What the Editor has to say!
 Derek Brandon
write to Derek
THIS ISSUE IS OUT VERY early, and the July one will also be early with any luck, to accommodate vacations for worn-out me. I RECEIVED SEVERAL VERBAL comments that there was too much USA stuff in the March/April mag - well, maybe. But there was little UK news available and, whether you like it or not, Bluegrass is American music and, as such, the USA content should be of interest - and most of it was either about or by UK visitors in the US! I actually got a lot of very favourable comments on the Matt Ditchburn article (which was wrongly attributed to Matt, who could never be so outgoing - it was actually written by someone else - see Letters). I do get USA material that we don't include if it's judge to be either insufficiently relevant or interesting. There's more UK stuff this time and still lots of USA items. In fact there's so much stuff we've had to miss out all the adverts, Radio & TV, etc., from the hard copy... more than likely they'll be back next time... CAN I ONCE MORE appeal for an extra Bluegrass Guitar tab author? I know that they are appreciated - we lost a sponsor for the lack of them... But we need a little more than just the tab - a short description with explanation of any tricky bits, or a short story on the background and history of the piece is good (see some of John Baldry's mandolin tabs, for example). Sorry we can't pay - we can't afford it - but at least you get your name in lights and your work archived! THERE ARE A LOT of things happening in the UK in May, but we won't be able to go to most of them - it's too expensive, for one thing.... so please can I ask you, if you go to a concert or festival, to take pencils, notepad, camera, flashgun, spare batteries... I just cannot report things if I haven't got a report! I WANT TO THANK our Sponsor-subscribers for their continued support and especially the new ones who have joined up recently - many thanks! They have made up for the ones we have crossed off for very late payment... although we send it out for free to those who can't afford it or don't realise they need it. We couldn't continue without their £5 - $8 annual donations to pay for the hard copies and web site and other expenses. But also I want to thank all those who contribute in any way - by sending news and articles, reviews, donations and CDs for prizes. But I must give special thanks to Richard Lloyd who prints the hard copy for free - all the more surprising when one learns that he is a BMG Orchestra man who doesn't play or listen to bluegrass! His reason? "NWBN is performing a very useful function and deserves the help!" Way to go, Richard! I WOULD APPRECIATE it if someone hot in Javascript to help out by writing something to set a cookie to allow readers to select Music or No Music on the home page. I'm no good at it and life is too short to learn... best I can do is have an alternative home page, but that's not much good... Can't pay you - sorry - but you can carry on reading the mag online for free!! IT'S BOOB TIME:
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