By Jean Brandon

Personnel: Jarda Jahoda: banjo; Zdenek Jahoda: mandolin; Jakub Racek: guitar; Zbynek Bures: bass. All four sing vocals. Cover Foto

I first heard of Monogram when Arthur Robinson mentioned them after one of his trips to Czech republic. He mooted the possibility of a tour and loaned a CD for review (see NWBN Nov., 1997). Other Czech bands have visited the UK but recently Monogram did a week-long tour including local venues The Hobo’s Retreat (Heywood), The Horse & Jockey (Helsby); Leeds Bluegrass Club, and ending at the “Nottingdale” Bluegrass Festival. We saw them at both Helsby and Nottingham - both gigs are covered here.

Tuesday May 26th saw us at The Horse and Jockey for one of Bryn William’s Occasional Concerts. I’d realised from the CD cover that they were young but I wasn’t quite prepared for the youthful reality - their average age was barely 21! They say you’re getting older when policemen start looking younger - well this lot certainly made me feel my age!! But there was nothing immature about their performance. They started their set with Since I Fell In Love With Thee, from their first CD. What a superb blend of voices and instruments; every bit as good in quality as the CD with a very Bluegrassy sound. Very tasty guitar breaks from Jakub Racek - in fact he was very tasty all round (just because I’m on a diet doesn’t say I can’t drool over the menu!) Zdenek Jahoda provided some superb mandolin playing, cutting in sharply with his breaks.

Cover Photo July 1998

Monogram - Bluegrass Band of the Year

Although most of the songs are modern and written by the band they were all very traditional in style and execution. They included Song at Twilight, Go My Way and Field of Blooming Colours. This was first class Bluegrass played with verve, sensitivity and feeling. They also included a backstep-style mandolin tune written by mandolinist Zdenek Jahoda. There was a terrific guitar break on this one! Next came Do Praise Jesus, Cloudy Days then a Western Swing number that knocked Chris Wilson over! Shades of the Temperance Seven here (Temperance who? Some of us are old enough to remember them!) They finished the first set with Big Spike Hammer, doing a superb job with this hard-driving, traditional-style song.

Monogram is definitely a singing band - superb harmonies, impeccable timing and loads of light and shade with the lead instrument allowed to shine through during breaks. Definitely an instrumental band too!

Their second set included You Can’t Take It With You When You Go, Girl On The Mountain, Siesta (another tune by the mandolin picker). Eternally Rest In His Arms was a gospel song performed round one mike with just bass and guitar and with the bass player singing a great bass line for all the other parts to sit on. They followed this with The Meadow Where The Rainbow Ends, and an up tempo version of Little Sadie with yet another blistering guitar break. Reap What You Have Sown. swelled from a quiet beginning with just bass and guitar gradually joined by the other instruments and finishing with a guitar and Mandolin duet to finish. A performance highlight was a special choreographed version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown in which they all ended playing each others instruments. I don’t think it quite came off, but then I think I was spoilt by the Sensitive New Age Cowpersons version of the same trick! They finished the set with Nothing Can Stop My Loving You. A Chris Jones song, a real driving Bluegrass version of You Can Have Her with a nice key change at the end of this one, I Know The Way To My Heart, and Cherokee Shuffle

Jakub, Jarda, Zbynek & Zdenek sing a-capella

For an encore they sang an a capella gospel song, but had some trouble starting it because the beer engine was making a noise and pulling them off key! Of course the audience wouldn’t let them get away without a second encore so they finished with a Swing number I’ll Just Keep On Loving You - cracking stuff but not bluegrass. Still, they played plenty of that during the evening! They had a rapturous reception - the audience wouldn’t let them go without a third encore for which they did Take Me As I Am

The Tony Furtado Trio also did a similar tour recently and shone in the smaller, more intimate pub setting. Although Monogram appeared to enjoy themselves and played very well in the pub setting at Helsby, they really came into their own with the more formal setting of the concert stage at Nottingham. They took the Festival by storm, (see article) with a rapturous reception to their performances. The buzz over the whole weekend was Monogram and they well deserve their picture on the front cover! I think thanks must go to Arthur Robinson for acting as ‘Roadie’ and ferrying them from gig to gig, as well as to Carmen Turner for organising the tour.

Jean Brandon, Chester.

Updated 23rd Jan 1999