The Brazillionaires: Concert & Live Webcast
Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
The Brazillionaires are a trio hailing from Portland, OR with a collective desire to push their abilities through the exciting choro music of Brazil. The music is a dynamic blend of Afro-Brazilian syncopation, jazz harmony and elements of European melody and composition. The trio throws in a pinch of samba and American old time grooves for good measure. Bandleader and mandolinist Zak 
Borden has toured throughout the US and Europe and has deeply delved into many genres ranging from traditional bluegrass to the music of Thelonius Monk. He has studied choro with Mike Marshall and Brazilian master Dudu Maia. Percussionist Simon Lucas has studied rhythm since the age of nine with many renowned masters. He makes the pandeiro (the Brazilian tambourine) sound like a 10-piece drum set. Guitarist Peter Fung has been obsessed with choro and samba for two decades and has been a performing member of the Manhattan School of Samba (NYC), the Lions of Batucada (Portland, OR), and Samba do Coração (SF BAY Area).
TAARKA: Concert & Live Webcast
Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Described by SF Weekly as a “collision of Django Reinhardt and David Grisman,” Taarka is the new acoustic “supergroup” (Flagstaff Live) led by the husband-and-wife team of David Pelta-Tiller (mandolin, tenor guitar, vocals) and Enion Pelta-Tiller (five-string violin, vocals) joined by bassist Troy Robey, with a malleable crew of cellists, fiddlers and other string mavens rounding out the sound.
David, a versatile picker raised in Virginia on a steady diet of bluegrass, Celtic, classical and gypsy jazz, and Enion, a classically-trained violinist who can switch seamlessly between Bartók and bebop (not to mention gypsy jazz, punk, rock, bluegrass) began their journey together in 2001. After meeting at a Brooklyn Browngrass gig, the two began a Gypsy jazz busker act in the New York City subway before hitting the road as Taarka.
Though Taarka presently balances between singer songwriting and instrumentals, from its beginnings as a purely instrumental string band putting a modern spin on Gypsy and Eastern European folk music, Taarka has drawn from wide-ranging influences over the past 10 years. Sophisticated listeners would be able to distill flavors of Western and Eastern folk traditions, jazz, rock, bluegrass, old-time, gypsy, Indian, and Celtic music all in a string band setting. Taarka has lately been gaining notice for their songwriting, which is informed by traditional bluegrass, old-time and folk from America and Europe, 19th century poetry, and rock inspired by performances with some of the greatest names in songwriting today, including Darrell Scott, Greg Brown, James McMurtry and Nathan Moore, but which incorporates sweeping pop and popping gypsy elements.
Since 2006, when David and Enion landed in Lyons, CO—known for its bluegrass and new acoustic scene—their compositional output has taken on a decidedly American aura, with vocals added to enhance the stories told in their songs. Their fifth studio album, Adventures in Vagabondia, was released in January 2013.
Taarka’s joyous recordings benefit from starry guest performances and David’s masterful production work—each a carefully crafted travelogue tracing a phase of the group’s evolution. Yet unsurprisingly, Taarka’s calling card is its colorful live show. Of Taarka’s performance at the Oregon Country Fair, Synthesis Magazine wrote, “Taarka began driving the painted and costumed crowd into a dancing frenzy…they combined Roma, Klezmer and jazz, infusing their rousing and exciting tunes with breakneck Zappa-esque breakdowns and insurmountable gusto. Regardless of your particular musical tastes, Taarka is a band that simply must be witnessed.”
The band is equally potent whether as a down-and-dirty duo act or a stellar extended line- up featuring a top-notch array of fellow travelers. David and Enion have performed with members of the Grateful Dead, Phish, and String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band as well as Darol Anger, Joe Craven, ALO, Keller Williams, Danny Barnes, Steve Kimock, Taj Mahal, Widespread Panic, The Samples, and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Kaki King, Rob Wasserman, Tony Furtado, The Motet, Dan Bern and The Everyone Orchestra.
