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Big Hillbilly Bluegrass on stage: The band is currently touring Eastern Europe with the U.S. State Department

BENDER (Tiraspol Times) - Bluegrass music filled the halls of the Culture Palace in Pridnestrovie’s second largest city, Bender, on Wednesday, 6 June 2007.

Some 400 music fans enjoyed the sounds, dancing in the aisles, and cheering with standing ovations. Organized by the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Moldova, the concert was the first in a series of five concerts scheduled for the region from June 6 to 9.

Bob Perilla's Big Hillbilly Bluegrass Band performed non-stop for about one hour, playing bluegrass classics and at least one Jethro Tull song.

During the performance, the audience, inspired by the contagious bluegrass beats, clapped along and some even ventured into the aisles to dance along to the sounds. Even some of the very serious local officials - members of the PMR government - could not help but to clap along to the music played by the five-member band.

Prior to the concert, TV PMR ("First Republican Channel") interviewed the Embassy's Public Affairs officer and the leader of the band. During the show, TV PMR had a television crew cover the entire concert, which was broadcast the same night.

A private TV station, TVS ("Television of Free Choice"), was also on hand to cover the concert, which was opened with a welcoming speech by PMR's Minister of Culture.

First concert by an American band

This American group is the first to have preformed at an event like this in Pridnestrovie.

The Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR) is also known under informal names such as Transnistria, Transdniester, Transdnestr, Transdniestria and Trans-Dniester. It currently meets all the requirements for statehood under international law: It has a permanent population equivalent to Montenegro's, the world's newest U.N. member. For nearly seventeen years, the PMR has had sovereign control of a territory which is larger than 10% of other countries in the world. It has a democratically elected government with a parliment which is currently led by an opposition party. It also has more than a dozen government ministries, including a Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is currently in the process of expanding the new and emerging country's integration ties to the international community.

Pridnestrovie has its own flag, national anthem, coat of arms, postage stamps, passports, car plates, border control and police force. It also has a Supreme Court and a Central Bank which issues its own currency, the PMR Ruble.

See also:
» U.S. Embassy holds free bluegrass concert in Bender [1]