Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 5:00pm

Bluegrass Sessions are the real deal

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Bluegrass music was summed up by the late great Bill Monroe as "Scotch bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin", which the people of Mullingar can catch at the Bluegrass sessions that take place every Saturday night in the Greville Arms Hotel.

One example of the high calibre of bands the Greville has lined up for the weekly slot are local Bluegrass trio Bending the Strings - Martin Cooney, Vinny Baker and Moyra Fraser, who played an outstanding gig there recently.

Martin Cooney on the five-string banjo - a life long devotee to Bluegrass, responsible for the hugely successful Athy Bluegrass festival, delivered classics such as Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Earls Breakdown, and the 'Deliverance' film theme, showing him to be one of the greatest exponents of the five-string banjo around.

Displaying unique mastery of speed, phrasing and magnificent tone with this instrument, Martin's dead-pan vocal style delivers the right tone to blend in the trio's tight harmonies, which is so necessary to achieve just the right feel for bluegrass vocals.

Moyra Fraser, the trio's keys and bass player is a Scottish lass who has made Ireland her home as musical director of the internationally famous, Foster and Allen band. Moyra's high level of musical ability and technique, which is required to play Bluegrass with such speed and intensity, adds a light and airy vocal style that sits perfectly on the high harmonies, or in bluegrass terms - The High Lonesone, a phrase also coined by Bill Monroe to describe the unique sound of bluegrass harmonies.

Bringing up the rear is the band's guitarist and vocalist, Mullingar's Vinny Baker. A longtime member of the Irish Country, Rock, Blues scene, starting his career in the Showbands, Vinny is an exceptional guitarist, in many different styles. He is equally at home playing Blues and Rock as he is playing electric Fender Telecaster on modern country, so playing Bluegrass on acoustic guitar is probably one of the most demanding aspects of playing different styles.

Bluegrass guitar is such a different and demanding style of guitar, it takes a high level of technical ability and knowledge of improvisation, often at blinding speed, and is not something just anyone can bluff their way through. So Vinny's rendition on guitar of the Bill Monroe classic tune 'Roanoke' to the Doc Watson instrumental 'Black Mountain Rag' and his shared Bluegrass classic with Martin Cooney, 'Duelling Banjos' is a must hear for anyone who likes listening to a guitarist at the top of their game.

Make no mistake about it, the Greville Arm's Saturday night Bluegrass Sessions are set to run for a long stretch, and with bands with the calibre of Cooney, Baker and Fraser, aka Bending the Strings, the Bluegrass sessions are set to go from strength to strength.

Next time Bending the Strings play the Greville Arms Bluegrass sessions, don't miss them as they are a breath of fresh air in a time when audiences are bombarded with backing tracks and mechanical music, these guys are the real deal.