Taarka has performed at major festivals across the country including High Sierra, Joshua Tree Music Festival, Oregon Country Fair, Sisters Folk Festival, Telluride Bluegrass, Mendocino Music Festival, Bumbershoot, Seattle Folklife, Nedfest, Lightening in a Bottle, Berkeley World Music Festival, Aspen Bluegrass Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and The Millpond Folk Festival and many more…
AP Dugas, Gregory Paul and Annie Ford
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
AP Dugas is an active singer songwriter who hails from Texas and is a recent transplant to Seattle. He is influenced by Towns Van Zandt, Willie Nelson and Elliot Smith and has a background in punk and rock. His voice and songs ring true with a heartfelt authenticity. He is the lead singer in the Ganges River Band and also performs solo around Seattle, Bellingham and Texas.
www.reverbnation.com/apdugasandthegangesriverband
Gregory Paul spent most of his life in Upstate, NY before moving to Seattle in 2009. He has been touring and recording sporadically for many years, making mesmerizing music with folk, traditional / old-time, rock, and experimental influences. He currently can be found performing old-time & traditional music throughout the week at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. GP has provided accompaniment for Lindsay Fuller, S…era Cahoone, Shannon Stephens and many others.
Annie Ford from Virginia is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and studio musician, performing in numerous groups around in Seattle. She was a regular fixture at the Pike Place Market for several years street performing with the group Slimpickins. She has contributed most recently to the records of local artists Shannon Stephens and Ali Marcus and is an active member of Nu Klezmer Army, Cast Iron Maidens and Annie Ford Band. Memories of the mountains back home, travels across the country and ghosts of love permeate the emotional landscape of her songs. There is a timeless and dynamic quality to her playing and singing that seems at once to come from the ether and a deep connection to the inner workings of the heart.
All three of these songwriters have collaborated separately within Seattle’s broader eclectic scene and regularly perform solo.
Double Duos: Michael Connolly & Miller McNay w/ Prairie Wolfe
The Next Gen Folk Series is jointly presented by Hearth Music, Victory Music and Empty Sea Studios.
Sorry, this show is completely sold out! No tickets will be released at the door.
Please join us as double mandolin meets double fiddle in this special evening of instrumental music!
Mandolin duo Michael Connolly & Miller McNay will present music from their breakthrough mandolin duo album The Mandolin Casefiles.
To kick off the evening, fiery Celtic fiddler Prairie Wolfe will be joined by Michael Connolly on fiddle, chromatic button accordion and guitar for an opening set of Irish and French Canadian tunes.
With tunes spanning the blues, old-time, bluegrass, Irish and French Canadian genres, this is a Next Gen Folk show you won’t want to miss!
Michael Connolly & Miller McNay: The Northwest’s premier mandolin duo
Playing their mandolins together for more than five years, Michael Connolly and Miller McNay have traveled along and across genre boundaries, from bluegrass to old-time to swing. In their inaugural album celebrating the unusual pairing of two mandolins, Connolly and McNay share the sound they’ve developed as a duo: transparent and open, but warm, varied, and eminently listenable.
In The Mandolin Casefiles: It Takes Two To Mando, Connolly and McNay offer up a mix of traditionaltunes, covers, and originals like McNay’s “The Grapes of Rag,” which introduces the disc, and Connolly’s “Mr. Pick’s Blues,” a chromatic, colorful adventure in 12/8. A vintage Gibson mandola makes an appearance on “Over The Waterfall” and on the duo’s cover of Lennon and McCartney’s “In My Life.” Exhibiting an unparalleled responsiveness to each others’ playing, the musicians slip effortlessly between lead, accompaniment, and even percussive roles.
Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, The Mandolin Casefiles captures the palpable energy and moment-by-moment musical dialogue between two longstanding collaborators at play.
Michael Connolly’s love affair with the mandolin began at age six. During his musically charged upbringing in Memphis, Tennessee, he delved deeply into bluegrass, old-time, Irish traditional, blues, and swing music. The result is a unique “hornlike” approach to the instrument. His deft ear and sensitive accompaniment have won him appearances touring with and performing alongside Michelle Shocked, Coyote Grace, and The Indigo Girls.
