Jiri (George) Kralik & the Rowdy Rascals

This outstanding band plays traditional bluegrass, old-time country and western-swing music. The band prides itself on the extremely high quality of instrumental ability, and it's members additional ability to provide "a capella" vocals. The essential focal point of the band is the man who created it, the fiddler Jiri „George“ Kralik. The musical feeling and the ultimate 'sound' of the band, has been mostly influenced by his experiences. George gathered these important ingredients of a successful band during his visits to the country that originated these musical genres, the USA. His attendance and performances at many festivals has shaped his musical views. This understanding of the music, and the love generated for it, has produced an amazingly delightful original music with strong ties to it's traditional past.

George has played "the Devil´s box" all of his life. He was named „Best Fiddler“ by the BG Association of the Czech Republic in 1998 and 2002. George attended the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp in Nashville, TN several times, where he met and learned from some of the most exceptional fiddlers, including O'Connor, Buddy Spicher, and Aubrey Haynie. As a guest he also performed with Randy Waller and his Country Gentlemen in Holland. He regularly teaches fiddle playing at the  Risor festival in Norway and other workshops around  Europe. This year he will finish four years of study at the Jazz conservatory in Prague, CZ. His studies at this outstanding music school has not only helped him to improve his technical skills but also given him a solid ground of theoretical knowledge that enables further multifaceted development of his music. Thanks to his longterm contacts with exceptional fiddlers during his visits to States as well as through his study in the jazz conservatory he has become an excellent instructor. He is not only able to show students how to play complicated solos and harmony parts but also to explain the systems by which a composition has been constructed.  

He plays the banjo over twenty years and the guitar since he was born after the fashion of his parents. After the beginnings with heavy metal music and Beatle craze with the family band „The Small Room Disease“ and „The Bok Band“ where he played electric guitar, George came back to music of Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Flatt and Scruggs which he used to listen to as a baby boy from dad's sound tapes. Also from his dad he learned sequence of four swing chords. Playing banjo with his own band „Keep On Grass“ in 1990's George travelled all over the country. In 2000 he became a member of "The Apple Pickers" in New York, NY.  It was there where he got enrapt by an old jazz and swing music. In the US he took a part in few recordings for his friends. E.g. „The East River Boys session" or he appeared with a great singer and songwriter Sherry Wagoner on one TV morning show. Since 2004 George lives in Prague, he joined the band called „The Mausetrap“. You could hear them on festivals as EWOB 2005 in Holland, or Jamboree in Strakonice, such as "a" mighty fine gathering in Luka nad Jihlavou. He likes to attend the bluegrass jams. At one of those we have met, played together and found that both of us have similar opinion of the music. That was how we started to work together.  
 
David Koucky - double bass, vocals
Similarly to other bluegrass musicians David started his career playing with "tramp" band. He played with the band “Trappers” when he was 15 -on the double base. It was the instrument left for him and he played it successfully in spite of having no previous experience or even training how to play this instrument. David loved bluegrass therefore he left tramp music and joined the bluegrass band called "Bluefern". He established his own band called "Flastr" to play traditional bluegrass after a year. He played  the guitar in the band, another instrument he can play. Modern version (contemporary) of bluegrass was also on the repertoire after the lady singer had joined the band. But David always tended towards the tradition strongly. "The Bluegrass Shadows" were established by him lately. He played, like his beau-ideal Bill Monroe, mandolin (another instrument) in classical bluegrass songs. As often happens David´s skills attracted the attention of the notable Czech bluegrass band "BG. Cwrkot".  They invited him o play fiddle with the band (another instrument). To complete set of his skills, David plays the old-time banjo after the fashion of Honza Bican with whom he regularly plays the base or the fiddle as a guest. This excellent musician and multi-instrumentalist started to play with Jirka a Rowdy Rascals in August 2008.