Great Lakes Folk Festival

Over the past decade the traditional Québécois group Genticorum has become a fixture in the international, traditional, folk, and Celtic music circuit. Firmly rooted in the soil of their French-Canadian homeland, the trio also incorporates the dynamism of today's North American and European folk cultures in their music. They weave precise and intricate fiddle and flute work, vocal harmonies, energetic foot percussion, and guitar and bass accompaniment into a jubilant musical feast.

Genticorum was formed by Pascal Gemme (fiddle), Yann Falquet (guitar) and Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand, three musicians who found a love for French Canadian fiddle tunes and folk music. Genticorum gained their name from a word which Gemme remembers his grandfather singing, although he is unsure of the meaning. He believes it carries with it an association with the words gentil (gentle or nice) and quorum.

The group is active in Quebec's traditional dance scene and offers custom tailored bilingual workshops on fiddle, flute, guitar, songs, and foot tapping. Genticorum's second album, Malins Plaisirs (2005) won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Ensemble and was nominated for Canada’s Juno and the Félix Awards.

When he was 16, he played his first official concert, earning $100 in South Central's West Adams neighborhood, playing songs by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lightnin' Hopkins. It was also at about this time that Jerron's eyesight began to fail him, and at 17, he was diagnosed with congenital retinal deterioration and cone dystrophy; he was legally blind. 

Jerron would be the first in his family to go to college, attending Marist College near Poughkeepsie, New York. He studied philosophy and history, but would often cut classes to spend time in the music room in order to practice piano. Whenever he could, he went to New York City to explore the folk scene. He discovered The Jalopy in Brooklyn, where he met the Wileys; Feral Foster (who hosted the "Roots and Ruckus" hootenannies on Wednesday nights); Eli Smith (Down Hill Strugglers, host of the online Down Home Radio Show, co-founder of the Brooklyn Folk Festival); and banjo player Hubby Jenkins (now a member of the old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops).

Paxton will serve as artistic director of the Port Townsend festival, where he'll play and teach in late July and August. 

Originally from southern Illinois, Dennis Stroughmatt grew up in the shadow of the French Creoles of Vincennes, Indiana, where he was introduced to local French music. Dennis's great-grandfather Benjamin Stroughmatt was a fiddler and the first fiddle his son (Dennis's grandfather, Chancy Stroughmatt) gave to Dennis when he was 17 (apparently won in a card game around the turn of the 20th century) had belonged to Benjamin, a barn dance fiddler who lived most of his life working on the Mississippi, Wabash, Ohio, and Illinois rivers from Muscatine, Iowa, south to Memphis, Tennessee and beyond.  His family were "house boat" people, nomadic for three generations, traveling the rivers and working — anything from fishing, to mussel shelling, moonshine, cotton, and music.  Chancy was born in 1904 and lived until 1998, so Dennis spent a great deal of time with him growing up, learning about the songs his great-grandfather played. 

While attending college in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Dennis became involved with the French Creole population of the Old Mines area. He spent about three years attending weekly house parties or "bouillons," learning to speak Creole French with many Creoles in the area including Kent Beaulne and Pete Boyer, and learning to play the fiddle styles of the Missouri French. He also recorded old-timers' oral histories and uncovered scratchy wax cylinder recordings.

Wanting to learn more about American French music and culture, Dennis moved to Lafayette, Louisiana. There he worked and interned at the Vermilionville Folklife Village, where he increased his fluency in French (though more dialectically Cajun) thanks to Blanche Quebedeaux and Evelyn Goller, and spent countless hours with Cajun and Creole master fiddlers including Faren Serrette, Black Allemand, Canray Fontenot, and Merlin Fontenot.

Dennis ultimately returned to Illinois to complete a Masters of History at Southern Illinois University, and soon after, attended The University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, Canada where he was awarded a Certificate in Quebec French Language and Culture in the fall of 1999.  After returning to the United States he worked with Louisiana-based Cajun groups such as Sheryl Cormier and Cajun Sounds, The Acadian Aces, The Bayou Teche Band, and Creole groups The Ardoin Family Band, The Morris Ardoin Creole Trio, and Dexter Ardoin and the Creole Ramblers. He currently focuses most of his time and energy with L'Esprit Creole on the French Creole music and language of The Illinois Country, the old upper Louisiana colony of Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana. 

According to the Encyclopedia of Cajun Culture, the word Creole comes from creare (Latin for "to beget" or "to create"). Portuguese colonists called New World slaves of African descent crioulo, which was eventually applied to all New World colonists living along the Gulf Coast, particularly Louisiana, regardless of ethnic origin. The Spanish introduced the word as criollo, and from the late 1600s to the early 1800s, the word evolved to Creole, and generally referred to persons of African or European heritage born in the New World.

