vocal band Relief on bass. Petr Malasek, the famous piano player joined them.

The next not only bluegrass act were Eliska Ptackova & Friends, with her father Vlada Ptacek on banjo – (maybe some of you are familiar with Ptacek Hand Made Tone rings, Capos, Tuners and so on) and Radek Vankat, a young great Dobro player.

She also sang a duet with Ondra Ruml.

Marek Eben, famous entertainer and TV star called on stage Marko Cermak, who was celebrating his 70th birthday.

Marko Cermak is the father of the Czech 5-string banjo. He received the IBMA Distinguish Achievement Award in 2008. It was him, who started the first Czech bluegrass bands the Greenhorns and White Stars in the late sixties. His first banjo was made after a picture of the one with long neck from Pete Seeger, who visited as the first American artist Czech Republic in 1964.

Marko is not only a musician, he is a man of many talents: painter, illustrator, and writer.

He wrote and published the first Czech school of 5-string banjo - Marko Cermak - Petistrunne Banjo in 1975; Banjo z mlznych lesu (Banjo from the Foggy Forrest) in 1998 and his last book and is called Marko Cermak-Posledni romantik (Marko Cermak – The last Romantic) came out recently.

He received as a birthday present a little travel banjo, Rosta Capek made especially for him.

The high point of the night was, when the Deyl Conservatory received the money check from Rosta rounded up by some sponsors. I am sure; the money gets on the right place!!!!

The show continued with many others artists. On the end, all musicians came on stage.

On the side screens showed up the pictures of beloved Czech singer and banjo player Waldemar Matuska, who passed away in his home in Florida last year. To pay tribute to him, everybody was singing his big hit – “To vsechno vodnes cas…” (Originally “I am in the jail house now…”)

And the five hours long mammoth concert was over.

I will remember this very special event for a long time…

Next Monday April 19th I did some sightseeing. There is so much to see in Prague.

I also went to an exhibition by the Charles Bridge, about the livelong work of Marko Cermak. Called as his last book, Marko Cermak – Posledni Romantik(The Last Romantic).

I could see there all his recordings, awards, books, paintings, comics and illustrations of the famous books for boys by the Boy Scout writer Jaroslav Foglar and others.

In the evening the very last event was waiting for me.

In the sold out Gong Theatre started a Release party for Monogram last CD – “Hit The Road”. The CD exceed thirteen songs, eleven of them are originals written by the band members.

Monogram are: Jakub Racek - guitar, Jarda Jahoda - banjo, Zdenek Jahoda - mandolin and Pavel Lzicar – bass.

They started immediately with the firework of their wonderful music.

I loved, where the boys thanked to the most important women in their lives: their mothers enabling them to learn to play musical instruments and wives, that they did not ban it.

The awaited moment came and the “Godfather” Misa Leicht of the band Cop from Pilsen

Showed up on stage with a bottle of champagne and poured it over the new CD.

So the CD was baptized!

Misa stayed on stage and performed two songs with the band.

Everybody was laughing, when they told us, as they were invited to play a bluegrass festival in Rumania and they put on some costume wigs and shirts and play very fast “Rumanian” Bluegrass. People calmed down by Jakubs beautiful love song “Cure for You” and stand by the instrumental by Jarda Jahoda “Kyril” about the terrible storm which cut down thousands of trees a some years ago. I also loved the “California Dream”…

Many songs and instrumentals from he new CD followed.

You can order the CD on there home page http://www.monogram.cz and I can kindly recommend it to you.

I am sure; some of you can remember their performance at the IBMA Fan Fest 2005.

.

What a great conclusion of my Czech holiday.

The next day I already was on my way back to Switzerland, already looking forward for the next trip, to the European World of Bluegrass in Holland May 13^th-15th.

I returned from there three days ago and will write about it later…

Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, 22.5.2010

May 8th, 2010

Last Saturday the biggest Swiss indoor Bluegrass festival took place in a sold out Farmer Museum Burgrain near Willisau.

