We hear from editor Richard F. Thompson that the Summer 2009 edition of British Bluegrass News is in the mail.

The magazine is published quarterly by the British Bluegrass Music Association, and this issue is the first under the guidance of new editor Thompson, who we are fortunate to also have as a semi-regular correspondent for The Bluegrass Blog.

Richard shares a few details…

“Monroe’s Revenge are the subject of the cover story, as former mandolin player with the group, John Baldry, looks back to when he was with the band.

In addition, there are feature stories about the Scottish quartet Longway; a Mountain Heart piece from Ted Lehmann; and Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa, whose UK tour starts at the end of September.

Tom Travis reveals his ‘Favourites’ and The Story Behind The Song looks at Hazel Dicken’ ‘Mama’s Hand’.

All this plus the usual What’s On, Tour details and 2009 Festival Dates, CD reviews, Light in the Window, SmallTalk and the Area reports.

Finally, there is news about three BBMA business matters; the announcement concern the AGM, an introduction from the new membership team and brief information regarding the new Touring Agency managed by Dave Bresnen and Penny Joubert.”

British Bluegrass News is sent to members of the BBMA. Memberships can be established or renewed from their web site.

Richard is always interested in receiving information from British bands, festivals or other bluegrass events. You can contact him by email.

We will publish some of Richard’s mini-reviews from this issue later in the week.

After 21 years together, one of the most popular and well-known names on the British bluegrass music scene, Monroe’s Revenge, has finally released their debut CD.

The band from south-east England has made regular appearances at festivals around the country for over two decades, playing traditional and contemporary songs and fast-paced, virtuoso instrumentals with a rootsy, edgy energy.

Their new self-titled CD contains 17 tracks and includes favourites from their live set such as Washington County, I’m Working On A Building and He Will Set Your Fields on Fire. Other songs that are included are Hemlocks And Primroses, Just Because, Muddy Water, Pig In A Pen, Good Imitation Of The Blues, Somewhere On The Road Tonight, One More Dollar (Gillian Welch and David Rawlings) and the Kenny Baker fiddle tune Denver Belle.

The band is fronted by Dave Plane (guitar and vocals), who has been playing bluegrass music since the 1960s, with Roger Blackbourn (playing banjo and providing vocals), Joe Hymas (mandolin and vocals), Richard Partridge (fiddle and vocals) and Dick Embery (double bass). Many commentators consider that this line-up is its strongest yet.

Fiddler Richard Partridge has provided a bit about the band’s recent history that has culminated in the release of their CD ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ.

“Monroe’s Revenge’s current line-up has been playing together for the last three or four years. I joined on fiddle about five years ago (it’s hard to remember exactly) and Joe Hymas joined us on mandolin a year or two later. Having gigged fairly regularly to increasingly receptive audiences (last year we were the ‘headlining British band’ at Didmarton, having the penultimate slot on the Saturday night, after Mollie O’Brien and before the American headliner, Blue Highway) we eventually felt that we were ready to record an album.

The choice of material was pretty much a ‘no-brainer;’ we knew which were the strongest songs in our current repertory. Some of them, such as Roust-a-bout, are ones that our singer/guitarist Dave Plane sang for years in his duo with the late Andy Townend. Others we have brought in more recently.

It took a couple of years of experimenting to work out how we wanted to record it. We decided against the modern way of recording rhythm tracks first and overdubbing everything else. Everything on the CD is recorded live with no overdubs. We feel that the live energy more than makes up for any roughness in the playing and achieves what we hope we have become known for; raw, hard-driving bluegrass.”

The CD can be bought at their shows or through their brand new website where you can also hear sample tracks.

Other musical samples can be enjoyed by visiting their MySpace page.