An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Connolly performs regularly on fiddle, piano, and accordion as well as maintaining a busy teaching schedule. He has recorded widely, appearing on nineteen albums. The Mandolin Casefiles is the twelfth to feature his mandolin playing.
Miller McNay’s mandolin story began in his native Charlotte, North Carolina. Winner of the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival’s mandolin contest, he has played with Free Roaming Buffalo Herd,and Barnyard Stompand as a founding member of Captain Gravel.
McNay’s impeccable tone and rhythmic drive have led to his sharing the stage with Joe Craven, G-Love & Special Sauce, and Ben Winship as well as opening for Tim O’ Brien, Danny Barnes, and The Wilders.
Prairie Wolfe
Seattle-based Celtic fiddler Prairie Wolfe never intended to play the fiddle at all. “I wanted to play the celtic harp as a kid,” she reports. It was French-Canadian/Metis fiddler Anne Lederman who influenced her to try her hand at the fiddle. “I’ve definitely always been attracted to the raw, unrefined sound of the fiddle.” It is this raw energy and the old-world accents that stand Prairie apart from other fiddlers and distinguishes her dynamic, rhythmic playing.
In 2005, Prairie’s talents whisked her from her westcoast home to Europe on a tour with Irish trio Damanta. The band played Ireland, Holland, Germany and Austria, bringing to audiences what Prairie describes as their unique “Christina Ricci meets Ashley MacIsaac” sound. Following the tour, she landed in Boston and decided to stay a while. During her stay, Prairie was quickly initiated into the New England contradance scene, playing dances at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA and getting involved with teaching, busking, and frequenting the odd session or two at the Burren.
The Burren is a long way from the church basement meetings of the Vancouver Scottish Fiddle Club, where Prairie got her start and where she met her initial mentor and teacher, Juno-Award winning fiddler Shona Le Mottee, of “Paperboys” and “Lord of the Dance” fame. Before long, she was performing in Vancouver’s CelticFest, doing demonstrations at schools, and hosting “Fiddlers For Funds: Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert.” “I have been amazingly lucky to play with all of Vancouver’s very best fiddlers and musicians, and to know them personally too. It’s been a charmed life.”
Paul Silveria (Professor Banjo)
Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Join Paul Silveria, also known as Professor Banjo, for this special family-friendly event! Paul Silveria is familiar to the Seattle old-time and bluegrass crowd, as a square dance caller often featured at the Tractor Tavern with Seattle favorites, the Tallboys. But many also know him as Professor Banjo – a banjo-slinging, old-time singing performer whose sing-a-longs, dancing games, and stories, get the kids involved and who’s skillful banjo playing and wry sense of humor entertain the parents as well.
On March 13th Paul will capture one of his unique live shows at the Empty Sea Studios. Parents can expect to see their kids jump up and down, shout out suggestions, act like animals, sing along, and dance around with fake beards on – yup, fake beards. Professor Banjo’s shows are always a great time, and this show is a special opportunity to be part of the fun!
Evie Ladin w/ Squirrel Butter
Tickets: $13 advance, $15 door
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Evie Ladin is a banjo player, step-dancer, singer, songwriter and square-dance caller with a lifetime of experience in traditional American cultural arts. She grew up in a trad folk scene up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the US, travels the world, and calls the rich arts scene in Oakland, California home. The new project, the Evie Ladin Band, debuts her original songs in an expansive stringband led by gutsy clawhammer banjo and rich vocals. A natural performer, Evie loves rolling the music, dance and stories up in one dynamic package, with one foot rooted in traditional forms, and one foot striding on ahead. With Dina Maccabee – violin (Real Vocal String Quartet, Japonize Elephants) Erik Pearson - guitar, Dobro (Crooked Jades, Mushroom), and Keith Terry – bass & percussion (Slammin, Crosspulse).
With The Stairwell Sisters, all-gal old-time teardown, Evie performs traditional and original material on clawhammer banjo, vocals, clogging and hambone. With Keith Terry & Crosspulse, she performs rhythm-based multi-cultural music & dance works, bringing her Appalachian skills to collaborations with a variety of other cultural arts, including other styles with roots in the African Diaspora. Evie calls rowdy community square dances, performs for extremely diverse populations of school-kids, tears it up at clubs and festivals, and slogs away in the office, keeping all the plates spinning.
