The Ebony Hillbillies

Well, you don't see that every day.

In an effort to bridge cultural divides (or something like that), the U.S. Embassy sponsored a performance in Blagoevgrad by a band that goes by the name of "The Ebony Hillbillies."  This sounded intriguing to Anne and Mark, so after work today, they went to the concert.  The Ebony Hillbillies are a group of musicians from the United States who play a unique blend of blues, jazz, bluegrass and rock n roll.  Rock n Roll is popular in Bulgaria, but it is likely that most Bulgarians have had little exposure to the other forms of music being played.  To say the least, this was an unusual and unlikely event to be scheduled for Blagoevgrad.

But it was.  And Anne and Mark were there.

The band itself was pretty cool.  There were five musicians, including a bass player, fiddle player and banjo player (he also played a mean diddlybo).  There was also a washboard player.  You don't see that too often.

As demonstrated in the photo above, the traditional method of playing the washboard is with the player placing shotgun shells on his fingers.

When the band got rolling, it was quite impressive.  Nearly every tune they played had a frenetic pace.  This was a talented group who could play pretty much as hot and fast as they wanted to (limited only by the need to avoid playing so hot that the heat caused the washboard player's fingers to "fire" into the crowd).

The fifth member of the group was a woman who sang and played an instrument that looked like spoons (the percussion instrument), but sounded much more wooden.  I did not catch the name of the instrument when they announced she was playing it.  In any event, after belting out a few numbers, this woman decided that a language barrier and a virtually totally new kind of music were not significant barriers to crowd participation.  So she convinced members of the crowd to join her on stage and "shake what their mama gave them" (her words, not mine).

It was great to see the members of the crowd getting into the music and enjoying it.  And I wish I could report that all of the dancers had the skills of Fred and Ginger.  But that would be a lie.  They did get after it and had a good time, so that's just as good.

In the video below you can see the band playing and, in the later portion, you can see some locals... "dancing"?  If you watch closely will you be able to see Anne and Mark up on stage cutting a rug?  Probably not.  But, there is a chance you may see someone clapping on the beat (it's possible, not guaranteed).