Ashby Frank
Mandolinist, Singer, Songwriter

I’ve been home for 1 day out of the last 21 days, and performed on 18 of those days… sometimes twice. Wow. This is the longest string of gigs that I”ve ever had, and I wouldn’t be very truthful if I didn’t say that I’m very ready to be home and sleep in my own bed, work out a little, then maybe watch a movie, and not have to search for wifi everywhere!

Right now I”m in a very friendly Stir Fry Restaurant in the University District of Belfast, buying wi-fi from a British Telecom Hotspot that’s somewhere around here. It’s very interesting… the bigger the town, the harder it is to find free wi-fi.

Since I wrote last, we’ve been over a good bit of England, drove back to Scotland, took another ferry back to Belfast, and played a show here in town last night.

Even though I really didn’t get to see the sights at all, England was nice. We stayed in one small town, and then had two nights in the larger cities of Nottingham and Bristol. Everything is so compact (including the streets) and to me it feels like everyone lives on top of each other. We’ve driven through or gotten lost in some of the larger towns here, like Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Nottingham, and Liverpool, and despite their age they all have very well kept up and thriving downtown areas or “city centres”, and there are so many things, new and old, that look and sound so interesting to me, we just don’t have the time!

Oh and as a side note, we found Greg’s long lost twin in England:

Greg's Twin

As we travel from place to place, back and forth across the sea and across ancient borders and boundaries, playing in everything from small pubs and hotel ball rooms to larger festivals, I do notice a huge difference in accents and certain customs, and things do look a bit different from place to place. The one thing I can’t stress enough is how friendly most everyone is, no matter where we’ve been. I sure am glad we haven’t been somewhere for this long where they don’t speak English! I’ve experienced that a few times before and it makes getting around pretty hard.

Last night’s show was really the first one where we didn’t have a good crowd. We had a radio interview scheduled to promote the show yesterday, but the economic news here isn’t very good and it’s dominating the headlines and stole our spot away. Oh well! Good music cures the blues, don’t they know that? haha

We did get to share the stage with our good friends the Tennessee Hennessy’s. Check them out if you’re ever around Belfast!

Live in Belfast... The Tennessee Hennessys

Ok, well BritTel time is about to run out, and I have to go get ready for the next show. Only 6 more to go!

Well, many miles and hours down the road here I am in England!

After our show in the south of Ireland, we made that long drive to the Belfast area and played another small concert before catching a ferry the next day over to Scotland.

Goodbye for now Belfast

We immediately drove from the coast to Glasgow to play at the huge Celtic Connections festival.

The drive was beautiful and even in the cold of the season there’s green grass everywhere. Everything was great and we were on time getting there…until we arrived in Glasgow. The street layout there is, well, not what we’re used to and we didn’t make it to the place where we were supposed to be picked up until right at the time of sound check. Instead of being able to check in, change clothes, and rest for a minute, we had to change clothes in the parking garage and carry all of our stuff a few blocks down the street to the shuttle that was waiting. People looked at us like they’d never seen a Bluegrass band running through the streets of Downtown Glasgow before. Odd.

Scotland Countryside

Downtown Glasgow the morning after our show

That all being said, once we got there the festival was great. We were the first to play, and then Leon Hunt, followed by Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. I have some video footage that I might be able to get uploaded at a later date.

After our set, we were walking over to the record table and Greg was flagged down by Bela Fleck to chat. I sure am glad I didn’t know he was out in the crowd while we were playing. He’s a super nice guy, but that would have been nerve-wracking!

It’s great to see that people of many ages, so far away from where I’m from, could enjoy the music that we were playing. I can’t sufficiently tell you how nice everyone is over here, and it really helps fight off the homesickness when everyone tries to make you feel at home.

Anyway, we played another fun show in Scotland last night with the Scottish band Goldrush and then today it was another long drive, this time into England.

We had a packed house tonight here in Kenilworth, and hopefully made some new friends.

It’s getting late now, so I guess I’ll stop typing! We’ll be in England for the next few days and I’ll try to report more ASAP.