Very excited to see Float Downstream break free, Evie is writing songs for the next record, choreographing rhythm dance, working on a book for banjo called “Making the Leap” and playing swing chords on the guitar. She teaches banjo, singing and dance at home in Oakland when you can find her there, or on Skype!
Appearing with Evie Ladin is Squirrel Butter, the duo of Charlie Beck and Charmaine Li-Lei Slaven. Charlie and Charmaine began performing together in 2005 after meeting at the Portland Old Time Gathering and discovering that they lived merely blocks away from each other in Seattle. The pair began busking, and soon realized that their individual styles, sense of rhythm, and tendency towards the quirky and obscure blended well together. It wasn’t long before they began performing at venues off the street.
Charlie Beck, hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, is a highly accomplished musician. His mastery of guitar and banjo come from years of consistent study. He is well versed in jazz and swing, is an avid enthusiast of old American blues and string band music. His repertoire includes a bushel of traditional folk tunes along with many jazz numbers. A talented songwriter, Charlie’s original compositions combine modern approaches with traditional styles, giving his songs a unique sound. Charlie is an outstanding vocalist, and also plays brilliantly on fiddle.
Charmaine “Lady Li-Lei” Slaven, from Stevensville, Montana, is a gifted dancer, and her skill at traditional percussive buckdancing is phenomenal. She is also an adept rhythm guitarist, ukulele player, and vocalist. Her clear, strong singing style is reminiscent of the Carter family. She brings a fine repertoire of traditional ballads to the duet, along with several of her original works.
Jes Raymond w/ Squirrel Butter
Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
There are things you should know about Jes Raymond. Her favorite word is wonder. She loves and laughs. She takes it too far, and she is not sorry.
Her songs have climbed mountains. They meditate on gravity, color and flight. They have gotten their hands as dirty as they get. They are a radio, forgotten in a treetop. They eat their bran cereal (they are good little songs). They are the small stories of our moments that become our days, that become our lives. And they are presented as they are lived, from a whisper to a wail.
Jes is a beguiling performer, combining her voice, poetry, and all the rhythm and sound one can juice from a guitar and feet. She notes her influences as country, old-time, swing jazz, rock and roll, bluegrass and folk. She is backed by Her Famous Band, headed up by Famous Jake (Jakob Breitbach) on fiddle and the Professor (Morgan Thompson) on acoustic bass.
She has performed solo, with Her Famous Band, and as a member of several ensembles including The Blackberry Bushes, and The New Prohibition Band. She performs in acoustic houses, house concerts, galleries, pubs, cafes, street corners and festival stages. Wherever she is playing, there is a celebration, and an audience who hears a path from tradition to modern illuminations.
Appearing with Jes is Squirrel Butter, the duo of Charlie Beck and Charmaine Li-Lei Slaven. Charlie and Charmaine began performing together in 2005 after meeting at the Portland Old Time Gathering and discovering that they lived merely blocks away from each other in Seattle. The pair began busking, and soon realized that their individual styles, sense of rhythm, and tendency towards the quirky and obscure blended well together. It wasn’t long before they began performing at venues off the street.
Charlie Beck, hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, is a highly accomplished musician. His mastery of guitar and banjo come from years of consistent study. He is well versed in jazz and swing, is an avid enthusiast of old American blues and string band music. His repertoire includes a bushel of traditional folk tunes along with many jazz numbers. A talented songwriter, Charlie’s original compositions combine modern approaches with traditional styles, giving his songs a unique sound. Charlie is an outstanding vocalist, and also plays brilliantly on fiddle.
Charmaine “Lady Li-Lei” Slaven, from Stevensville, Montana, is a gifted dancer, and her skill at traditional percussive buckdancing is phenomenal. She is also an adept rhythm guitarist, ukulele player, and vocalist. Her clear, strong singing style is reminiscent of the Carter family. She brings a fine repertoire of traditional ballads to the duet, along with several of her original works.
