One of Ireland’s most prominent bluegrass artists is Niall Toner, and he is set to release his third CD of original music later this month. Niall tells us that the new project features ten songs and two instrumentals, and will be on the Avalon Records label.

He also invites everyone to visit the Niall Toner Band MySpace page, where you can view a documentary film about the band.

The documentary was filmed at the 2007 Athy Bluegrass Festival by a local young lady called Kate Bradbury. She is a specialist in Marine Biology, and this was her first venture with a band. I had sent her a couple of our CDs, and she loved the music, and offered to come to the festival and do some shooting. The Carlton Hotel in Athy, where all the gigs for the Festival were staged, were also very accommodating, and they allowed us to use their Library room. Kate also filmed a short part of our live set in the Hotel Bar. Kate did the editing herself, and we were so pleased with the results, we decided to put the two pieces up on our MySpace page.

We received a note from our friend Richard Hawkins who runs the Bluegrass Ireland Blog, and posts at the European Bluegrass Blog, about a bluegrass connection to last weekend’s Academy Awards presentation in Los Angeles. Richard pointed out that one of the writers of the award for Music (Song), Glen Hansard, is a former member of Ireland’s Niall Toner Band.

Toner is a longtime singer and songwriter in Ireland who Hawkins describes as the godfather of Irish bluegrass.

Hansard and fellow songwriter and Marketa Irglova won for the song Falling Slowly from the movie, Once. You can see a live performance video of the song on the Fox Searchlight web site.

Niall Toner will be on Ireland’s RT?â Radio 1 this week with the first two installments of his Nashville Sessions series, recorded while he was in attendance at the IBMA World Of Bluegrass convention earlier this fall.

These shows will air at 1:00 p.m. (EST – 6:00 p.m. local UK time) on December 27 and 28 and feature interviews with several performers, songwriters and instrument builders Niall caught up with in Nashville. Guests include Greg Cahill, Pete Wernick, Barry and Holly Tashian, Steve Huber, Goldheart, Broken Wire, Steve Kaufmann, Keith Sewell and a number of others.

Additional shows to be broadcast in 2008 will be announced shortly after the new year.

RT?â Radio 1 broadcasts over the air at 88-89 FM, and listeners worldwide can tune in online via live audio streaming.

Niall is also hard at work finishing up his latest CD, We Believe In Clean Endings. He says it will feature 13 of his new songs, and a release date for next year should be announced by February.

This post is a contribution from Niall Toner, a popular bluegrass singer, songwriter and radio personality in Ireland. His reports from IBMA ‘07 will air on Ireland’s RTE Radio One on 12/26-27 at 1:00 p.m. (EST).

Season’s Greetings, and good wishes from Ireland.

A Christmas memory for the blog: Odd as it might seem, three or four of the most influential recordings in our house when we were youngsters, arrived around Christmas time on different years. Stranger still is the fact that after a half-Century, every Christmas day, these are the same records we still listen to!

They include LPs [you remember them!/vinyl] from the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Bill Monroe!

Even today, when young enthusiasts ask me for advice on getting to know the music, I can still recommend these four …….