The history of the French Creoles was not isolated to Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, however. It made its way up the Mississippi to Illinois and Missouri over three hundred years ago. The Creole Corridor of the Mid-Mississippi Valley consisted of approximately a thousand square miles of the Mississippi River Valley, from Ste. Genevieve and Kaskaskia north to Cahokia and St. Louis. Along the Wabash and Mississippi River corridors, they remain today with their songs, stories and language.

The Tannahill Weavers were formed in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland, following a regular session in a back room of a club run by Pat Doherty, father of one of the group's founding members, Neil Doherty. They take their name from the town’s poet laureate and writer of folk songs, Robert Tannahill (known as the "Weaver Poet"), and the industry for which Paisley was once known: weaving. Known as the Tannahills, or the Tannies for short, the band’s traditional musical style focuses on Highland Celtic music, and it was one of the first bands to incorporate the predominately solo instrument, the Great Highland bagpipes, as a main stage instrument.

Two of its founding members, Roy Gullane (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Phil Smillie (flute, whistle, bodhrán) are still with the band, which also includes John Martin (fiddle, vocals) and Lorne MacDougall (Highland bagpipes, Scottish small pipes, whistles). Gullane has long been fascinated with traditional Celtic music, and notes that it was hearing the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem sing “The Wild Colonial Boy” on television that convinced him that he wanted to play Celtic music. As a group, “we were very influenced by the energy of the JSD Band in the early days. We actually hung out with them every time they were in town. We were also very much influenced by Ireland’s Bothy Band.”

John Martin started winning fiddle competitions and made his first recording for the BBC at the age of 14. He also plays cello, viola and sings. In addition to his work with the Tannahill Weavers, he does a great deal of studio work, and has been involved as a traditional musician in various theatre, film and television productions, as well as recording a solo fiddle album and The Braes of Lochiel as a duo with Billy Ross He has also been a member of Contraband, Ossian and the Easy Club.

The Tannahill Weavers were formed in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland, following a regular session in a back room of a club run by Pat Doherty, father of one of the group's founding members, Neil Doherty. They take their name from the town’s poet laureate and writer of folk songs, Robert Tannahill (known as the "Weaver Poet"), and the industry for which Paisley was once known: weaving. Known as the Tannahills, or the Tannies for short, the band’s traditional musical style focuses on Highland Celtic music, and it was one of the first bands to incorporate the predominately solo instrument, the Great Highland bagpipes, as a main stage instrument.

Two of its founding members, Roy Gullane (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Phil Smillie (flute, whistle, bodhrán) are still with the band, which also includes John Martin (fiddle, vocals) and Lorne MacDougall (Highland bagpipes, Scottish small pipes, whistles). Gullane has long been fascinated with traditional Celtic music, and notes that it was hearing the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem sing “The Wild Colonial Boy” on television that convinced him that he wanted to play Celtic music. As a group, “we were very influenced by the energy of the JSD Band in the early days. We actually hung out with them every time they were in town. We were also very much influenced by Ireland’s Bothy Band.”

John Martin started winning fiddle competitions and made his first recording for the BBC at the age of 14. He also plays cello, viola and sings. In addition to his work with the Tannahill Weavers, he does a great deal of studio work, and has been involved as a traditional musician in various theatre, film and television productions, as well as recording a solo fiddle album and The Braes of Lochiel as a duo with Billy Ross He has also been a member of Contraband, Ossian and the Easy Club.

Over the past decade the traditional Québécois group Genticorum has become a fixture in the international, traditional, folk, and Celtic music circuit. Firmly rooted in the soil of their French-Canadian homeland, the trio also incorporates the dynamism of today's North American and European folk cultures in their music. They weave precise and intricate fiddle and flute work, vocal harmonies, energetic foot percussion, and guitar and bass accompaniment into a jubilant musical feast.

Genticorum was formed by Pascal Gemme (fiddle), Yann Falquet (guitar) and Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand, three musicians who found a love for French Canadian fiddle tunes and folk music. Genticorum gained their name from a word which Gemme remembers his grandfather singing, although he is unsure of the meaning. He believes it carries with it an association with the words gentil (gentle or nice) and quorum.

The group is active in Quebec's traditional dance scene and offers custom tailored bilingual workshops on fiddle, flute, guitar, songs, and foot tapping. Genticorum's second album, Malins Plaisirs (2005) won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Ensemble and was nominated for Canada’s Juno and the Félix Awards.

As part of the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, Ron “Red” and Marcia LeClear and apprentice Jennifer Hamp discuss and demonstrate the art of percussive dance. Percussive dance is a highly rhythmic dance that relies on precise execution of foot-based dance.

