GARY FERGUSON
with
JOHN GLEESON & COLIN HENRY
plus support
GILLIAN TUITE
Little Whelan’s · Sun 21st July 2024
For more than a decade, Gary Ferguson was a fixture on the mainstream bluegrass scene as a prolific songwriter and leader of the Gary Ferguson Band. But Gary’s career took a slight trajectory during a 2007 tour of Ireland. That’s when he first crossed paths with gifted Irish dobro player Colin Henry. “Colin and I are the ‘Distant Brothers,’” Ferguson explains. “We met by accident through the late (dobro player) Dave Miner, at the Athy Bluegrass Festival, in County Kildare. Personality-wise, we just hit it off from the beginning. And right then, I knew something was clicking between us musically.”
Colin has particularly vivid memories of that chance encounter when he, and his wife Janet first met and got together with Gary, and Miner, in a quiet lounge in the Carlton Abbey Hotel. “I knew Gary from reading about him in Bluegrass Unlimited,” he remembers. “He was a big deal, and obviously I wanted to meet him, as well as Dave, who was a really fine dobro player. One of the very first songs we played together was one of Gary’s called “Here I Go Again.” Colin adds, “Immediately, I got the music, and on all levels. Perhaps most importantly, from my point of view, I was hearing myself play what I wanted to hear myself play. That just doesn’t happen too often straight off the bat.”
After that, the two of them kept in touch. A year later, Gary and Dave Miner were all set to embark on another tour of the Emerald Isle when Dave died suddenly. When Gary called Colin and asked him to fill in, Colin did not have to think twice. Colin says “Well I did think once. I thought ‘was I good enough?’ But as a musician you have to leave fear and doubt in the guitar case. So indeed, I did not think twice”
Gary would go on to tour Ireland a dozen or so more times. He was accompanied by Colin on eight of those tours, and their bond grew deeper. Over the course of these tours, Gary was introduced, mainly through Colin, to a cadre of eminently talented Irish musicians.The end result was Ferguson’s Farewell, Gary’s superb 2021 CD release, on which he was supported by Colin and a number of others from this tight circle of musicians. Ferguson’s Farewell, like Distant Brothers, was a trans-Atlantic collaboration made possible through the wonders of modern communication technology.
After that, Gary and Colin, an attorney and father of four, stayed in close and pretty much constant touch, frequently trading musical files back and forth. “These were songs that we’d never put on any albums, and at some point, I noticed we had four or five really good tunes,” Gary recalls. “I suggested to Colin that we expand it into an album project. So, we just started pecking away at it.”
On Distant Brothers, the outcome of this transatlantic file swapping, Colin and Gary are once again supported by a number of distinguished Irish and American pickers and singers on a soulful, exquisitely rendered collection that includes six tunes co-written by Gary with various songwriting partners and four instrumentals composed by Colin. Also included is a haunting rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Mansion on the Hill.” ~Bob Allen
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TICKETS
€20 available online from Whelan’s – 50c per ticket service charge applies.
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.