Circa 1998 Griffin produced Lindisfarne's Here Comes The Neighborhood album and became quite impressed by the band's acoustic instrumentation. Upon completion of that album Lindisfarne so inspired Griffin he got a mandolin. With Griffin on Bill Monroe styled mandolin, smilin' Dick Smith on five string banjo, Neil Robert Herd on flatpickin' guitar, big band expert Paul Sandy on bass and ex-Galway Blonde fiddler Gemma White sawin' away on the strings the acoustic Coal Porters were born. And bluegrass music found itself birthing a hip, sub-genre: Alt-bluegrass.

With several European bluegrass tours under their belt the Coal Porters released The Chris Hillman Tribute Concerts in 2001, an acoustic exploration of Byrds, Burritos, Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan. Rave reviews piled in from America's Bluegrass News, Britain's Sing Out!, British Bluegrass News, Q, Mojo, Making Music, Folk Roots and many more. The music media agreed from Italy to California and from Kentucky to Spain the Coal Porters were a wonderfully exciting bluegrass band with an original approach.

Listen to The Coal Porters at http://www.sidgriffin.com/media/

The Coal Porters

Formed in Los Angeles during the last century, as so many things were, the Coal Porters were originally an electric act centred around ex-Long Ryder Sid Griffin, author of the Long Ryders 1985 hit single "Looking For Lewis And Clark".

After the band relocated from Los Angeles to London original bass player Ian Thomson joined Lindisfarne so Griffin replaced him with a convicted felon and sallied forth. The Coal Porters enjoyed indie chart success in the UK and Europe and toured frequently. Their albums Land Of Hope And Crosby and Los London received grand reviews in Mojo, Q, UnCut, LA Weekly, the Village Voice (NYC) and their last electric album The Gram Parsons Tribute Concert got a fine write-up in Rolling Stone back in the States.

Soon the CPs found themselves opening for Chris Hillman & Herb Peterson in London and completing two exhausting US tours. In October 2004 they performed a extremely well-received showcase at the International Bluegrass Music Association's prestigious World Of Bluegrass Festival in Louisville, Kentucky and the band found themselves swamped by both demands from the press and media and the rigors of the road.

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