Hosmer Mountain Boys at the 2024 Battlefield Bluegrass Festival – photo © Laura Nailor
New England’s Hosmer Mountain Boys had the chance this summer to perform in Old England, at the Battlefield Bluegrass Festival in Northampton, located in central England.
The four piece band, with guest Silas Powell on mandolin, consists of experienced grassers Cathy Day on fiddle and Tom Bowman on bass, along with fairly new professionals Keegan Day on guitar, and Simon Brogie on banjo. Powell, the only non-New Englander, is from West Virginia.
Though they are a new band, the Hosmer Mountain Boys focus on music from a different era, traditional bluegrass, which is part of what attracted them to festival organizers in Naseby. Festival manager Brian Dowdall and the British Bluegrass Music Association arranged their flights, and even found loaner instruments for the band to use so they wouldn’t need to arrange for transport of their own.
Battlefield ran from July 18-21, and the Americans arrived to play on the 19th, and were immediately impressed that the festival crew had placed a large American flag at their camp site, which made them feel warmly welcomed. Ten UK bands were on the bill, plus the Hosmer Mountain Boys, and a picking contest, workshops, and plenty of jamming. The only thing that set it apart from a typical US bluegrass festival was the smaller size, sold out at 200 attendees, and of course, the accents.
Cathy shared a few words about their trip, and how lovely everyone was.
“We arrived Friday July 18 at 8:00 a.m. in London, and a volunteer from the festival (Steve Wooldrige) drove us two hours north through the countryside to the Naseby Battlefield area where the festival was held. Needless to say, we were all excited to be driving on the windy roads on the left side of oncoming traffic. Brian Dowdall arrange for all loaner instruments for us to make our trip even easier! The instruments were all stellar. He had previously asked us specific details in what we would like and he found perfect matches!
We playedon Friday, closing out the night with an hour long set. We also closed out Saturday night and played a 30 minute gospel set on Sunday morning, then packed up and rode back to London. It was a three day whirlwind which was the perfect way to get our first experience overseas.
The people were just like home, welcoming, generous, and friendly. We picked both nights until 5:00 a.m. with the festival goers. I could go on and on about all the special and unique moments.”
The band also mentioned that just as they hit the stage on Friday night, the sound system crashed, so they had to play their set unamplified. Fortunately, everything was working again by the time music started on Saturday.
Congratulations to the Hosmer Mountain Boys on their first UK trip, and to Battlefield Bluegrass for a successful event.
