Dagfinn Pedersen, EBMA board member, reports from the Norwegian Bluegrass Music Association:
The boys in Ila Auto, the Norwegian 2006 winners of Best Country Album with their debut CD, If you keep pickin', it might never heal, are as busy as ever. Their second CD, Over the next hill, was also nominated for the awards but without succeeding. They are now releasing their third CD, called Ila Auto, on 18 January, on the Universal Records label, with full national TV and radio promotion package to go with it.
The first two projects were in English, with mostly their own material. This time it is still their own songs, except one, I believe, but it is all in Norwegian. And their roots coming from rock bands are showing through a little bit more; this is bluegrass with a rocky edge. After a release tour they will play school concerts for the government a couple of weeks, and when completed they have in three years played for all the schools in the Oslo district. Quite an achievement - they have brought bluegrass to all school children in a population of about 6-800,000 people. In addition they have had over 400 concerts, 139 in 2009 alone. They are definitely busy and do their share in spreading the bluegrass music in Norway.
Two more bands are announcing new CD releases: one is the acoustic Bergen Mandolin Band with Til skogen ('To the woods') being released 1 March, with their old-timey songs of 'honest workers and love gone bad' as they put it. The other one comes from Earlybird Stringband and will be released in March. In addition there are two new bands, Marshall Monrad Band and Boxcar Rental, in the studios working on new projects.
The major event this year, Risor Bluegrass Festival (and the workshop), has received a €18,000 grant from the government this year, along with €6,000 from the community, the first significant financial support in its nine years of existence. The workshop will include all the bluegrass instruments, plus harmony singing and clawhammer banjo, and the website will open shortly for those who wish to sign up for that. The festival (15-17 July) will support EBMA with a 50% discount for all EBMA members living outside of Norway, a contribution towards the higher travelling cost. You just watch the website and sign up there when it is ready.
