North West Bluegrass News
Almost Bluegrass
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North West Bluegrass
News
Almost
Bluegrass
This ageing, occasionally-performing, duo consists of Derek and Jean Brandon. They started off many years ago playing regular folk music and Appalachian songs and music, with Jean singing and playing guitar and Derek accompanying on banjo (5-string and fretless). They played a few banjo instrumentals but not bluegrass, although it was always an interest.
Derek and Jean's preferences cover from "mainline" bluegrass to somewhat more modern bluegrass. On pick-nights they tend to play mainly "core" bluegrass to help keep a balance with the instrumentals and progressive bluegrass that often prevails. The name "Almost Bluegrass" derives from the fact that two people can't play bluegrass - when told that, they always reply "No, but it's almost bluegrass!" When playing as a band, they use the name "The Almost Bluegrass Band" (some kind of in-joke?) [ Profile of Derek| Profile of Jean | Gig report-1 | Gig report-2 ]
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After
several years of not playing at all they eventually got involved and started
going to festivals. They eventually realised that the only way is to
play a lot with others but there were no players anywhere in the vicinity.
After getting fed up with travelling long distances to other clubs they finally
started a