(Note post blog: Oh and by the way, this is the 100th posted article on my blog! Hope you’ve enjoyed it so far. Oh, and GO DEACS!)

Two more pub shows in the books, and quite a few more to go.

Everything’s still going well, and we’ve been lucky enough to stay in quite a few nice places. That can get kind of tricky over here sometimes, so I’m happy about that. We’ll see how that goes for the next two weeks.

The day after our show in Sixmilebridge, there was a horrible windstorm with gusts up over 75mph. Not fun travel weather. Luckily we haven’t had far to drive to each show.

We went from Sixmilebridge to Galway, and then back to County Clare and Limerick last night, and today we drove to Listowel.

In Galway we performed upstairs in a pub where they had a jam session going on downstairs, which was pretty cool. It’s odd for us to see all age groups in one place enjoying the same music, but both young and old seem to enjoy the traditional tunes here.

On to Limerick where we again performed in the upstairs performance room of a traditional pub.  We enjoyed a good meal (They love curry over here for some reason, and I do too) and then picked our little hearts out. The place we stayed in had internet, but it was roughly $13 for about 5 hours worth and we didn’t have a lot of time in the room so I didn’t go for that. Expenses from food, to gas, and internet are so high over here. Hard to get used to.

I got a good bit of sleep (I still can’t get over this sinus congestion) and woke up in time to pack half way before the fire alarm went off. I hobbled down the stairs with my 54 pound bag, my mando case, and computer bag, and got to the lobby just as they turned the siren off. Fun.

On the way here we hit some snow and bad roads…

but we made it here to the guesthouse where we’re staying that’s just down the street from where we’re performing tonight in the “centre” of town.

Tomorrow is a really long drive (maybe 7 hours) back to Northern Ireland which normally wouldn’t be that long for us, but packed in a van like we are every 1 hour feels like 3.

I’m sure we’ll make it though. Hopefully I’ll be able to check in again soon.

Last night we performed at the Winter Festival in a town called Sixmilebridge in County Clare here in Southwest Ireland. We’re in the Shannon Region near Limerick (which is a decent sized town).

Here’s a map if you care to see!

The hotel we’re staying at happens to be right next to the Bunratty Castle. The Castle was built in 1425 and now serves as a Folk Park and Banquet Hall.

Here’s some pics I snapped yesterday:

The concert last night was at a very small old Courthouse in the middle of Sixmilebridge, and there are other performances going on there through the weekend. I don’t particularly enjoy playing on a one or two mic setup, but the stage was so small that it was all they could come up with. Fun times though, and met even more nice folks and even ran into some Bluegrass fans from Florida that are on a vacation and somehow found out about the festival while they were over here. Small world!

Today we make a short drive to Galway for a show at the Crane Bar. Hopefully I’ll have Wifi as regularly as I have so far so I can keep posting.

Cheers!

Our first two shows came off without any breakdowns or hitches. Right now we’re resting at a Bed and Breakfast in County Dublin after a show in Naul, Ireland earlier this evening. Great packed house, and quite a few familiar faces from our tour over here this past summer.

Earlier today we played on the Mooney show on RTE Radio 1. RTE is the national broadcaster here in Ireland and has a large following, so we’re hoping we got some new folks to come to our shows on this tour!

Even though Ireland is such a famous and well known place, you don’t realize until you get over here how small it really is. The population of the Republic is something around 4 million, or about the same as South Carolina, and it doesn’t take all that long to drive around the whole Country. For a small nation, this place is so rich in culture, music, and history. It’s an amazing place to be, and the hospitality here gives Smalltown, USA a run for its money. Below are some pictures our first night’s pub show, and the travel back to Dublin and RTE today.

Oh and BTW, hope everyone’s staying warm in Nashville! Google says it’s only going to be 2 degrees there. Ouch.

Hello from 6 hours ahead!

In a period of 48 hours, we’ve been in 5 airports (Bismarck, Minneapolis, Nashville, Nashville again, Chicago, and Dublin), riden a bus to Belfast, and then been shuttled to where we’re staying not far out of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. You should see how we packed 5 suitcases, 4 instrument cases, a bass, and all four of us in a Honda minivan. Very entertaining for everyone at the bus terminal in Belfast I’m sure.

