Your Letters to The Editor
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Feedback from Jack Lawrence. Derek, I’d like to thank you, Ian and everyone else at NWBN for the outstanding article about Jimmy and me. (NWBN Jan 1999) I happened upon it while cruising your web site a couple of months ago. Sorry for not writing sooner. Jimmy and I had a great time at Heywood and all the other gigs we did whilein England. The Heywood gig was a standout in a group of great gigs. We enjoyed meeting everyone and we certainly enjoyed the music and we especially enjoyed the English beers! We have only had time for a few gigs together this year, our schedules beingso hard to match up. Jimmy and I did a couple of sets together at MerleFest as well as sets with our regular mates. We did a set that stirred a little interest while there with Mike Auldridge, the dobro master. It worked so well that we hope to do some gigs as a trio. Would there be any interest in the UK for such a configuration? We certainly had a good time doing it. My schedule with Doc has been pretty busy lately. We have done a number of gigs recently with David Grisman. Those are alwaysa gas. The Doc and Dawg shows are loose but filled with brilliance. Grisman is an inspired and inspiring player. I wish I could talk Doc into a UK tour, but I can’t convince him to leave the country anymore. Thanks again, Derek, for the great article. I stop by your web site frequently. Thanks also to Eric Pollitt for his help and influence in getting the Heywood gig for us. And I can’t forget Gerry Williams of Wadhurst, Sussex for making the whole tour possible. I hope to come backsoon as a solo or in a duo or trio. It doesn’t matter, I just want to come back soon.
Regards,Jack Lawrence,
Geoff Bowers bowled over! Hiya Derek! Just have to tell you what a great night the Schankman Twins put on for us in Nottingham. (See Article) Concert regulars said that this was the best yet and that’s really saying an awful lot when you consider what has gone before. Some people actually went away at the door when they realised that it was standing room only! Pat and I had to forego the North Wales Bluegrass Fest’ in order to man the phones for our concert which was on the following night. Without question that’s the best festival of the year and that really hurt! Imagine our feelings when folks who had seen the band for the whole weekend - four times plus workshops - rang on Sunday afternoon to ask if there was any chance of tickets left at our concert in Nottingham! The sacrifice well-and-truly paid off! In common with the magical Special Consensus Concert (Read NW Report), there were relatively few local Bluegrassers in the audience. The bluegrass fans came from just about everywhere else though! They came from Cardiff, Liverpool, York, Immingham, Derby, Leicester, Warwick, Birmingham, Litchfield, Islington - to name someoff the top of my head! We actually managed almost to fill the County Hotel where I put the band. I’m sure that this must have added greatly to the fans’ pleasure. I don’t doubt that all of your readers must have seen the Schankman Twins and could not have failed to be just swept away by their fresh, exuberant and just outright top-flight performances; they were every bit the “Amazing Schankman Twins” that I billed them as - and then some! Michael, the unsung member of the family, really performed well with some really good singing and very competent bass playing. As if all of that were not enough, I just have to say something about John Moore here. My wife Pat and I had seen John with his own Bluegrass, Etc. just the week before at Leo Shaw’s Litchfield Concert. With that in mind I knew that we were in for something very special at ours. Together with several others who had seen him at Litchfield, I was most impressed by this quiet-spoken warm-natured cowboycharacter who visibly shrank from his well-deserved applause for his breaks, his whole body-language seeming actively to discourage any tendency to shine on the twins’ parade! His guitar playing just ripples as he stares glassily towards side-stage! I know though, that he kept it down just sufficiently to fit in with the excellent stuff that was going down from the twins. I have never witnessed such outright selfless professionalism before and I say that this man is the consummate pro. Dave Peters provided some fireworks on mandolin though he could learn quite a bit from the Twins’ happy demeanour; his mandolin said yes but his presence said “Ok - if I have to!” The whole package that was the Schankman Twins wasan example to any visiting pro’ band. Their promotional package that just bulged with accolades and included their great CD - (made three years ago!) - left me in no doubt at all about booking them unseen. The driving force behind them is their human dynamo of a Mum, Vicki! She kept in constant touch on the run-up to the performance through Write to and lengthy trans-Atlantic phone calls. She is a promoter’s dream. No doubts, no hassle - “whatever you need is a phrase of hers.” I certainly hope that I have the chance to organise another concert of theirs. I spoke to their Dad, Alan a few days after they arrived back in the US and said, “If we had a family like that - I think we’d die of ecstasy! They’re certainly doing something very right.” I’d like to thank all of the very many people from across the country and those nearer to home, who took the trouble to write so many warm words of thanks and congratulations. I was very touched and it certainly makes it all very worthwhile. Thank you all.
Regards, Geoff Bower, Nottingham.
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Dear Editor. I thought of writing to the mag to get some information. I’ve been on the lookout for books of banjo solos, Bluegrass style that have singing songs or tunes and that are slow or medium paced. Also, tablaturefor more modern pop songs that have been bluegrassed up. There are some banjo players around that do some very nice fancy back-up to slow country and western songs and also some very good solo breaks to them. The banjo experts tell me that having learned the traditional fast bluegrass tunes, I should then be able to improvise and play these slow tunes. I am struggling to do this, but I wish I could buy a book of tablature solos as it seems to me that the technique of playing slow tunes is different and not simply a matter of slowing down the fingering of a fast song. Anyone out there with advice, I’d like to hear from you. Jim Grainger 26 Lynwood Rd., Liverpool L9 3AF. Tel. 0151 5258631
News from Germany: Hello everybody, Here are a few news of the German Fox Tower Bluegrass Band:
Best wishes, Andy
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