Reprinted from Bluegrass Letters 26/1
In January 2026, I attended the major music conference Your Roots Are Showing in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I first heard about it from my friend, banjoist, and organizer Lluís Gómez. He had already participated last year as a speaker and organizer of a music event (the Al Ras Bluegrass & Old Time Festival in Barcelona). Over 100 bands from more than 20 countries around the world vied for the attention of programmers, publishers, managers, and, of course, fans at YRAS this year. It’s worth noting that the term “folk” has a much broader meaning outside our region and includes genres such as bluegrass. That is why I performed at the conference with two groups (Radim Zenkl & Ondra Kozák and Lluís Gómez FlamenGrass 4tet). As a programmer for Banjo Jamboree, however, I was also “on the hunt,” and in that regard, I would like to thank the Czech Bluegrass Association for contributing to my airfare.
This was only the fifth time the conference had been held, but the organizers managed to attract quite a few influential figures from the folk music business. And why not, when many of them had their travel and accommodation at the Hilton covered. From our blue waters, these included, for example, Adam Englehardt, director of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro; Ken Irwin, founder of Rounder Records; famous musicians such as Ron Block and Jim Lauderdale; and representatives of major festivals like Bluegrass in La Roche, the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, Merlefest, Grey Fox, Womex, Tønder, and others. On the other hand, the bands participate in the event without receiving a fee, and for them, participation is actually a significant investment. However, there were many truly excellent groups among the performers. With some, one might even wonder if they really need to (for example, the talented American trio The Wildwoods, which has over a quarter of a million followers on Instagram). For professional bands eager to take their music to new places, however, participation definitely makes sense.
The core of the conference consists of evening band performances, i.e., showcases. Over the course of four evenings, there was a lot of truly interesting music to see. Each showcase lasted half an hour, and one started every fifteen minutes on three different stages. The hallways were bustling with activity, as some took their role as “talent buyers” very seriously and headed to a different stage every fifteen minutes. Add to that the jamming and the constant networking—making new connections and maintaining old ones—among musicians, agents, organizers, and publicists. Everything took place in the very spacious (and somewhat un-folk-like) halls of the ICC Belfast conference center on the banks of the River Lagan.
Many bands also headed to the so-called Gig Fair. It lasted two hours and resembled a speed-dating session between event organizers and those interested in performing at them. The latter had six minutes to present their music to the event’s programmer and explain why their show was the right one for him. It’s an interesting and beneficial concept—from my own experience, I know that knocking on the right doors when arranging a gig isn’t always easy. “Cold calling” rarely leads to the desired result, and a face-to-face meeting has an incomparably higher chance of sparking the organizer’s interest. Introverts who are reluctant to “sell” themselves and don’t have an agent (and of course, they attended the conference as well) unfortunately face a tougher challenge in this regard, because letting your music speak for itself is usually not enough in today’s oversaturated environment. Several interesting artists whose music is more or less related to bluegrass made their way to my table as the Banjo Jamboree programmer, and then many others whom I recommended instead to reach out to the organizers of Folkové prázdniny or Colours of Ostrava. Bluegrass was more of a fringe affair at YRAS, but even so, thanks to the evening showcases, I brought back a few interesting tips for future editions of BJ, such as Joe Troop, Shay Sweeney, or King Springs Road (who have only gotten better since their last performance in Čáslav). I also really liked Saltaire, William Jack, and Teague and Joyce, for example.
The conference program also included panel discussions, interviews, and workshops on various topics in the music business, guides and strategies for independent musicians, and instrument playing. I attended a few of them and came away with mixed impressions—the personalities and information were often very interesting, but the poor organization and somewhat inconsistent selection of topics suggested that this was more of a supplementary part of the program.
Worth mentioning is the handy conference app for mobile phones, which made it possible, for example, to find information about participants and easily communicate with them, but above all to quickly navigate the rather packed program and create a personalized calendar of events you want to attend. In a few spare moments, I wandered around Belfast, which is a truly beautiful city. The shipyards, from which the Titanic set sail in 1911, are equipped with plenty of informational signs and have an amazing atmosphere.
Would I recommend that a Czech bluegrass band attend such a conference? If finances and time aren’t an issue for them, then definitely yes. And not just so they can book a tour across the U.S. (though that would be great too), but so they can see how dozens of other experienced performers approach songwriting, performing, sound engineering, self-promotion, and so on. For me, at least, encountering musicians with a professional approach always provides a fresh inspiration for my own music. You also have the chance to learn firsthand when collaborating with a band becomes appealing to a manager or label. And the fact that an organizer of an Australian bluegrass festival might spot you at such an event (as happened to Radim and me) is a nice bonus. In the end, you don’t even have to travel to Belfast for this—you can perform a showcase to present yourself to event organizers and new fans at the European Bluegrass Summit (taking place in Prague this year) or as part of the Banjo Jamboree Preliminaries, which is virtual and can easily take place right in your living room.
