The last time we checked in with Red Wine, Italy’s preeminent bluegrass band, was some seven years ago — 2018 to exact. We shared their backstory…the fact that the band originated with a duo that encompassed its two prime movers, Silvio Ferretti and Beppe Gambetta, musicians who had been performing together two or three years before deciding to enlist other players in order expand their repertoire. Having been in existence 47 years, the band naturally underwent various personnel changes, but it currently includes Ferretti on banjo and vocals, Martino Coppo on mandolin and vocals, Lucas Bellotti on bass and vocals, and Ferreti’s son Marco on guitar and vocals.
“As someone once wrote, ‘it’s a long long way to the top of the world, but it’s only a short fall back down,'” Ferretti points out when asked about the band’s more recent activities. “We sure do not want that! We had a very nice couple or three US tours in the past two years or so, but we won’t be able to go to IBMA in Chattanooga owing to personal reasons — like our bass player having a one-month old boy to take care of — so publicity will be needed for a strong comeback.”
Not that they haven’t obtained that from the beginning. Since 1984, Red Wine has toured throughout Europe, performing at major international festivals, and playing concerts in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Wales, Holland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Austria, while also sharing the stage with several notable artists and ensembles from the US and Europe, and gaining a loyal audience in their wake.
Following the huge success of their 30th anniversary celebration concert in Genova in 2008, Red Wine made it an annual event in 2009, the Red Wine Bluegrass Party, with international guests like Tim O’Brien, Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Peter Rowan, and The Kruger Brothers. In the past few years the Party has provided an opening for other musical genres — Celtic, rock, Dixieland, old time music, etcetera — with help from featured musicians from Italy and the rest of Europe.
“Last November, we played its 16th edition,” Ferretti notes. “It has changed format through the years, since the big stars from the US became more and more costly for us. We produce the Party, pay every cost — including renting a theater etcetera — and since airfares never got any cheaper, we decided to give more room to European artists and local musicians. I believe the last US musicians we invited were our friends Kathy Kallick and Annie Staninec in 2017. That’s with the exception of our good friend Lowell ‘Banana’ Levinger of Youngbloods fame, who comes to Italy every year. This made us change the format, from ‘Red Wine and…’ to the theme it had been in 2014 when it was titled The Story of Red Wine, and in 2015, when we called it ‘A Bluegrass Journey,’ and 2016, when it was known as ‘The Songwriters’ with Shane Sullivan guesting. The theme in 2018 was ‘Red Wine’s 40th Anniversary,’ and coincided with the release of our Carolina Red CD.”
Consequently, the event went “full local,” as Ferretti terms it in 2019. The Party’s theme was the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival.
“Sadly, 2019 was also the year we had our first problems with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding our P-1 Visa,” Ferretti continues. “Our petition was approved as a band, but at our bass player’s interview at the consulate, the clerk who interviewed him said that further information was needed, so Lucas’ visa was not given to him in due time, and neither was his passport. He received it when the rest of us were already in the US with a replacement bass player. We were lucky in having Jeremy Middleton as a friend, but it was not like having Lucas.”
He goes on to say that beginning in 2020, several things changed for the band. “On January 5th, the Party’s co-producer, artistic director — and our official photographer for 40 years — Stefano Goldberg, passed away suddenly, leaving us stunned,” Ferretti recalls. “We did a US tour with somewhat of a vengeance, doing two of the major US festivals — the Joe Val festival first, and Wintergrass the following weekend. All went great, but on the day of our return — February 25 — we were greeted at the airport by the COVID apparatus… and the rest is history. Zero gigs for a whole year. So our 2020 Bluegrass Party went virtual.”
According to Ferretti, the difficulties continued well into the next year. “Things had changed so much in 2021 that the theater where we had our Party had no room for us,” he relates. “So we got transferred to the theater’s ‘music club,’ La Claque, a really nice venue that allowed eye contact with the audience, great sound, a lot of things that I really like…albeit on a less prestigious scale. We had our 2021 Bluegrass Party there with no theme, just the joy of performing in front of an audience again. Then the 2022 Party, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first Will the Circle Be Unbroken album, and the 2023 Party, honoring the 40th and 41st anniversary of the first bluegrass festivals in Italy followed. Last year, the Red Wine Bluegrass Party was moved to the big theater again, and the theme was simply the release of our New Night Dawning CD.”
Speaking of which, Red Wine can boast two new albums since 2018. Carolina Red was released in November 2018 followed by their latest effort, New Night Dawning. They constitute the band’s sixth and seventh efforts, respectively.
“The last US tour for us happened in 2023,” Ferretti explains. “A new agent, based in California, booked us on an intense series of dates that took us from Washington State to the South Bay area and back, a couple of times. It was a very rewarding tour, but after that, in 2024, we applied for that year’s P-1 Visa, and our petition was simply ignored, along with a bazillion other visa petitions. So we had to cancel a tour that was already organized — and paid for. It was a loss in the vicinity of $9,000 for a four-piece band, including airfares, the visa cost… you name it. Quite evidently, the long shadow of the previous administration was still heavy above all things ‘foreigner.’ I really doubt we’ll want to take chances again on a US tour, at least for another four years. It sucks, but it was too bad a blow to roll with the punches and give it another try.”
Fortunately, they’ve been rewarded in other ways. The IBMA gave Red Wine their Distinguished Achievement Award in 2023, making them among the first European bands to achieve that honor. In recent years they were able to add another festival to their list, the Northern Cascades Bluegrass Festival in Washington State.
In addition, Ferretti authored the first 5-string banjo manual written in Italian, covering various techniques and everything about the banjo. It came out last month. He’s also a luthier who builds banjos and banjo bridges after having builtg guitars decades ago.
“We’re grateful to the international bluegrass community for its continuous support,” he says in summing up the band’s overall appreciation. “We wouldn’t have done much without the great opportunities that were offered to us by festivals and clubs in Europe and the USA. I’m an IBMA Lifetime Member, and I must say that IBMA has been highly instrumental in helping bluegrass musicians like ourselves find the connections, the sources, and, of course, the inspiration.”
