Southern Rock and Irish Music Join Forces On Tour
Ireland's Best Vocal Group to Tour With Southern Rockers The Winters Brothers Band
by Michael Buffalo Smith
Talk about a fresh idea. Ireland's number one ballad and folk group (and holders of eight gold albums) The Dublin City Ramblers have decided to join forces with Southern rockers, The Winters Brothers Band to present a unique dual cultural concert presentation, The Heritage Concert. Because American country music and Southern rock and roll can be traced back to Irish Music the two bands have decided to tell this historic tale in one shared performance.
Part one of the show will star The Dublin City Ramblers, performing 45 Irish Music and stories. Part two will feature The Winters Brothers Band performing their own Southern rock telling stories about their music and the influence Irish Music had on them.
For the finale, both bands will take the stage alternating songs and stories Both bands plan to play a couple of each others songs in their own style.
Sean McGuinness of The Dublin City Ramblers tells GRITZ, “Irish music was brought over to places like Kentucky and Tennessee way back in the early 1800´s by Irish immigrants. The banjo and fiddle especially became very popular, thus creating a great bond between Irish and bluegrass -a very popular form of music in Ireland.”
“The idea came when I was saying to Sean McGuinness and Dennis Winters that I knew when I would finally get them together some kind of magic would happen,” says John Ryan, manager of The Ramblers. “I've been telling them both this for years. I don't think either of them knew what I was talking about until they met and heard each other perform live. I put them together and they took it from there. They are both great people, musicians and great friends of mine. Its very difficult in life to find one friend like these guys. I found two. I call them the Irish and Southern version of each other.“
I asked Ryan “Why The Winters Brothers Band?”
“I met Dennis back in 1976 or ‘77. At the time I was mostly into The Grateful Dead and Southern rock. I used to see The Marshall Tucker Band, The Charlie Daniels Band, The Commander Cody Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Pure Praire League and many others at what was called The Schaffer Concerts in the skating rink in Central Park in New York. Tickets were $5.00. I saw them many times in many arenas.
“Then The Outlaws, whom I had seen many times as well came to St. John's University in NY. That is where I graduated from. Their opening act was some band called The Winters Brothers Band. We all thought it was going to be Johnny and Edgar. But to our pleasant surprise there were these five guys that looked like they just came down from the mountains to do this show. They absolutely blew us all away. They came on with such great energy and great songs that we were all saying this was the best Southern rock band that we had ever seen. We still say that today. My crowd was very well versed into the scene and it took a lot to impress us. With all due respect to The Outlaws (whom we actually paid our money to see and were big fans) a fantastic band, I'm talking about the original Outlaws on tour promoting their first album, they had a tough act to follow. As a matter of fact, when The Winters Brothers left the stage everyone was yelling "Forget The Outlaws! Bring on The Winters Brothers Band.
“I met them back stage while The Outlaws were on. Dennis really impressed me with how friendly he was and how graciously he accepted our compliments.
As the manager of The Dublin City Ramblers I want only the best for our group. Hence, I introduced Sean McGuinness to Dennis Winters. Its a win-win. The Winters Brothers Band gets to work with the best Irish Band there is as well.”
The kickoff for The Heritage Tour will take place on January 18, 2008 at The Button Auditorim at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY. For all info for this concert please contact the Palmer Developement House at 1-877-690-4483 or locally 606-783-2033.
www.dublincityramblers.com www.wintersbrothersband.com
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