There's a quite few nifty young bodhran players around right now; I was very impressed with the playing of Naimh Boadle last last year at Fylde, who, although the Hran (when did that one come in?) isn't her main thing, accompanied her sister with both musical subtlety and quite stunning rhythmic authority. I'm sure she's not alone in this as whenever I hear a bodhran these days, I tend to hear great playing - in this neck of the woods certainly, and not just among the young either. I've noticed there's a fashion for smaller drums with deeper frames, played with compound beaters (tippers, whatever) that look like a bunch of meat skewers lashed together. Will Lang from Park Bench Social Club is a very fine player too...

And when are we going to see the back of these dreary old bodhran / banjo in-jokes which weren't even funny 30 years ago when I first heard them? Every time my wife takes out her banjo we hear the same old shit that invariably occurs in Mudcat threads; the difference being, that in folk clubs this ritualised litany is accompanied by gales of laughter, which really sets the mood for an evening of enlightened music making!

One wonders, do young Hran players carry on this tradition of devaluing their rhythmic heritage by subjecting their instruments to such humour? One would hope not.