I didn’t sleep on the plane, but it was a nice flight, Aer Lingus is awesome! Tons of movies and decent airplane food. Still, even though it was comfortable I didn’t find any sleep for something like 25 hours so I’m kind of turned around.

If I were home right now, I’d be getting ready to go down to the Station Inn for Mashville. It’s 6:36PM Tuesday there, and it’s 12:35AM on Wednesday here. I got a long nap once I got here and now I’m all messed up and lagged. I’m sure it won’t take long to recover.

In the next room, Greg and some of our friends here are jamming on some Irish tunes, David’s in bed and Justin is trying to make his Skype work. Ah the joys of world travel!

Tomorrow we play in a pub in the South (The Republic of Ireland) in a town called Grange that’s only 3 hours from here so we’ll all be rested. The only problem is, that show starts a string of 21 straight nights of gigs. Wow. Most I’ve ever done for sure. Guess there’s worse ways to get your musical chops up!

So tell all of your friends in Grange, Ireland to come see us tomorrow night and hopefully I’ll blog at yall later!

The Special C world tour is now in full swing for the month…

This morning we flew back from this:

better known as Bismarck, North Dakota in January. Don’t let the white out fool you, they still know how to have fun in North Dakota in the dead of winter. We played a two night show with The College of Bluegrass Band and Cottonwood in the Auditorium at Bismarck State College. We had a blast with all of our friends up there, and hopefully we can come back real soon!

I’m just glad that we’re not going to be up there this Wednesday because it’s supposed to get down to -26. I could say “brrrrr” but that would be an understatement. As much as I like cold weather sometimes, there would be no “brrrrr” from Ashby in -26, probably just a grunt followed by a slow parade with the lights on.

That being said, the reaction to the new songs from the “Signs” album was anything but cold, and it was very awesome to see people enjoying it after all the effort we put into it. We finally have them to sell on the road, and will be taking them with us wherever we go from now on. So beware!

Now I’m back in Nashville packing and getting somewhat together before our long trip to Ireland, Scotland, and England. It’s pretty hard to pack in one suitcase (less than 60 lbs) enough stuff for a 24-or-so day trip. Lets see, I have the camera charging, my passport, clean underwear and socks, the PSP, my Ipod, a bunch of GHS I270 Mando Strings, my Mando, my pills for my lingering sinus problems, my Smartphone with Skype on it, and one pair of boots. I think I’m ready if I can find a place for my shirts, jeans, and Wake Forest hoodie (How bout them Deacs?… sorry friends and family Carolina fans, they just didn’t have it tonight).

I’m going to be taking some pictures and blogging over there as much as I can. We play something like 21 shows in 23 days, so I don’t know when I’ll find the time…but I’ll try! So wish me luck in my journey across the creek and check back here and see what I find.

Also, the Bluegrass Blog has asked me to put my updates on their site, too. If you’re a Bluegrasser, you really should check out their site every other day or so. I look at it almost every day!

Hello all.
Sitting in the airport waiting for the flight to Minneapolis and then onto Bismarck, ND.
Should be a good weekend, even though I’m all anti-bioticed up after fighting this chest congestion and having no energy for a month… so I’m still lacking on the energy but the singing is better.

We get back on Sunday, then leave Monday for 20+ days in Ireland and the UK.
I’m going to be blogging for the Bluegrass Blog (and here,too) while I’m over there.
Oh, and we finally have the new pre-release copies of the Special C record! We’ll have those across the pond, and I should have some available for Mashville and on here ASAP.
Hopefully over the next month, I’ll have occasionally good net access and not be sick anymore.

Time to take off!

Last night I went to the Del McCoury Band New Year’s Eve Show at the Ryman, and a good time was had!

Me and Del

I got to see my buddies the Infamous Stringdusters perform and the whole McCoury clan was there in full force of course. I hope everyone else had a great New Year’s Eve, too… wherever you may be.

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Indiana for the weekend. So if you’re around Valpo or Chi-town, come see us the Special C.