I'm not exactly an expert, but from what I can tell, anything that uses a banjo, fiddle, mandolin or dobro gets branded bluegrass! Gillian probably isn't strictly bluegrass, but the subjects she sings about sure lend her to it. Some of these genres have blurry lines to me.

Gillian has crossed some borders, but her sound is a long way from the country rock of, say, Lucinda Williams or Emmylou Harris. And her Hell Among The Yearlings album has its heart buried deep in bluegrass...the instrumentation is very stripped down on that record too.. It's a moot point though - everyone should be off getting their ticket to see her at Vicar Street...her performance there was gig of the year last year, for me at least.

Yes Gillian is back in Dublin - 24th of July, Vicar St. Another gig I can't wait for are the Cowboy Junkies on June 1st Hell among the yearlings is certainly bluegrassy especially songs like caleb myer. The grammy nominations put her under contemporary folk. So I guess you could call it anything. Country music is getting so mixed up with genres - Daniel O'Donnell is called country but he's awfully different to Hank Williams, Willie Nelson or Toby Keith. Johnny Cash's American recordings and the recordings on unearthed from that time aren't really country but you could hardly call them rock. I suppose you could call it Folk..... The more I think about these things the more my head hurts :-) It's a bit like what the guy (can't remember his name!) in last week's Sunday Times said about the iPod when debating it with Bryan Appleyard - it's the refuge for people who'd rather make lists than listen to the music. Getting anal about fitting people into exact genres who are really too good to contain is the same. Not that anyone here is doing that or anything :-) .........

I must step in there on the auld Ipod. A friend picked up one for me in the States (for about 150 euro cheaper than here & without the decibel restriction). It is 20 gigs and I have about 500 tracks on so far. At the current rate, I reckon I'll get about 5000 in all. Anyhow, I digress. The point is lists are for losers (Except of course out fantastic Top 50 Irish Albums poll http://www.cluas.com/bestalbums/vote.htm ). I set it to "Shuffle" and haven't touched it since. It is the best thing since bread was sliced - a journey through your record collection every day. I have yet to feel the need to setup a playlist. I am also busy MP3ing Hell AMong The Yearlings as a result of this thread to choke it on there. Seriously though, an Ipod is just the dogs if you have a load of albums/mp3s

I'm just jealous 'cos I really want one too. I justify this desire by thoroughly agreeing with shuffle mode - the only way to go!

Bluegrass is very popular in Ireland because its roots are in Ireland. It was a form of music that originally travelled over with the Emigrants who settled in Kentucky (The Bluegrass State). Niall Toner, and CMA nominee, is the foremost practitioner of it in Ireland and he is playing at this year's Kilkenny Roots Festival on the May bank holiday weekend. You should check him out Just remember, Satan is real ! The Rev