There were seven bands performing.

Two from the States: Kathy Kallick Band and Uncle Earl, two from Canada: Red Grass and Viper Central, Sacred Sound of Grass from Germany, Bluegrass Cwrkot from Czech Republic and a young great Swiss band Moon Rise.

Like the last year (I was not there) there were two stages, what was new for me.

If I should tell the truth, that was the only thing on this festival, I did not like very much.

It supposed to guarantee music without interruption, but for me it brought some confusion instead.

Sacred Sound of Grass, one of the most authentic European gospel bands with the Hain Brothers, Thilo on banjo and Sam on mandolin, Alfred Bonk - bass and on fiddle Lody van Vlodrop, with it’s beautiful vocals opened on the main stage at half past one in the afternoon.

At 2 p.m. started also a program on the second, little stage upstairs with the young Swiss Moonrise. They shined like a stars with a lot of temperament.

Because the Canadian Redgrass was not here yet, Bluegrass Cwrkot, who supposed to play on the little stage first came on the main stage at 2.45 p.m. The band with a very difficult name to pronounce by foreigners are: Jan Hombre Lzicar - guitar and vocals, Petr Brandejs, who took over after the tragically dead of their late banjo player Milan Leppelt, his brother Pavel on bass, David Koutsky on fiddle and Marek Macak on mandolin, guitar and high lonesome voice, what brought him on the end a nickname – the most beautiful girl of the band…

The audience loved their very traditional performance in style of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. They showed with a big portion of humor, how the bluegrass was played many years ago.

Some people were in the meantime waiting upstairs for them and missed them.

Everybody loved the Moonrise band, around the gifted female singer and guitar player Ruth Wagner and the banjo player Tom Bodenman. Chris Hugenin on Dobro, Robi Brunner on bass and Ezra Bussman on the mandolin. It was their first really big performance. I see a big future for them, if they’ll stay together.

Afterwards I saw just a part of the Redgrass performance upstairs on the little stage and run down to see the next band, Uncle Earl. The all girls band won the audience hearts after their first tones. Old time music, perfect harmonies, a variety of instruments and even some clogging and dancing were very refreshing.

The big break started at 6 p.m. and some people, including me were counting it will last one hour and missed the 6.30 p.m. beginning of Kathy Kallick Band on the little stage.

Kathy came with a new band, the young, beautiful exotic looking fiddle virtuoso Annie Staninec, with a slavic name (who to our surprise is a half Czech!!!), Greg Booth on banjo, Dan Booth on bass and Martino Coppo from the Italian Band Red Wine on the mandolin.

While they were playing, I missed the big part of the Canadian Viper Central performance, what started at the main stage at 7 p.m. I just caught the end, but liked them very much.

Then came Kathy Kallick Band and Bluegrass Cvrkot at the main stage again, with even more success like in the afternoon. Also the second set of Uncle Earl was great. They brought their friend Ezra Bussman as guest for couple songs. After many encores the audience finally let them go and the great festival was over.

I was very sorry to miss the Sacred Sound of Grass and Viper Central on the little stage again, but for sure, you can’t be everywhere.

A big thanks belongs to Bruno Steffen, the festival organizer, and all his helpers. Good job!

I am already looking forward for the next festival in 2011!

Lilly Pavlak in Buelach, May 10^th, 2010

další   fotky  EWOB

Umístění  kapel:

European Bluegrass Band of the Year 2010
1st place G-runs’n Roses (CZ/NL/SK)
2nd place Earlybird Stringband (Norway)
3th place Rawhide (Belgium)
Audience popularity award
1st place Sunny Side (Czech Republic)
2nd place Bluegrass Cwrkot ( Czech Rep.)
3th place G-runs’n roses (CZ/NL/SK)

BANJO  JAMBOREE
místo:  HOSPODA  U  STARÝHO REBELA  SLOUPNICE
DNE  17.4. 2010
v 19:30  hod.

KALENDÁŘ AKCÍ