U.S. Embassy holds free bluegrass concert in Bender

Big Hilly Bluegrass, touring the globe as paid musicians for the U.S. State Department, will put on a show in Bender

BENDER (Tiraspol Times) - On Wednesday, 6 June 2007, Pridnestrovie's second largest city welcomes a bluegrass band from the United States in a free concert organized by the U.S. State Department through the American Embassy to Moldova.

The band, "Big Hillbilly Bluegrass", will play at Bender's Palace of Culture, a public theater and concert hall which is operated by PMR and the Bender city administration. Entrance is free.

The concert in Bender is part of the band's third Eastern European goodwill tour. Band leader Bob Perilla will open the show in Bender at 6 p.m.

Bender, the second largest city in Pridnestrovie after the capital, Tiraspol, is located in the buffer zone between Pridnestrovie and Moldova, but under Pridnestrovie's control. The concert is organized with official PMR permission, and was announced publicly last week by U.S. Ambassador Michael Kirby during a visit to Tiraspol.

Bluegrass music is a form of American country music (also known as "Country & Western"). But unlike mainstream country music, bluegrass relies mostly on acoustic stringed instruments like the fiddle or the banjo.

It comes from the Southeast United States, and is related to Appalachian folk music. It is unlike anything ever heard in Pridnestrovie. "Big Hillbilly Bluegrass" plays acoustic and puts on a toe-tapping show, according to a Western diplomat who sat in on an earlier performance organized in Georgia.

Paid pipers

On the band's official website it announced that "we're heading to eastern Europe for the month of June on a goodwill trip sponsored by the U.S. Department of State." The concert in Pridnestrovie is not the first time the band will play to an enthusiastic crowd in an unrecognized country: Last year, they visited Abkhazia - another non-UN member - where they made a large number of fans.

In July, the band is going to the Dominican Republic - in the Caribbean - for another State Department-sponsored tour.

At the request of the U.S. Department of State, "Big Hillbilly Bluegrass" has toured Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and a number of other countries over the past several years.

Cultural exchanges form a large part of any country's public diplomacy efforts. Despite its small size and unrecognized status, Pridnestrovie does the same thing: Last year, the country sent folk dancers to China as "cultural ambassadors" and this year it held a large Pridnestrovie Days event in Moscow, the capital of Russia, which included a traveling contingent of local song and dance troupes.

See also:
» Pridnestrovie's cultural ambassadors on tour in China
» First 'Pridnestrovie Days' expo premieres abroad

On the web:
» Big Hillbilly Bluegrass (official site)