Rag Mama Rag» Rag Mama Rag | Country Blues | Acoustic Blues | Live Blues Band http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag Old Fashion Blues at it's best Fri, 14 May 2010 09:05:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Rag Mama Rag Live on French TV http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/ragmamarag/rag-mama-rag-live-on-french-tv http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/ragmamarag/rag-mama-rag-live-on-french-tv#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 08:56:49 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=574 The weekend of the 7,8 of May 2010, Rag Mama Rag performed at the Festival “My Blues Berry Nights”. Held in Bourges in the Berry region of France the evenings were a great success for all of the musicians and the organisers “L`Association des Tons Tons”. Before the concert on the 8/05  Rag Mama Rag gave an interview to French television channel FRANCE3.

Although it was not expected, the French TV team stayed and filmed the entire concert. You can watch the interview and excerpts from the concert on the video below


]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/ragmamarag/rag-mama-rag-live-on-french-tv/feed 0 Rag Mama Rag in Africa http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-in-africa http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-in-africa#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:01:33 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=507 We have just returned from a two week stay in Benin in west Africa. We were there to play at The Sekanami  festival which was a week long event in the town of Adjarra.  http://sekanami.org/

The festival took place nearby to a local school.  We played to a vast crowd of enthusiastic Beninois who joined us  during the choruses of  ”Minnie the Moocher” and “Freight Train”.  This was the first time we have played in Africa and we have to say that the experience was very much an eye opener. Benin does have a lot of poverty but we rarely saw anyone who complained and the way these people carry a smile around should be a lesson to all of us in Europe. Unfortunately the last part of the trip was marred by a cancelled Air France flight leaving us and all of the other musicians stranded in Benin. All thanks must go to the festival organiser Mr Pascal de France who managed to turn this situation around by insisting that Air France should fly us home from the neighbouring country of Togo. This was all going well until we arrived at the Benin/Togo border. Two members of our group were taking photos of the overladen vehicles that were passing by. Unfortunately they had not seen the sign saying NO PHOTOS and their equipment was confiscated. This was not the end of our adventure! While waiting for our visas to be checked on the Togo side of the border one of our group shouted out that our bus had been crushed. We all ran to the point where our  two buses were parked and to our amazement discovered a crushed bus under a  huge pile of cotton bales. There was also a crushed car and motor bike. One of the  overloaded lorries had been knocked over by the wind and thus the catastrophe.  Luckily no one was injured and we all piled in to the other bus and continued our  journey. Needless to say we made it the airport in time.

We will not forget this trip in a hurry!!


Children selling milk drinks on the streets of Cotonou




]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-in-africa/feed 0 The Concert SOS Haiti http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/the-concert-sos-haiti http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/the-concert-sos-haiti#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:00:03 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=505

Hello to everyone,
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who came to the Concert SOS Haiti on the evening of the 9th of February 2010.
We felt that the event was a great success with a wonderful atmosphere between all of the musicians and all of you who were there.
You can see video clips of all of the musicians playing at the link below
http://www.youtube.com/user/HaitiSOS
Otherwise there is an article from La depeche at this link
http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2010/02/11/774330-Cahors-Plus-de-700-personnes-pour-Haiti.html
Best Wishes
Ashley et Deborah



]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/the-concert-sos-haiti/feed 0 Grande Soirée SOS Haiti http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/ragmamarag/grande-soiree-sos-haiti http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/ragmamarag/grande-soiree-sos-haiti#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:15:52 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=500 On the 9th of february Rag Mama Rag will participate in a concert with 6 other groups to raise money to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. The concert starts at 8pm and will be taking place at L`Espace valentre in Cahors. The musicians performing are
Gary Brooker (Procol Harum)
Judy Blair Quartet
Rag Mama Rag
Toubib Jazz Band -jazz
Dr. Cha-jazz
Francesca Graziano & Limmie Snell- rhythm & blues
Mark Newman & Michel Griffin-folk
Tickets will be available sur place on the night of the concert or to reserve in advance please phone 05 65 21 23 62 – 06 74 49 70 49

]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/ragmamarag/grande-soiree-sos-haiti/feed 0 Rag Mama Rag and Gary Brooker Live http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-and-gary-brooker-live http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-and-gary-brooker-live#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:51:58 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=495 During their recent UK tour Rag Mama Rag were joined on stage by Gary Brooker on accordian. Gary is of course the singer/pianist of the  famous group Procol Harum.  They played a couple of tunes together including a rendition of the well known Leadbelly song “Goodnight Irene”.  It was a big hit with the audience and had them all singing along.

Our thanks to Paul Holland for the photo

Rag Mama Rag and Gary Brooker




]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-and-gary-brooker-live/feed 0 Merry Christmas http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/merry-christmas http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/merry-christmas#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:28:38 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=469 We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the support they have given us through 2009 and wish everyone a Joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful 2010.

Ashley and Debbie

]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/merry-christmas/feed 0 Rag Mama Rag – Live in Issoudun http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-live-in-issoudun http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-live-in-issoudun#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:52:51 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=465 Rag Mama Rag recently played at the Issoudun Guitar Festival in France. During their concert they performed the old ukulele hit “I`ll see you in my dreams”.  The famous version of the song was  first recorded in the 1930s by Ukulele Ike and more recently by Joe Brown during the tribute concert given to George Harrison. This video is now on their website .

]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-live-in-issoudun/feed 0 Rag Mama Rag – New Video http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-new-video http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-new-video#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:23:32 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=463 Rag Mama Rag recently played at the Issoudun Guitar Festival in France. During their concert they performed Crossroads Blues, the Robert Johnson blues song that was first recorded in the 1930s. This video is now on their website .


]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-new-video/feed 0 live at Sighisoara Blues Festival 2009 http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/live-at-sighisoara-blues-festival-2009 http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/live-at-sighisoara-blues-festival-2009#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:53:36 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=299 footage taken at the 2009 Sighisoara Blues Festival

]]> http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/live-at-sighisoara-blues-festival-2009/feed 0 Rag Mama Rag in Blues in Britain issue 59 http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-in-blues-in-britain-issue-59 http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/blog/rag-mama-rag-in-blues-in-britain-issue-59#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:18:34 +0000 Rag Mama Rag http://rag-mama-rag.com/ragmamarag/?p=296 SUTTON BLUES COLLECTIVE
Station Pub, Sutton Coldfield 4/10/06

Blues in Britain/issue 59
France based Rag Mama Rag (husband and wife team Deborah and Ashley Dow) put on a superlative performance at The Sutton Blues Collective this Wednesday.  They were exactly the right sort of act for the ambience of this club.  A complex combination of traditional country blues with songs from names such as Tampa Red, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and Blind Boy Fuller were performed together with original songs penned by Ashley Dow,  and even a Ry cooder tune.  Ashley has a voice ideally suited to singing this style of blues.  Both halves of the set were a seemingly endless stream of songs accompanied by Ashley’s fast and driving guitar playing backed by Deborah playing at different times on washboard, harmonica, spoons and an African drum, occasionally providing backup vocals.  There was even a couple of numbers played on the ukulele to provide light relief from the more intense sons.
During the interval I spoke to Ashley about his guitars.  His main instrument during the evening was a Washburn parlour sized guitar.  The other two guitars were a 1990’s National and a John Pearce copy of a 1930’s Wiessenborn lap steel guitar, a thing of great beauty with Ashley proudly told me that he’d managed to get in a bargain from a well known online auction house.  Rag Mama Rag is definitely an act not to be missed.

Clive Sheard

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