- Druhá Tráva
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Druhá Tráva ("Second Grass" in Czech) is a bluegrass band from the Czech Republic, formed in 1991 by Robert Křesťan. As of August 2005, they have released eighteen studio albums either as a group or as side projects.
Robert Křesťan performing with the group in 2008
They, along with much of Central Europe were inspired by Pete Seeger's tour there in 1982. Bluegrass music had existed in the Czech Republic since the mid 1960s. Along with American folk music, it was popular among many of the students involved in the Prague Spring in 1968. These events led to the interesting situation that bluegrass and folk music was considered politically subversive by some of the Communist elite.
Along with Křesťan (lead vocals, guitar), the original line-up consisted of Luboš Malina (banjo), Jiří Meisner (bass guitar), Pavel Malina (guitar), and Luboš Novotný (dobro). In 2004, the line-up changed considerably, with Jiří Meisner and Martin Ledvina leaving the group and Petr Surý (bass) and Emil Formánek (guitar, mandolin and harmony vocals) joining.
Druhá Tráva are commonly compared to their bluegrass and folk forerunners such as Ricky Skaggs, Peter Rowan, Davy Spillane, and Béla Fleck as well. The band recently signed to Compass Records. On Compass they released their sixth studio album, Czechmate, and an album with Peter Rowan, New Freedom Bell. In September 2004 they released an all-acoustic album entirely with English lyrics, Good Morning Friend, which was released in Czech Republic on the Universal label.
Discography
- Robert Křesťan a Druhá Tráva (Bonton, 1991)
- Revival (Monitor, 1992)
- Starodávný svět (Venkow, 1994)
- Druhá Tráva s Pavlínou Jíšovou (Venkow, 1995)
- Second Grass Live (Venkow, 1995)
- Postcard (Venkow/Polygram, 1997)
- Czechmate (Venkow, 1998) ()
- Piece of Cake (Malina's solo album, featuring the rest of the band) (Venkow, 1998)
- New Freedom Bell (with Peter Rowan (Compass Records, 1999)
- Best and Last (Venkow, 2001)
- Nech svět, ať se točí dál (Venkow, 2002)
- Live in Brno (with Charlie McCoy Venkow, 2004)
- Good Morning, Friend (Universal, 2004)
- Dylanovky (Universal, 2007)
- Marcipán z Toleda (Universal, 2011)
References
Categories:- Folk music groups
- Czech bluegrass music groups
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