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Old Baby Mackerel play high-energy, foot-stomping bluegrass featuring some of the UK’s best bluegrassmusicians. Be prepared to be transported back in time to the early 20th century and across the Atlantic to North
America where songs dramatized the small town fascination with locomotion, religion and the veneration of
whisky and bootleg liquor. Gathered around a single condenser microphone in the true bluegrass style, the
sounds of banjo, guitar, mandolin and double bass blend lightning-fast rhythm, virtuosic solos and evocative
harmonies to get knees bouncing and elbows swinging.
Old Baby Mackerel have been featured on three different BBC radio stations including 6 Music with Cerys
Matthews, played Glastonbury Festival festival twice (2019 and 2022) and sold out venues across the UK such
as Green Note in London, The Acorn in Penzance and Seaford Little Theatre in Sussex. In 2024 they completed
a sold out tour of Dorset and have played headline slots at Purbeck (2022) and Priddy (2023) folk festivals, the
Northern Irish, Cornish, Welsh, East Anglian and Swiss Bluegrass festivals, at venues and festivals all over the
UK and Ireland as well as Belgium, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Portugal and
Thailand.
Radio Appearances:
Bluegrass Special: American Beauty Live from Omagh Bluegrass Festival (listen from 15:57):
https://on.soundcloud.com/uhhvX
BBC 6 Music by Cerys Matthews (penultimate track between Diana Ross and Jimmy Cliff)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018df0
Quotes:
“I’ve always got time for a bit of banjo”
Cerys Matthews BBC 6 Music on playing Salty Dog Blues from the album Live at The Old Mill.
Available on iPlayer:
BBC Music - Glastonbury, From The Fields, Cerys Matthews - A Joyous exploration: Glastonbury
“That's the first Bluegrass track I've played on Upload and I love it, so, so good!”
Adam Crowther, BBC Radio Bristol
“A fine band of musicians and entertainers who would be at home playing in any holler in Appalachia. Real crowd
pleasers with every tune and song they perform.”
Richard Hurst, N. Ireland Bluegrass Music Festival Organiser
“Old Baby Mackerel hail from the thriving Bristol music scene and clearly love the more traditional aspects of the
music, relishing the challenge of speedy playing and close harmonies around a central microphone. It needs
musicians who are technically accomplished but also inventive and aware of their compadres at all times.[...]
Standards such as Salty Dog Blues, Tennessee Waltz and Nine Pound Hammer rubbed along happily with newer
numbers by Tony Rice, Ricky Scaggs and Townes van Zandt, alongside originals celebrating Bristol’s A roads
and “one about a cat”. John Hartford’s Squirrel Hunters and Nellie Kane were particular highlights and the whole
set flowed with relaxed charm and humour. The audience loved it.”
Trish Lee - Newbury Today
https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/lifestyle/bluegrass-footstomper-kicks-off-ace-space-year-9236536/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
St.Georgenstrasse 34, St. Gallen, Schweiz, Sankt Georgen-Strasse 34, 9000 Sankt Gallen, Schweiz, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
