Bluegrass Omagh 2024 | mygrassisblue.com

mygrassisblue.com Presents

Appearing @ Bluegrass Omagh 🇬🇧 2024

Bluegrass Omagh. It is the largest bluegrass and old-time music gathering on the island of Ireland and one of the largest bluegrass events outside of North America. Nominated in 2017 for the IBMA Industry Award for Bluegrass Event of the Year, the annual event is well established; 2024 will be the 32nd anniversary of the first Bluegrass Omagh gathering back in 1992. Set within the unique setting of the Ulster American Folk Park in Northern Ireland, the multi-day event pays homage to the heritage and legacy of the Appalachian settlers, emigrants who left the shores of Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries and travelled with instruments, songs, stories and memories that took root in communities throughout North America, especially in the heartland of Appalachia, stretching from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. It was these instruments, hymns and ballads of Appalachia, alongside influences from African-American blues and jazz, that served as the baseline for the evolution of the genres of bluegrass, old-time, Americana and country music, genres of music that strike a resonant chord within the depths of our very DNA.

BLUEGRASS OMAGH 2024 LINE-UP & TICKETS

SAT & SUN, MAY 4 & 5, 2024| Bluegrass Omagh 2024, Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh, Northern Ireland | Full Line-up & Tickets

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The 2024 @FolkParkOmagh #BluegrassOmagh #BluegrassFestival, Ireland’s largest #bluegrass & #oldtime #musicfestival, now in its 32nd year. | #bluegrassmusic #musicpromotion Fly birdy, fly. Click to Tweet!

We’re proud of our association with Bluegrass Omagh and work closely with them to fulfil the festival needs of presenting the best of bluegrass and old-time music to the thousands of festival goers for whom Bluegrass Omagh is a highlight of their musical year. We are delighted to present the following artists as part of the lineup for Bluegrass Omagh 2024, scheduled for May 4 & 5, 2024.

Nothin’ Fancy 🇺🇸 Thomas Cassell 🇺🇸 Milkeaters 🇨🇿 Rookie Riot 🇸🇪

NOTHIN’ FANCY USA 🇺🇸

Nothin’ Fancy needs little introduction to US bluegrass aficionados; 2024 sees them celebrating their 30th year as a bluegrass force, and an undoubted highlight of their 30th Year Anniversary Tour will see them visiting Ireland and playing Bluegrass Omagh for the very first time.

Nothin’ Fancy’s considerable accomplishments certainly belie an otherwise unassuming handle.

– Lee Zimmerman, Bluegrass Today

Nothin’ Fancy. Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival, North Carolina. October 2018.

Nothin’ Fancy hail from Buena Vista, Virginia 🇺🇸 and currently consist of Mike Andes (mandolin and vocals), Curt Gausman (guitar and vocals), Jacob Flick (banjo), Jenkins (bass), and Chris Sexton (fiddle and vocals). The band formed in September 1994 to compete in a local bluegrass competition. They won the competition. Since then they have amassed a dedicated fanbase, released 12 full length studio albums (their most recent, Here We Go Again, in September 2023), and continue to perform at festivals across the United States and beyond. The receipiant of six Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) Entertainers of the Year awards, the band was inducted as members of the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015, an honor given to Virginia’s most notable country and bluegrass musicians. Hosts since 2001 of their own annual bluegrass festival, a notable event for the Shenandoah Valley bluegrass scene that attracts acclaimed bluegrass bands and bluegrass music lovers from all over the world, the band’s music teems with an honesty and humility borne from a decidedly down home demeanor.

The act that America need to see.

– D.A. Callaway. Promotor, Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO.

While Nothin’ Fancy’s journey to date has seen them deliver their stirring mix of strong and smooth vocal blends, four-part arrangements and irrepressible humor from the revered stages of Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Station Inn, New York City’s Lincoln Center, and the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, among others, their first ever visit to Ireland to play Bluegrass Omagh will undoubtedly be added to their three-decade-long list of performance highlights and notable achievements (and — needs must — they’ll be leaving their beloved bright yellow tour bus at home when they do).

VIDEO | The current Bluegrass Omagh-bound Nothin’ Fancy lineup. L-R: Chris Sexton (fiddle), Curt Gausman (guitar), Mike Andes (mandolin); Jenkins (bass), Jacob Flick (banjo).

Nothin’ Fancy Elsewhere

Website |  https://www.nothinfancybluegrass.com/
Facebook |  https://www.facebook.com/nothinfancybg/
X / Twitter |  https://twitter.com/NothinFancyBG/

It only took 3 decades! @NothinFancyBG finally perform in #Ireland ☘️ as part of their 30th Year Anniversary Tour when they take the stage at the 32rd #BluegrassOmagh #BluegrassFestival in @FolkParkOmagh, Ireland’s largest #bluegrass & #oldtime #musicfestival. | #bluegrassmusic #musicpromotion #BluegrassOmagh2024 Fly birdy, fly. Click to Tweet!

