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.

Well, many miles and hours down the road here I am in England!

After our show in the south of Ireland, we made that long drive to the Belfast area and played another small concert before catching a ferry the next day over to Scotland.

We immediately drove from the coast to Glasgow to play at the huge Celtic Connections festival.

The drive was beautiful and even in the cold of the season there’s green grass everywhere. Everything was great and we were on time getting there‚Ķuntil we arrived in Glasgow. The street layout there is, well, not what we’re used to and we didn’t make it to the place where we were supposed to be picked up until right at the time of sound check. Instead of being able to check in, change clothes, and rest for a minute, we had to change clothes in the parking garage and carry all of our stuff a few blocks down the street to the shuttle that was waiting. People looked at us like they’d never seen a Bluegrass band running through the streets of Downtown Glasgow before. Odd.

That all being said, once we got there the festival was great. We were the first to play, and then Leon Hunt, followed by Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. I have some video footage that I might be able to get uploaded at a later date.

After our set, we were walking over to the record table and Greg was flagged down by B?©la Fleck to chat. I sure am glad I didn’t know he was out in the crowd while we were playing. He’s a super nice guy, but that would have been nerve-wracking!

It’s great to see that people of many ages, so far away from where I’m from, could enjoy the music that we were playing. I can’t sufficiently tell you how nice everyone is over here, and it really helps fight off the homesickness when everyone tries to make you feel at home.

Anyway, we played another fun show in Scotland last night with the Scottish band Goldrush and then today it was another long drive, this time into England.

We had a packed house tonight here in Kenilworth, and hopefully made some new friends.

It’s getting late now, so I guess I’ll stop typing! We’ll be in England for the next few days and I’ll try to report more ASAP.