Forum de la FBMA

Hi to all,
This is my first posting on france-bluegrass.
(Thanks to those responsible for making this facility available)

I've been living in central Brittany for just over 4 years after moving from the UK. After having played guitar for many styles of music over the years I am currently getting more and more involved with flatpicking in a Americana/bluegrass/swing/rockabilly band.
The band currently consists of guitar, double bass, Dobro and snare.
We are looking to increase the number of musciens shortly ie Banjo, fiddle and mandolin.
We are working on the set and have about 30 songs/tunes at the moment.

Would the forum members say that the popularity of bluegrass/country music is on the increase in France generally. Is it growing?
It would be good to think that when we are ready there will be possible gigs for us to perform at!

Would love to know the views of others.
Do you all play regularly or mainly for pleasure?

Ondee

I'm new on F-B , I don't speak english , but I live in Brittany ( Yeahhhh ! ).
No ! Bluegrass music is not popular here in France . It's not better than in the seventies . The day after I saw the movie Bonnie & Clyde (1967-1968 ?), I ran to a record shop and bought the single "foggy mountain breakdown " you know ...
It was GREAT ! Just like when I discovered Bach , Miles Davis , Zappa , Pierre Henry ...
Sorry ! My friends didn't like that so much .
I'm the only Bluegrass fan I know .
I suppose que tu auras pas mal de réponses comme ça .

I noticed that you posted your question back in 2009. Is your band still together & if so, do you have a hard time finding gigs? Maybe the fact that you're not exclusvely playing bluegrass is a plus. I'd imagine that more people in France would be more receptive to some of the other styles you mentioned. I recently met some people here in the IDF area that want to form an alt/country, Americana style band. I'm American from the southern U.S. I'd still like to get together with some area musicians and do something totally acoustic, but I've put that on the back burner for now.