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Beside my Resoland Workshops here are some other ones where I’ll be teaching resonator guitar this year.
First one is at Musique Acoustique in Virton, Belgium next month (www.musiqueacoustique.org). Unfortunately for those who would be interested in my lessons there, the resonator  class is already full.
You might visit Norway this summer and enter Risor’s Bluegrass Workshop on July 7.-10.2014 (www.risorbluegrassfestival.no), or if that’s a little too far for you, there is another opportunity this fall – Bluegrass Camp close to Munich, Germany (www.bluegrasscamp.de) in October 10.-13.2014.

Visit their web sites for more detailed informations. Stay tuned!

The first of Resoland workshops in 2014 was held on February 28. and March 1-2. The topic: “Focus on C major.”
Read the report from the workshop here.
On the page you can find links for downloading materials from the workshop and also a photo gallery to see the pictures from this event.

In second half of November 2013 our band Fragment did a 30.Anniversary Tour.
We played in Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary. If you are interested to know how the tour went, you can read our blog on www.bluegrasstoday.com, where is everything chronologically documented.

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-1/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-2/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-3/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-4/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-5/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-6/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-7/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-8/

http://bluegrasstoday.com/tales-from-fragments-reunion-tour-day-9/

Already this Saturday! We start our tour (Czech Rep., Slovakia, Germany, Hungary) celebrating 30. years of band existence. Come out to see us, you all are more than welcome! More infos about the concerts are on our web site www.fragmentband.com

In the little town of La Roche Sur Foron, located in the beautiful French Alps, in mid-July took place a Bluegrass Festival of the European Bluegrass  Association with the participation of more than 30 bands from all over Europe and also the USA. I had the honor to be a part of the American band Field and Thompson, which consisted of duo James Field and Sue Thompson, Percy Copley and Alice Coleman from England, and me from Slovakia.

The festival was traditionally very well organized and it lived practically across the whole town, which is a major tourist destination. In addition to the festival organizers also arrange a bluegrass workshop, which lasts four days and this year were the lectors there members of the American group Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen along with Sue Thompson and James Field.
Part of the whole event is a competition of European bluegrass bands. This year deservedly won  East-West, a group whose membership is also my colleague from Fragment – Ondra Kozak. This way, congratulations to them from the heart! The second was a Czech band Handl and the third place won 0039 – the Italian band, which dobroist is a good friend of mine, former student and owner of my first Scheerhorna no. 047, Paolo Ercoli.

If you wish to learn a bit more about this significant event, to see more pictures from the festival, and feel its atmosphere, here is the link:
La Roche Bluegrass Festival

On July 8 to 14 2013 was, thank an enthusiastic organizer Dagfinn Pedersen, held in the little town of Gjerstad on the south of Norway in a beautiful Nordic country Bluegrass Workshop and Festival. The workshop, itself, which was located in Gjerstad school participated in up to fifty students, mainly from Norway, but also from other European countries. This year Dagfinn collected lectors from the USA, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, and Italy.

• Banjo – Petr Brandejs (CZ)
• Harmony singing – Sue Thompson (US) and Don Share (US)
• Mandolin – Radim Zenkl (US)
• Guitar – Ralph Schut (NL/CZ)
• Guitar – Ondra Kozak (CZ)
• Dobro – Henrich Novak (SK)
• Fiddle – Martin Burza (SK)
• Fiddle – Oystein Fosshagen (NO)
• Bass – Davide (IT)

The lessons took place from Monday to Thursday every day from morning to evening which in Norway looked like afternoon due to “long” days and consisted of the actual study of individual instruments and harmony singing and from extremely popular “band labs” in the afternoon.

On Thursday evening started in the local mill and amphitheater with performances of “band lab” groups the Festival itself. The festival ran through Sunday with performances of Norwegian and foreign bands and groups. Sue Thompson band, Radin Zenkl, and friends, G-Runs and Roses, just to name the foreign ones.

I enjoyed being a part of the workshop as a lector and at the festival, as a member of Sue Thompson Band, met old and new musical colleagues, students, and fans.
To learn more about this event, here is the link to the festival’s website and workshops:
workshop and festival a facebook profile

Yesterday, another giant of resophonic guitar left us at age of 59 – Bob Brozman. All participating will certainly remember his energetic concerts at Dobrofest in Trnava, or his performances with Funny Fellows ibid. But Bob was much more. His enthusiasm for resonator instruments, the music associated with them, and their history was boundless. He was a tireless promoter of resophonic guitars, intensely interested in music of different cultures and has great merit, that people who’d never saw a resophonic guitar before, started to like it. I remember very well, with what enthusiasm he congratulated me to the opening of the class of  Dobro Guitar at Trnava’s School of Arts and how excited he was about that idea. I appreciate that I knew him, that I had the opportunity to play with him and learn from him. There left a precious man, friend of John  Dopyera itself and a great, great musician. RIP Bob!

Bob Brozman – Mercury News