The Greencards - History - Formation

Formation

The Greencards were initially composed of two Australians, Kym Warner on mandolin and Carol Young on bass, and an Englishman, Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle. Raised in South London, McLoughlin began to perform country music shows with his family on weekends, influenced by George Jones, George Strait, and Ricky Skaggs. Born to Irish parents, McLoughlin's father was head of a London-based country band. At age nine, McLoughlin moved away from piano lessons to play fiddle, and performed with his father's band. McLoughlin had earlier relocated from Brighton to Austin in 1997, after leaving Sussex University with a degree in Politics and American Studies. Trained in London studying Royal Schools of Music Grades before emigrating, McLoughlin also toured with the Asylum Street Spankers, Austin Lounge Lizards,Bruce Robison and Ray Wylie Hubbard after arriving in the United States.

Prior to the founding of The Greencards, Young won the Australian Independent Country Artist of the Year award in 2000, and had recorded two No. 1 Australian-charted country music singles. Young was a singer in Outback country bands and acts, including Gina Jeffreys. Young was previously nominated as "Best Female Vocalist" by the Country Music Association of Australia, and won the Australian independent country artist of the year award in 2000 due in part to her No. 1 singles "True Blue Fool" and "Part of the Past".

Warner was an aspiring bluegrass musician (which was unusual in Australia) after inheriting the music from his father, an early Australian bluegrass pioneer. The winner of the Australian National Bluegrass Mandolin Championship for four consecutive years, Warner had toured with country music artists including Gina Jeffreys, and with Young in Kasey Chambers's band. Young and Warner knew each other previously, and according to Warner, had been drawn to bluegrass and American roots music through an appreciation of George Jones and Merle Haggard. Warner and Young made the decision to emigrate to America to pursue musical careers in that country, after they met. Young and Warner later lived together in Sydney while trying to find work in the moribund Australian bluegrass scene. After leaving Australia, they spent time in West Texas before relocating to Austin.

On an early trip the pair took to Austin, Warner and Young met McLoughlin at a recording session. Warner was producing an album for the recording artist Bill Atkins and found they needed a fiddle player, which led to the recruitment of McLoughlin. Initially the immigrants came to know one another through their mutual love of Monty Python, Benny Hill, and Fawlty Towers. They began to have jam sessions afterwards and there was evident chemistry between the trio, which led to their writing songs together. They named themselves The Greencards in honor of the fact that all three band members carried United States green cards. They eventually began to perform shows locally in Austin to finance the recording of what would become their debut album, 2003's Movin' On. In the process, they became one of the most popular musical groups in Austin. Representative of an emerging "newgrass" movement, The Greencards' acoustic sound was said to incorporate eclectic influences from Irish traditional, Romani gypsy, and Latin American musical sources.

Their first performance together as a band was at the Austin Irish pub, Mother Egan's. Given a noon to 3 pm Central time slot, they surprisingly began to fill the pub with patrons week after week. Their fans at Mother Egan's soon began calling them the "Bluegrass Bunch". Several months later, The Greencards began performing an additional three to five times per week in Austin, in addition to their Mother Egan's Sunday show. Warner credited the frantic pace of their performance schedule during their Austin formation to their cohesion as a group and with driving them to create more new original music. During their time performing locally in Austin, they toured with various local Texas musicians, including Robert Earl Keen. Warner said that during their early career performing together, audiences would always assume they were American musicians until they finally spoke between songs, revealing their English and Australian accents.

Mario Tarradell of WFAA-TV news called the idea of an American bluegrass band composed of two Australians and an Englishman not as "outrageous" as it may seem. He quoted McLoughlin in an interview:

The ironic thing is that we grew up listening to primarily American music and fell in love with American music. I love country music. I grew up with George Jones and Charley Pride and Jim Reeves. All that stuff was playing in the house. That's what I wanted to seek out. That's what I wanted to play. Carol was into Tammy Wynette. Trev Warner is Kym's dad, and he was the first person to bring bluegrass music to Australia.