Sinead & Nuala Hayes with Tobias Kurig & Rolf Wagels

The bouzouki player on this video is Tobias Kurig (http://www.shanachie.de/). He is member in the bands Shanachie and Deirin Dé (http://www.deirinde.de/).

Here's another one:

Bonedoggie and Friends - Black Betty

Black Betty on Irish Bouzouki. Ok, not irish folk, but definitely worth hearing. Video is a bit dark.



I did not find any information about the musicians on the web. If you know anything, please write a few lines in the comments.
One anonymus reader gave me the address of Bone Doggies Site at Myspacecom:
http://www.myspace.com/bonedoggiejohnnyt
American Blues on a Irish Bouzouki. You gotta give it a listen!

Barry Kerr & Rubén Bada

Rubén Bada was born in Avilés, in the northern coast of Asturies, and raised in the Cape Peñes area, where the Asturian language and culture are still healthy and alive. Ruben got his hands on his first guitar at the age of 14 having experimented with many instruments from the age of eight including the Trombone!. After listening to some Bothy Band and Llan de Cubel tapes, he realized that the traditional music he had listened to since child (in Asturies there is a piper everywhere...) could be taken further and that strings (guitar and bouzouki) could be a key ingredient. After a couple of years learning Asturian tunes and discovering Irish music, he got his first bouzouki, a Greek one borrowed from a friend and it was at this time that he began to learn the fiddle. Rubén started his recording career in 1998 with the band Xéliba with whom he recorded two albums. Soon after he became a highly demanded studio musician and producer, working as a band member or in the studio with Asturian acts such as Anabel Santiago, Mari luz Cristobal, N'arba, Corquieu, Dixebra, Llacín Pipe Band, Ú?, Toli Morilla...touring all over Europe. In 2004 Rubén moved to Belfast, and soon he became part of the local music scene. Currently, Rubén is playing with the bands "DRD", and John Mcsherry and Dónal O'Connor's "At First Light". In February 2006, Rubén was awarded "Best Instrumentalist" in the Asturian Music Awards. (info from hit website at myspace.com, http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=85613553)

Barry Kerr: Originally from the southern shores of Lough Neagh, but now working and living in Belfast, Barry Kerr is regarded as one of the outstanding traditional musicians of his generation. Barry is rapidly establishing himself as fine painter and sculptor through numerous sell-out exhibitions. (from his website: http://www.barrykerr.com)

Chris Smith - Celtic Backup

Some years ago Chris Smith released his book "Celtic Back-Up For All Instrumentalists". I havn't read it until now, but on his website there are some great articles on various aspects of folk music.

You can buy the book here:
http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=97205BCD&Heading=Flatpicking+Guitar%3A+Rhythm%2FBackup&category=G78&catID=&head1=&head2=&sub=&sub1=&mode=


Here are some links to interesting articles on his website:

Instruction: Triplets for plucked strings
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-57.html

Instruction: Building chords
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-29.html

Instruction: Modes and modal substitutions
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-38.html

Instruction: Learning to accompany
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-40.html

Instruction: Picking jigs
http://coyotebanjo.com/music-45.html

Instruction: Time and technique

http://coyotebanjo.com/music-49.html


There are lots more tutorials on his site. Please check out for yourself.

http://coyotebanjo.com/

Chordhouse

A site for guitarists, but you can use the advanced guitar room for bouzouki, too. Custom tunings are possible. Look for scales, notes etc on the fretboard.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/



Example for Bouzouki D major scale. Now you can figure out possible chord shapes.

Celtic Fonts

You need some Celtic fonts for your website or Groups logo? Try this website with a lot of great fonts:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/1557/fonts2.htm#fantasy

Capo transpose helper

Here I have a little helper for all the capo-players. Just download, cut out and find the correct chords. Please tell me if you find it useful.

You can download my helper with a cute little picture of my Stevens-Bouzouki at:
http://insel.heim.at/jamaica/320453/downloadable/Transponierscheibe-Bouzouk.pdf

Stevens Bouzoukis at:

http://www.guitars.de/modelle.html#ib

You can buy a professional thing at:

www.m-fokuhl.de
They have got a patent to this helper but gave me kind permission to leave it on my website if I mention the focuhl website. Thank you very much!

Acoustic Music Webtools

Mark Klan provides us with a lot of little tools to help us make our musician's life a little bit easier.

ChordSpell, NoteFind, ChordMatch and CapoCalc are the names of the tools. Have a look at them and tell me if you find it useful.






ChordSpell: If you play a chord and don't know what http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifit is ChordSpell can help you.
http://www.markabout.com/tools/csgf/csgfset.htm

NoteFind: You want to know where the notes are on your fretboard?
http://www.markabout.com/tools/notefind/nfset.htm

ChordMatch: You are trying to find correct chords to a melody and stuck? Try this little helper.
http://www.markabout.com/tools/chordm1.htm

CapoCalc: You have a capo on and want to calculate the chords to play?
http://www.markabout.com/tools/capocalc.htm


http://www.markabout.com/tools/

Banshees in the Kitchen

Banshees In The Kitchen, what a name!

The Banshees are a US based all female folk trio consisting of Brenda Hunter (fiddle, hammered dulcimer, Jill Egland (flute, accordion, whistle) and Mary Tulin (six- and twelve-string guitar, bouzouki).

They play a lively mix of trad tunes and songs. Currently you can find three songs and tune on youtube. I chose the one with the bouzouki playing, of course. It's called "war hent".




The Banshees website:
http://www.bansheeinthekitchen.com

Gerry o' Connor & Donal Lunny - Reel

Two Zouks, a banjo and a mandolin. Who are the other musicians? If you know, please let me know.

Donal Lunny & Friends - April 3rd

Great example of Donal's world music approach. You only see Donal for a very short while in this great video. But the music is so fine.

The Bothy Band

One of the great Celtic bands. On this video they play Pretty Peg and the reel Craig's Pipes. Pure Magic.

John McGann - Bouzouki Book

About two years ago John McGann published his book "A guide to Octave Mandolin & Bouzouki". It's a great collection of instrumental tunes arranged for these instruments. There are both melody and rhythm lines notated and recorded on the CD.


Check out this MySpace MP3 Player!

Bret Blackshear

I discovered Bret Blackshear about two years ago on CD-Baby Records
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/blackshear

On his album he mainly plays bouzouki and sings. I don't like too many songs on the album, but it's an interesting album for zouk-players, I think. Have a listen on cd-baby.

His website:
http://www.imcurious.com/music.htm

Donal Lunny and Paul Brady

Two old heroes of mine. Donal, bouzouki player of Planxty is well known for his great rhythm playing. Together with Paul Brady they perform a track called "Nothing same story".

Paul Brady - Nothing But Same Old Story
Hochgeladen von Pitoucat