Tennessee Travelers: Carlton Haney's New England BGF, Escoheag, RI, July 1970

The Swedish bluegrass band, the Tennessee Travelers, was made up by the Haglund brothers Urban, Mats and Thomas on guitar, banjo and fiddle respectively and bassist Lennart Ström. They were true trailblazers of bluegrass in Sweden. The band arrived in the U.S in July of 1970 as one of the very first European ensembles to cross the Atlantic Ocean and embed themselves directly into the American bluegrass festival ecosystem. I consider Urban and Thomas, an alumnus of Jimmy Martin’s band, my bluegrass mentors and friends. Their impact on me was significant.