A West Cork town is set to be invaded by guitar lovers when it hosts a star-studded festival featuring some of the greatest foot-stompin’, fingerpicking, head-banging, eye-catching exponents of the art.

CASEY BLACK stands in the yard of his gorgeously tumbledown Tennessee farmhouse, luxuriating in the silence. “You can come out here and scream and nobody will hear you,” he chuckles in a tone that suggests shouting at the vast western skies is something he contemplates on a weekly – possibly daily – basis.

MUSIC NEWS: The big issue among the music world’s chattering classes this week has been the announcement of Metallica’s headline slot at Glastonbury.