Thomas CassellUSA 🇺🇸

Thomas Cassell is one of the most coveted musicians in the bluegrass sphere today, already among the highest rank of modern bluegrass mandolinists. Originally from the sacred bluegrass mountains of southwestern Virginia 🇺🇸 but now residing in Nashville, Tennessee, Cassell is much revered among his peers: although still in his twenties he has already amassed quite the haul of industry accolades, among them the 2021 National Mandolin Champion; the 2020 Momentum Mandolin Instrumentalist of the Year from the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association); 2021 FreshGrass Mandolin Champion; and 2016 Rockygrass Mandolin Champion. He’s also a two-time alum of the prestigious Acoustic Music Seminar in Savannah, Georgia, where he collaborated with artists including Darrell Scott, Bryan Sutton, Mike Marshall, Aoife O’Donovan, Kaia Kater, and Julian Lage.

A founding member of respected progressive group Circus No. 9 who has performed as a sideman with, among others, Billy Strings, the Bryan Sutton Band, Jim Lauderdale, Missy Raines, and Becky Buller, Cassell is now cultivating new and original music, always cognisant and respectful of the great traditions and protagonists that preceded him.

Following on from his acclaimed 2018 release, the instrumental album Voyager, and 2022’s What You Need to Prove, his first collection of original vocal material, Cassell is currently touring extensively in promotion of his forthcoming album release, due for release on Mountain Fever Records in October 2024, a tour that will take him all the way to Ireland and the stage of Bluegrass Omagh. And as bluegrass music is rarely a solo venture, Cassell will be joined at Bluegrass Omagh 2024 by the competent supporting trio of Karl Smakula (guitar, vocals), Evan Winsor (bass, vocals) and Justin Alexander (banjo, vocals).

VIDEO | Anything But The Truth, the first single from the forthcoming album, due for release in October 2024. Recorded @ the Lab Sessions, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Thomas Cassell Elsewhere

Website |  https://thomascassell.com/
Facebook |  https://www.facebook.com/ThomasCassellMusic/
Instagram |  https://www.instagram.com/thomasandrewcassell/

MilkeatersCZ 🇨🇿

Milkeaters are are a dynamic four-piece hailing from Mlékojedy in the Czech Republic 🇨🇿. The band – Petr Ježek on guitar, Jan Bláha on fiddle, Petr Šolc on bass, and David Benda on banjo – released their self-titled debut album in 2020, the same year David Benda became World Virtual Bluegrass Banjo champion. They quickly thereafter gained a large following, in large part due to their heavy touring schedule, instrumental proficiency and powerful stage presence.

The band, who compose the majority of their own music but who also deliver a balanced mix of bluegrass standards, bluegrass covers, and non-bluegrass favourites with a bluegrass twist, followed up their debut release with 2023’s The Devil by My Side. Two-time nominees for European Bluegrass Band of the Year at the La Roche Festival in France, Europe’s largest bluegrass gathering, they distinguish themselves with a distinctive attention-grabbing approach, delivering an energetic performance full of unique world-class instrumental performances and powerful vocals interspersed with humour and audience interaction. It’s a mix that ensures that those in attendance receive a memorable musical experience.

This will be Milkeaters inaugural appearance at Bluegrass Omagh. They are looking forward to expanding their ever-growing fanbase and to introducing their energetic stage show to a new audience.

VIDEO | Milkeaters performing Up on a Blueridge @ the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France. Summer 2018.

Milkeaters Elsewhere

Website |  https://en.milkeaters.cz/
Facebook |  https://www.facebook.com/milkeaters/
Instagram |  https://www.instagram.com/milkeaters/

Rookie RiotSE 🇸🇪

School’s out. What started as a project to nurture the potential of young and aspiring Swedish musicians to the bluegrass style of music, Rookie Riot, hailing from Haga, a city district in Gothenburg, Sweden 🇸🇪, has more than evolved and is now firmly established as a well-known and respected band on the European bluegrass circuit.

Ever the students, the band’s sound had evolved via a sprawling array of genre influences, everything from the first generation of bluegrass musicians right through to the progressive, envelope-pushing influences of today; primary mentor and band lead/rhythm guitarist Anders Ternesten describes the band’s sound as holding to a traditional template, all the while moving forward to find their own path. While the Rookie Riot repertoire consists of a well-balanced mix of popular bluegrass covers, ballads, their own original compositions and non-bluegrass songs given the bluegrass treatment, the band’s delivery is unmistakably their own; their tendency to take inspiration from jam videos and assorted festival performances is immediately evident from their energetic, almost rowdy stage performances.

In the summer of 2023, Rookie Riot — Anders Ternesten (guitar), Agnes Brogeb (fiddle), Karl Annerhult (mandolin), Carl Karlsson (bass), Daniel Svensson (banjo) and Wilma Ternesten (vocals) — realised an ambition by taking their evolving sound and stirring stage show across the Atlantic to a US audience, shortly after their appearance at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France, Europe’s biggest bluegrass gathering. There will be more firsts for the band in 2024, including their first visit to Ireland and their inaugural appearance at Bluegrass Omagh. It’s a set not to be missed.