Special Consensus mandolinist Ashby Frank has agreed to send us updates and photos from their current tour of Britain and Ireland. Ashby is unsure how much web access he will have during the tour, but promises to send his musings whenever he has the chance.

Last night we performed at the Winter Festival in a town called Sixmilebridge in County Clare here in Southwest Ireland. We’re in the Shannon Region near Limerick (which is a decent sized town).

Here’s a map if you care to see!

The hotel we’re staying at happens to be right next to the Bunratty Castle. The Castle was built in 1425 and now serves as a Folk Park and Banquet Hall.

The concert last night was at a very small old Courthouse in the middle of Sixmilebridge, and there are other performances going on there through the weekend. I don’t particularly enjoy playing on a one or two mic setup, but the stage was so small that it was all they could come up with. Fun times though, and met even more nice folks and even ran into some bluegrass fans from Florida that are on a vacation and somehow found out about the festival while they were over here. Small world!

Today we make a short drive to Galway for a show at the Crane Bar. Hopefully I’ll have WiFi as regularly as I have so far so I can keep posting.

Cheers!