Johnsmith update:

As I mentioned, this tape was lost for a good while. So I called him up and got an update for this overdue interview.

Since we had this talk, Johnsmith has done four trips to Ireland. For those who've had a hankering to get over to the Emerald Isle sometime, it's a unique way to do it. The first night you're in Dingle, often a local songwriter will have been hired by Johnsmith to bring his partner and play for the group, next night is a "Session" of great local players at the pub, where Johnsmith and perhaps some of the troupe will also get up and play their own music. Later, go back to the hotel and play some more. Outdoor sightseeing the next day, the shoreline and castles we're too young a country to have. Every third day is generally a "free" day, so people can go shopping in places like Galway and Connemara. They have a small 20-seater coach to travel around in, sounds like a lot of fun. He is planning to record his next CD there, and has a mobile engineer he'll bring to Dingle, in County Kerry, to do it.

He'd also just played the Kerrville Folk Festival (a musical home for him) and also judged the New Folk competition this year. Some of the winners were Danny Schmidt, David Llewellyn, John Wort Hannam, Carla Gover, Storyhill, and a very talented 16-year-old from NYC named Anthony DaCosta.

Johnsmith is playing the 10th Anniversary of the Woody Guthrie Festival soon in Okemah, OK (July 11-15, 2007); also his first Canadian festival, Summerfolk in Owensound, ON (August 17-19, 2007).

The CD we discuss in the interview, Break Me Open, was in the Top 5 of all CDs played on Folk radio this year.

	listen to clips
	print (pdf)
	buy Break Me Open here
	johnsmithmusic.com
	thanks for photos:
	Debi Friedlander
	Don Shorock
	Alan Rowoth (Alan's site was having some sort of server trouble--we found him instead at folkmusic.org.)
	thanks also: John Friedlander
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