Folklife Masters: Kevin Burke & Mark Graham
Tickets: $35 advance / door
Note: The first concert in the Folklife Masters series sold out very quickly. Don’t lose your chance to claim a seat at this one-of-a-kind venue!
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Northwest Folklife and Empty Sea Studios are proud to present the second concert in the 2009 Folklife Masters concert series.
Folklife Masters presents one-of-a-kind concerts which bring master musicians from different traditions together to collaborate and inspire on stage. In our intimate 45-seat listening room, every nuance of these masters’ performances can be savored.
A portion of the proceeds go directly to support Northwest Folklife.
Kevin Burke & Mark Graham
Master Irish fiddler Kevin Burke joins old-time harmonica wizard Mark Graham for an evening of kindred acoustic music. Kevin Burke and Mark Graham founded the popular group Open House in the 1990s, along with percussive dance master Sandy Silva and mandolinist Paul Kotapish. The group was an instant hit, signed to Green Linnet records, and toured extensively. Their blend of old-world and new-world melodies with Mark’s tongue-in-cheek songs, all anchored by Kevin’s dazzling fiddling, was a wonderful mélange and Open House became a seminal group in the traditional music scene. Following the band’s breakup in 1999, Kevin Burke went on to become a National Heritage Fellow (our nation’s highest honor for traditional artists) and to tour with Celtic Fiddle
Kevin Burke
Festival and various guitar masters. Mark founded the Kings of Mongrel Folk with Orville Johnson and released a definitive album of Southern old-time music on harmonica.
Kevin Burke’s partnership with Mark Graham enabled both artists to explore their diverse influences and their love of the West Coast’s musical melting pot. Kevin has made his home in Portland, Oregon for more than 25 years, and Mark was born and raised in Seattle and Renton. Both artists draw from Celtic and Americana sources, as well as Eastern European and South American traditions. Playing together, the fiddle and harmonica blend effortlessly and these masters convey both a deep respect and a great irreverence for their traditions.
Kevin Burke: Master Irish Fiddler
Considered by many to be the greatest living Irish fiddler, we have been uncommonly fortunate to have Kevin Burke as a Northwest resident for the past 30 years. His smooth bowing, virtuosic ornaments, and masterful interpretations of Irish tunes have made him an inspiration to three generations of Irish traditional musicians. He has collaborated with artists as diverse as Christy Moore, Kate Bush and Arlo Guthrie. In 2002, he was granted a National Heritage award; this award is the highest honor our nation bestows on traditional artists. He is now in the company of luminaries like Earl Scruggs, Clifton Chenier, Doc Watson and B.B. King.
Born in London, Burke’s family came from County Sligo in Ireland and his playing retains the dazzling ornaments and smooth bowing of this Irish county. Kevin Burke has been a member of the seminal Bothy Band, as well as Patrick Street, Open House, and Celtic Fiddle Festival, and he has recorded landmark albums with Irish artists like Jackie Daly and Michael O Domhnaill. It is his solo fiddling, however, that holds such a draw for traditional music aficionados. Burke is able to touch the inner depths of Irish music, drawing unheard of subtleties from traditional tunes. His sensitivity to the music is best explored in an intimate, house concert setting, and we are very proud to be able to offer just that.
Mark Graham: Southern Old-Time Harmonica & Topical Songs
Mark Graham (by Mimi Torchia Boothby)
One of the few harmonica players schooled in the melodic and rhythmic intricacies of Southern string band music, Mark Graham plays in a powerful but lyrical, blues tinged style that recalls the feel of the finest banjo and fiddle playing. With over 35 years of harmonicizing, Graham has gained an encyclopedic knowledge of American country and blues styles. As a member of the Hurricane Ridge Runners in the 1970s and Boston’s Chicken Chokers in the 1980s, Graham helped set the standard for hell-raising Southern old-time string band music. As a member of the acclaimed world music ensemble, Kevin Burke’s Open House, he brought new respect to the harmonica in Celtic and world music. Graham is equally as well known for his songwriting as for his harmonica. His songs speak of a singular universe of surreal mountain hilarity and lonesome terror that covers the big subjects. Graham is the author of dozens of comic gems such as “I Can See Your Aura and It’s Ugly”, “Zen Gospel Singing”, and “Life is Hard When You’re Dumb.” His songs have been covered by artists such as Danny Barnes, The Austin Lounge Lizards, Brian Bowers, and The Limelighters.
