The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, one of the nation's largest and most respected bluegrass festivals, is set for this weekend on the 25-acre Walsh Farm in Oak Hill, New York.
As a pre-eminent niche festival on the circuit for decades, it has featured all the top acts in that genre and occasionally reached out to Irish entertainers who have traveled those sympathetic crossroads between green grass and bluegrass roots music.
Along with top names like Tim O’Brien and Jerry Douglas, who are well known on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, this year on the bill of fare are two of the top Irish bands to immerse themselves into the equally fanatical blue-grass music scene.
Appearing for the very first time are one of the most popular bands in the Irish American festival trail, the Galway quartet known as We Banjo 3 over on one of their frequent North American tours that can encompass as much as five months over the year.
Read more: An epic Galway showcase is coming to Milwaukee Irish Fest
On this tour, they are launching a new CD called "Roots to Rise" which is a live recording captured during an earlier engagement at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Comprised of two sets of brothers in Enda and Fergal Scahill and Martin and David Howley, they have taken the music world by storm with their dynamic up-tempo live performances and recordings.
Joining them this year is a Dublin-based band called I Draw Slow who have performed at Grey Fox a couple of times in the past. Brother and sister, Dave and Louise Holden front the band along with Adrian Harten, Colin Derham, and Konrad Liddy.
The Grey Fox Festival draws as many as 15,000 people a day to the pop-up village they create every year with continuous concerts, workshops, and jams and is worth sampling for not just the brilliant music but for the experience.
We Banjo 3 are there on Friday starting with a joint workshop with I Draw Slow at 2 p.m. and live stage sets at 5 and 9 p.m.
Full details on the 40 plus acts and festival information available at www.greyfoxbluegrass.com.
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