2013 is looking good for Dublin bluegrass troupe I Draw Slow. After a recent successful stint at a Nashville showcase festival, the five-piece have had their second album, Redhills, picked up by US label Pinecastle Records, after its CEO spotted the video to their song Goldmine this year. They’ve also signed a management deal to coordinate an extensive US tour next summer, and have been invited by Culture Ireland to be part of the Irish delegation at New York’s APAP promoters’ conference next month, alongside Spook of the Thirteenth Lock and Young Folk.

“The night we signed the contracts at the kitchen table in my house was just surreal – it only felt real when we got to Nashville in September and met all the record-company people there and they were not, in fact, winding us up,” singer Louise Holden told The Ticket.