Alex Caton w/ Sabra Guzman
Tickets: $10.00 advance, $12.00 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
In celebration of her new CD, Music For The Sinners and The Saved, Virginian Alex Caton is hitting the trail with West Coast’s own Sabra Guzman. Alex and Sabra will take you to the other side and back with driving fiddle tunes, haunting clawhammer banjo, down-home mountain songs and uplifting gospel numbers. They infuse their musical roots with the lonesome sounds from the hollers of Virginia for shows that are original, exciting, intensely personal and always traditional.
Alex Caton first put a bow in her hands at the age of four and played violin through her college years at Binghamton University. As her interest in Irish and Old Time music grew, she changed her tunes (and her instrument name) and began playing and teaching fiddle on the side. But it wasn’t until she moved to the Charlottesville, VA area to work on a PhD in Anthropology that she found her true calling. Alex fell in love with the music scene in Charlottesville and soon cast aside her career as a professional archaeologist (she worked up and down the East Coast of the United States, as well as in West Africa) to focus on fiddle music full-time. Since 2001, Alex has lived in Gordonsville, VA, teaching Irish, Old Time and Gypsy music out of her home and playing with a wide variety of local groups including the Irish band, The Ryegrass Rollers.
Folklife Masters: Dirk Powell & John Doyle
Tickets: $40 advance / door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Northwest Folklife and Empty Sea Studios are proud to present the first concert in Folklife Masters, a new acoustic music concert series.
Folklife Masters presents one-of-a-kind concerts which bring master musicians from different traditions together to collaborate and inspire on stage. A portion of the proceeds go directly to Northwest Folklife.
Dirk Powell & John Doyle
Old-Time and Cajun meet the Irish tradition
Currently on tour as Joan Baez’s backing band, fiddler/banjoist/singer Dirk Powell and guitarist/singer John Doyle will make their way over to Empty Sea after their sold-out ZooTunes gig to present a very special evening of traditional acoustic music.
Dirk Powell’s roots lie deep in the Appalachian mountains, and his recordings and collaborations have been an inspiration to many old-time and bluegrass musicians. John Doyle is one of the greatest living Irish guitarists, and his work with Irish super-group Solas created a whole new style of guitar accompaniment in the Irish tradition. Both of these master musicians are known as much for their innovations in traditional music as for their commitment to the music of their ancestors. Dirk and John are both amazing producers and arrangers, able to rebuild a traditional song or tune from the ground up, imbuing it with new life and energy while never losing sight of what made it so special in the first place. Our greatest hope for traditional music in a new century lies in musicians like Dirk Powell and John Doyle, for they can speak between generations and across divides.
Dirk Powell (fiddle, banjo, accordion, guitar, voice)
Dirk Powell has expanded on the deeply rooted sounds of his Appalachian heritage to become one of the preeminent traditional American musicians of his generation. In addition to acclaimed releases on Rounder Records, he’s recorded and performed with artists such as Loretta Lynn, Sting, Jack White, Levon Helm, Jewel, T-Bone Burnett, Tim O’Brien, Ralph Stanley, and Linda Ronstadt, among others. Dirk founded the Cajun group Balfa Toujours with his wife Christine Balfa and is currently Artistic Director of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. His ability to unite the essence of his culture with modern sensibilities has led to work with many of today’s greatest film directors, including Anthony Minghella, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Victor Nuñez, Steve James, and Edward Burns.
In his early teens, Dirk formed a musical bond with his grandfather, James Clarence Hay of Sandy Hook, Kentucky, and discovered a personal resonance with traditions that stretch back to Scots-Irish ancestors who came to the mountains in the middle of the 18th century. Dirk learned banjo and fiddle firsthand in continuation of this line. He is equally adept on both instruments, as well as guitar and Cajun accordion. His ability as a multi-instrumentalist has made him one of the most in-demand musicians in traditional American music, and his ability to bring obscure songs and tunes from our distant past into our present has made him an innovator in any number of musical genres. Dirk Powell displays a vibrant creative energy that crosses boundaries while remaining grounded in the rural traditions of his heritage.
