New Release from Groanbox

Groanbox, the North American world roots trio, are releasing their fifth album on October 31, 2011, to be launched at King's Place, London on October 28th.
The band wrote, rehearsed, and recorded all of the material for their latest release, Guts, Lungs & Bones in a cottage perched at the bottom of a green, sheep-flecked and brook-bordered hill in the Scottish Lowlands over a period of ten days in August 2011.
Recorded live with producer/engineer Oscar Cainer at the helm, the album features ten original compositions and one traditional number, Death Don’t Have No Mercy.

Supporting the King's Place gig is John Ellis, mostly known for his work as a guitarist with major UK acts such as Peter Gabriel, The Stranglers, Peter Hammill and many more. He is also a songwriter and composer of electronic music. He has released 6 albums of instrumental music written for installations. His current song-based project is called THE PINCH. It consists of songs and instrumentals mostly played on acoustic guitar.

Big Old Big One

Videos and pics from MJWB's GIG 365 GIG #263 on September 20th, 2011 w/Eran Shaysh posted here: BIG OLD BIG ONE

Silk Road Project Commission : "Damagomi"

The Silk Road Project September 2011 Newsletter:
New Commission from MJWB : "Damagomi"

Column of Lasting Insignificance : GIG 365

Click -here- for a feature on GIG 365 from the legendary John Wilcock, co-founder of the Village Voice. Wilcock's weekly "Column of Lasting Insignificance" has been running for over 50 years.

GIG 365 in the news

USA TODAY: One man, one accordion, 365 days a year

ACCORDION UPRISING: Michael Ward-Bergeman (of Groanbox fame): 365 gigs in 365 days

GIG 365

On January 1, 2011 MJWB launches the GIG 365 project (one gig for each day of 2011) in Venezuela. He will share a wide variety of music in places throughout the Americas and Europe with people from all walks of life. Visit www.gig365.com for more information.

Read the feature in Venezuela's El Universal newspaper here:

Ward-Bergeman interpreta música sacra en Betania

English Translation here:

Ward-Bergeman plays sacred music at Bethany

Golijov World Premiere in Phoenix

World premiere rehearsal with Phoenix Symphony (l to r): Osvaldo Golijov (composer), Jamey Haddad (percussion),
Jeremy Flower (laptop/electronics), Michael Ward-Bergeman (accordion), Kayhan Kalhor (kamancheh)

Read Phoenix Symphony conductor Michael Christie's blog on the piece -here-