Two Shetland’s islands are set to be rocked later this month by one of the most dynamic, ‘in your face’ bluegrass bands on the current live scene.

‘The Coal Porters’, founded and fronted by Sid Griffin (who also formed the legendary country-rock band ‘The Long Ryders’ in the mid 1980’s), are set to visit Bressay and Unst as part of Shetland Arts Trust ‘Co-Promoters’ initiative.

Following the break-up of the Long Ryders, Griffin formed ‘The Coal Porters’ in Los Angeles around fifteen years ago, before re-locating the band to London, where they are still based.

Success quickly followed, with the band enjoying indie chart success via albums such as ‘Land of Hope and Crosby’, ‘Los London’ and the ‘Chris Hillman Concerts’. The albums received glowing reviews in music magazines such as Mojo, Q, Uncut and LA Weekly, while their album, ‘The Gram Parsons Tribute Concert’, also attracted great acclaim from Rolling Stone magazine.

Now an acoustic based group, the band still deliver plenty of bite and excitement during their live gigs, and are now well established on both the European and American bluegrass circuits, where they recently supported Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen. As well as performing their own material they regularly perform standards by the likes of the Byrds, the Flying Burritoe Bros, Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons

In addition to his role within the band, Sid Griffin is also a respected music journalist with many of the world’s leading music magazines, and a renowned expert on the life and times of the late, great Gram Parsons. In fact Sid helped produce the recently highly acclaimed documentary on Gram entitled “Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel”.

Shetland Arts Trust music development officer Davie Gardner said “The ‘Co-Promoters scheme dictates that we bring top level music to rural community halls, and we’re delighted to be able to secure a band of this quality to be involved in such an initiative. The band are already very popular in Shetland, as were the ‘Long Ryders’ before them, and of course they share a love of some great names such as Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman with many in the Shetland music community in general, so this should be a fantastic couple of gigs. It will also be an added bonus to have a music journalist in Shetland, with an international reputation such as Sid Griffin, to see what we have going on here”.

The Bressay Hall concert will take place on Friday 21st October, with May & Mackie in support, who will also play at the after-show ‘party’. The following evening the gig is in the Baltasound Hall, Unst where support comes from singer Jillian Isbister and local fiddle sensation Steven Spence. For further information see the adverts in this weeks Shetland Times.

Tickets priced £8 and £6 are available on the door, but come early to avoid disappointment.

For further information contact: Davie Gardner – Music Development Officer – Shetland Arts Trust on (01595) 694001.