East Of Monroe, a bluegrass band based in Maryland and northern Virginia, is currently on tour in Ireland. They have promised to send along something of a travelogue of their experiences, and here is the first installment.
We arrived in Dublin on Friday morning after an overnight flight from Washington, DC, and we immediately headed for our first gig! We’ve had quite the time learning to drive on the opposite side of the road and navigate the narrow streets of Ireland. After getting lost a few times, we arrived in Enniskillen in the North Irish countryside to play a private party. We were struck immediately by how warm, welcoming, and attentive everyone is over here – and this has continued throughout our trip so far! Our event hosts, along with the crowds, have just been wonderful. Here are a couple videos from the event:
From Enniskillen, we made our way to Sligo to play a sold-out house concert at the beautiful Moy River B&B. Not only was the show incredibly fun, afterwards, we stayed up half the night trading tunes with the venue owners, Pat and Rita, who are wonderful musicians and songwriters themselves. This morning, before leaving Sligo, they helped us take some band photos in an amazing two hundred year-old cottage on their property. Of course, we had to check out the acoustics in there as well; here’s a short video of us singing The Lonesome River:
We continued on to Cookstown today, and we’re sold out again this evening at the Red Room, an inviting little event space with a warm fireplace! Then it’s back to Dublin for some sightseeing. We’ll continue sharing more updates as we move along with our tour. If you’d like to come see us in Ireland, information about all the shows is on our website and Facebook. We’re also posting our Irish travel adventures over on Instagram and Twitter. Feel free to follow along!