John Doyle (guitar, voice)
John Doyle’s gifts as a guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and producer have played an essential role in the ongoing renaissance of Irish traditional music. As a member of Irish-American supergroup Solas, Doyle pioneered a rhythmic, sophisticated approach to Irish guitar accompaniment, setting a new standard for the instrument. Preserving the tasteful simplicity of tradition, Doyle nonetheless added a contemporary edge, finding fresh life in even the most well-worn of tunes. His playing encompassed hard-driving strumming, inventive chord voicings, precise single-note runs, and powerful rhythmic effects borrowed from traditional instruments such as the bodhran and fiddle.
Born in 1971 in Dublin to a family of musicians and singers, John Doyle was surrounded by traditional music from his earliest years. His father Sean is a remarkable singer and collector of songs, with a vast repertoire of traditional ballads committed to memory. Tommy Doyle, John’s Co. Sligo grandfather, taught him his first instrumental tunes. Two of his three brothers are musicians, as are various uncles, cousins, and other family members. John was playing professionally by the age of 16, and soon moved to New York City, where he began playing with Eileen Ivers and Seamus Egan. He first rose to international prominence with Solas (Gaelic for “light”), the all-star Irish/American band whose emergence heralded the arrival of a new generation of bold, inventive traditional musicians. Now an accomplished producer as well, Doyle has worked with such artists as Liz Carroll and Heidi Talbot. While with Solas, the guitarist also shared stages and studios with Frank McCourt, Linda Thompson, Kate Rusby, Mick Moloney, Brian Conway, Joannie Madden, James Keane, Karan Casey, and Cathie Ryan. He continues to innovate, finding the seeds of his contemporary approach within the tradition itself.
Duo photo by Emma Vasseur.
RedDog CD Release Party
Tickets: $8.00 advance, $10.00 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Please join us with RedDog as they celebrate the release of their debut album, Hard Times.
RedDog plays traditional music from the American Southeast—music that connects old-time tunes with the blues, with spirituals, and with stories. Specializing in sweet, haunting vocal harmonies and free-wheeling instrumentals, the band features Doug Yule on fiddle, Cary Lung on mandolin, and Tom Collicott on guitar and banjo.
Doug Yule grew up on the East Coast playing and singing from an early age. In 1968, standing on the wrong street corner, he was captured by The Velvet Underground, a cult rock band. Doug played bass with the Velvets for a time, then stayed on a rock ‘n’ roll track until he encountered the fine arts of carpentry and cabinet making. In the last few years he’s discovered a passion for the fiddle and for violin making. When he’s not knee-to-knee with RedDog playing tunes, Doug builds violins, violas, and cellos at Lasley & Russ Violin Shop in Seattle.
Cary Lung is from a small farm town in the San Joaquin Valley of California where he learned to sing and harmonize with his grandfather. In the mid-1960s he met Kenny Hall, the legendary mandolin player, who became his mentor. Cary recorded with the Sweets Mill String Band and, with the Portable Folk Festival, performed at festivals and in coffeehouses across the country. In the late 70s he changed directions and opened a magical toy store in Tucson. But the mandolin kept calling. He moved to Seattle in 2003 and tuned in to his musical roots.
Hard Times, RedDog's debut studio album, will be available for sale.
Tom Collicott has spent most of his adult life in Seattle behind a camera, carving out a successful career as a photo-illustrator and website designer. About 12 years ago he picked up the guitar of his youth. He found himself spending more and more time spellbound by the Southern roots music that has found a home in the Pacific Northwest’s thriving old-time music scene. And he found himself drawn to the close vocal harmonies. In addition to playing guitar and banjo in RedDog, Tom also performs with Seattle’s raucous Atlas Stringband.
For more information about the band, visit www.reddogseattle.com.
