Damien O’Kane & Ron Block

Damien O’Kane & Ron Block

Saturday, 5 October 2019, 8.00pm

The humble banjo has long been the brunt of innumerable jokes. So here goes: “What do you get if you cross an American bluegrass banjo and an Irish tenor banjo?” In the case of Coleraine’s Damien O’Kane and California’s Ron Block you get fireworks – and a spectacular debut duo album, released July 2018, that is probably nothing like you could imagine. Banjo players can be almost apologetic about the instrument popularised in America with its origins in West Africa. Block himself has been known to jokingly describe the instrument as the ‘high school chick repellent’. But on either side of the Atlantic O’Kane and Block decided to stop laughing at banjo jokes – and learn how to play one – and how! With two bold and acclaimed recent albums to his name – the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards ‘Best Album’ nominated Areas of High Traffic and last year’s Avenging and Bright, O’Kane thought it was high time to join forces with a musician he had long admired – Alison Krauss & Union Station’s banjo star and multiple award winner Block (no less than 14 Grammy Awards and six International Bluegrass Music Awards to his name for starters).

Tickets - €16 / €8 under 18s

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Banjophony by Damien O'Kane & Ron Block

Published by Hawkswell on 8 July 2019

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