{"id":1236,"date":"2019-04-27T17:07:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T15:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruthellengruber.com\/blog\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2023-04-15T12:38:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T10:38:29","slug":"music-and-the-imaginary-wild-west-in-cz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruthellengruber.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/27\/music-and-the-imaginary-wild-west-in-cz\/","title":{"rendered":"Music — and the Imaginary Wild West in CZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Brno, Czech Republic, the Imaginary Wild West leaps off a wall\u2026. advertising \u201cthe best steaks\u201d in the city at an eatery called \u201cU Star\u00fdho Bill\u201d<\/a> (At Old Bill\u2019s) that calls itself \u201ca real \u2018TEXAS\u2019 restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wall here was a few steps away from the Sono Center, a major Brno venue for contemporary music \u2014 where I was headed to attend a concert by the Czech bluegrass band The Malina Brothers<\/a>, with guest appearances by Charlie McCoy,<\/a> the Nashville-based harmonica virtuoso and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Czech singer Kat\u2019a Garcia. The concert was sold out, and got a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd. And it was being filmed for a live show DVD.<\/p>\n

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Malinas concert Sono Center<\/p><\/div>\n

The Malinas are old friends of mine. Banjo player and multi-instrumentalist Lubos Malina was one of the founding members of the great Czechgrass group Druha Trava, and I met him (amazingly) nearly 15 years ago, at one of the many summer bluegrass\/country festivals in CZ, when I first started exploring the Imaginary Wild West in Europe.<\/p>\n

Guitarist Pavel Malina used to play with DT, and fiddler Pepa Malina still sometimes plays with them. The Malina Brothers band came together informally at first, but over the past five years or so has developed a remarkable following in CZ \u2014 as the concert in Brno demonstrated.<\/p>\n

The three brothers visited in Italy six years ago and gave a house concert at the home of a friend. It was the first of a series of house concerts anchored by Lubos. The brothers played this arrangement of Smetana at the house concert in 2013 \u2014 and at the concert in Brno.<\/p>\n