X-Train Back On Top

The Down-Under Tour is over for Arizona’s X-Train and the group’s Mark Miracle, who’s been Guest-Blogging for us on the road and from the bush, now gives us the final wrap!  Thanks to Mark and happy holidays to all of our new Aussie and New Zealander readers!

X TRAIN HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!! 

  The 2011 X Train Australia / New Zealand Tour is now over. We spent our final days at the Melaney Banjo Camp - hosted by Ross Nickerson and other local banjo heroes. A great time was had by all and now there are about 60+ banjo students all the wiser regarding banjo…um, stuff.

X Train played a 2-set show and a few impromptu sessions throughout the weekend and made a ton of new friends to boot. On one of our days off, we went for a drive through the small town of Melaney and sampled the local bakeries, coffee shops and art galleries.

X-Train Says Goodbye to New Zealanders!

Guest Blogger Mark Miracle with X-Train Writes:

Our last gig in New Zealand is now in the books…bummer.

What a great country. We played in Dunedin, a university town just south of the 45th parallel, at an old church that is now a pub (!) which was situated on the outskirts of a large park.

A lot of the churches and other municipal buildings have been turned into restaurants, pubs and other businesses. They are old landmarks and I think it's cool that they are still being used to further businesses.

Anyway, as with all of our gigs here, the place was packed and the kind folks were eager to give us a hoot n' holler throughout the show! These people love their music and seemed to appreciate our style of bluegrass.

X Train has been dropping a few new tunes into the set lists and they have been sounding real good.

Mark Miracle’s 2nd Update on the X-Train Down Under Tour

Arizona’s X-Train, now on their first International Tour in Australia and New Zealand have WOW’d their first audience.   The band’s Mark Miracle has also been busy at the laptop keyboard and sends his second “Guest Blogger” Report = this time from New Zealand.     Mark writes;

Played in Auckland last night for the Auckland Bluegrass Club. The venue was an old Cold War bunker atop a hill overlooking the Auckland Harbor…very cool, especially at night!

The lights of the town reflecting off the harbor water was real nice, the weather was cool and clear and during the break we all went out and had coffee, tea and wine out on the side yard overlooking the view. Played to a packed house of appreciative music lovers. We even had a round of 3-4 sing-a-long tunes where you could barely hear the banjo during the choruses…oh rapture! The concert was recorded so maybe we can get a copy and share snippets of the show.

Spent the day in downtown Auckland site-seeing, food-tasting and jay-walking…what an awesome town! Took a ton of pics and videos and hope to share them as soon and I can go through and pick out some interesting shots that don't include a bunch of blokes from the US...he.

Now we are in Hamilton, NZ for a concert at the Hamilton Gardens - an amazing place where you can walk amongst several varieties of flora and fauna and other types of salad fixin's that inspired me to sit and blog about it. Should be a great show tonight with 2 bands playing and the food is catered! Now, I'm off to find some ranch dressing...MM.

If you missed Mark’s first post, you can read it here:  http://www.prescriptionbluegrassblog.com/2011/11/harrietville-its-australian-for.html

Aussies Love X-Train’s Brand of Bluegrass!

Harrietville - it's Australian for Bluegrass!

Arizona’s X-Train, now on their first International Tour in Australia and New Zealand have WOW’d their first audience.   The band’s Mark Miracle has also been busy at the laptop keyboard and sends his first “Guest Blogger” Report from Harrietville.

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"X-Train" is now touring Australia and New Zealand from Nov 15 - Dec 15. This is the band's first tour since becoming a unit and what a great way to kick things off. "X Train" is Ross Nickerson (banjo/vocals), Peter McLaughlin (guitar/vocals), Bob Dennoncourt (bass/vocals) and Mark Miracle (mandolin/vocals) - with guests appearing frequently. Ross and Bob have been here prior to this tour but this is Peter and Marks first visit to both regions.

Quake Knocks Prescription Bluegrass Off-The-Air in New Zealand!

Prescription Bluegrass Radio Station in New Zealand Off-The-Air by Quake

The tsunami waves that radiated out across the Pacific Ocean from the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan last week lapped every coast of New Zealand, scientists in that country have said.

For New Zealanders this is an all too familiar scenario. Just last month a 6.3 quake rocked the nation following a 7.1 quake there in September of 2010.

The Ranch Online, an internet radio station that carries the Prescription Bluegrass Radio program, operating out of Christchurch, New Zealand was affected by the Feburary 2011 quake.   Power and Phone service was interrupted and the Internet carrier used by The Ranch Online was knocked out of service.  Damage to the studio was minimal according to station owner John Peterson and as of this writing service to the radio broadcast has been restored however much of the city remains in a state of on-going recovery.


According to Darryl Langley, CEO at Audio Tracks Broadcasting Services, the distribution company that handles affiliate relations for Prescription Bluegrass, "Prescription Bluegrass is heard on several Internet as well as traditional radio stations. None of the other stations carrying Prescription Bluegrass were affected."