SidGriffin.com - Coal Porters

Photo: Giacomino Parkinson (2009)

"...Sid Griffin and the Coal Porters, a proper band with albums and tours and a fiddle."
The Guardian, Laura Barton's Back Page column, Friday July 18, 2008

The Coal Porters are an exciting and dynamic bluegrass combo with a DYNAMITE LIVE ACT featuring (from left to right): Carly Frey- fiddle and vocals; Dick Smith - diesel banjo and vocals; Sid Griffin vocals, mandolin, harmonica and autoharp; Paul Sandy doghouse bass & Spurs chants; Neil Robert Herd guitar, sporran and vocals.

Meet the Coal Porters:

>>>> *NEW* Coal Porters live VIDEOS on the download page. Check 'em out! Smokin!

>>>> *NEW* Coal Porters MP3 files - 3 new uploads; Final Wild Son, Mr Guthrie and A Light From The Mountains - Broadcast live on the Tom Robinson show, BBC 6 music, on 18th Feb 2008.

The Coal Porters released their first ever single in March 2005, the A-side is a fine ballad Morning Song and the two other tunes were Dylan's Idiot Wind and an unreleased live version of Nick Lowe's What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding. When asked what he thought of the Coal Porters' version Mr. Lowe wittily replied, "surely the poor man died before I wrote it".

The January 2005 issue of UnCut magazine featured the Coal Porters' version of Bob Dylan's immortal "Idiot Wind" on the cover-mount CD. Fiddler Gemma White is wearing an ill-fitting wig in the accompanying photograph (seen below).

The Coal Porters were thrilled to play in Sid's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky at the 2004 International Bluegrass Music Association's World of Bluegrass festival in October 2004, one of only thirteen new bands to have been invited out of the several hundred who applied for a slot.

The Coal Porters have future upcoming live dates playing their bluegrass styled new music as well as their takes of songs by Dylan, Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons. Their album Turn The Water On, Boy! is being hailed as a modern classic in the genre Alt-Bluegrass...interesting, as the Coal Porters invented this genre!

The Coal Porters - Flint Bum, KY October 2004