Common interests in French language, music, and Louisiana heritage brought together the members of Feufollet, a group that has been recognized as one of the best and most accomplished young Cajun bands to emerge from Louisiana in recent years. The core members of Feufollet have been performing together since they were children and all are native French speakers of Southwestern Louisiana.

Composed of brothers Christopher (accordion, fiddle, guitar) and Michael Stafford (drums, percussion), Kelli Jones-Savoy (vocals, fiddle, guitar), Andrew Toups (keyboards), and Philippe Billeaudeaux (bass), Feufollet is very active in promoting the Cajun culture and heritage of Louisiana and performs original and traditional songs in French, including some from the 1800s and early 1900s.  The band has performed in countless local Louisiana venues as well as in concerts and festivals in Canada and the United States; this will mark the fourth time that Feufollet has appeared at the Great Lakes Folk Festival. 

Kati Penn started playing the fiddle in Frankfort, Kentucky at the age of 9. Her father played several instruments (but not on a professional level) around the house when she was little. She remembers him playing mandolin, fiddle, and guitar, but the fiddle was what caught her attention. In the 1980s and '90s, bluegrass musician Pete Wernick, first President of the International Bluegrass Music Association, assembled various all-star bands of young musicians, the Young Acoustic All-Stars, which included a twelve-year-old Kati Penn. She then went on to work a stint with the New Coon Creek Girls and later joined band mate Dale Ann Bradley in her band the Dale Ann Bradley Band. She then followed that with a try at a country-oriented career before returning to Bluegrass. Her main influences were Stuart Duncan and Bobby Hicks (who performed at the 2004 Great Lakes Folk Festival) on fiddle and the singing of Alison Krauss, Suzanne Cox, Sonya Isaacs, and Lee Ann Womack.

 Kati's husband, Junior Williams, complements Kati with high harmony and lead vocals, banjo and guitar. Growing up in a Baptist preacher's home, Junior learned early how to sing and play music. Learning guitar at 6 and singing even earlier, Junior is a veteran in the music business. He spent ten years with the gospel group, The Bishops, playing five instruments. The retirement of The Bishops opened a door for him to get into bluegrass, and Junior went on to found the Bluegrass band, NewFound Road, which he led for seven years as banjo/guitar player, lead and tenor singer.

 C.J. Cain is the guitarist and senior member of Newtown. C.J. was originally drawn to the guitar by the blues. His original goal was to become a rock musician but after attending a bluegrass music festival with his father, where he was first exposed to the sound of the Seldom Scene, his obsession with bluegrass music was sparked. He soon began studying the styles of Tony Rice, Chris Eldridge, Tim Stafford and Clarence White.

When he was 16, he played his first official concert, earning $100 in South Central's West Adams neighborhood, playing songs by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lightnin' Hopkins. It was also at about this time that Jerron's eyesight began to fail him, and at 17, he was diagnosed with congenital retinal deterioration and cone dystrophy; he was legally blind. 

Jerron would be the first in his family to go to college, attending Marist College near Poughkeepsie, New York. He studied philosophy and history, but would often cut classes to spend time in the music room in order to practice piano. Whenever he could, he went to New York City to explore the folk scene. He discovered The Jalopy in Brooklyn, where he met the Wileys; Feral Foster (who hosted the "Roots and Ruckus" hootenannies on Wednesday nights); Eli Smith (Down Hill Strugglers, host of the online Down Home Radio Show, co-founder of the Brooklyn Folk Festival); and banjo player Hubby Jenkins (now a member of the old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops).

Paxton will serve as artistic director of the Port Townsend festival, where he'll play and teach in late July and August. 

As part of the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, Roopa Shyamasundara and apprentice Sruthi Ramesh will discuss and perform the classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam is known for its grace, purity, tenderness, expression and sculpturesque poses.

The Tannahill Weavers were formed in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland, following a regular session in a back room of a club run by Pat Doherty, father of one of the group's founding members, Neil Doherty. They take their name from the town’s poet laureate and writer of folk songs, Robert Tannahill (known as the "Weaver Poet"), and the industry for which Paisley was once known: weaving. Known as the Tannahills, or the Tannies for short, the band’s traditional musical style focuses on Highland Celtic music, and it was one of the first bands to incorporate the predominately solo instrument, the Great Highland bagpipes, as a main stage instrument.

Two of its founding members, Roy Gullane (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Phil Smillie (flute, whistle, bodhrán) are still with the band, which also includes John Martin (fiddle, vocals) and Lorne MacDougall (Highland bagpipes, Scottish small pipes, whistles). Gullane has long been fascinated with traditional Celtic music, and notes that it was hearing the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem sing “The Wild Colonial Boy” on television that convinced him that he wanted to play Celtic music. As a group, “we were very influenced by the energy of the JSD Band in the early days. We actually hung out with them every time they were in town. We were also very much influenced by Ireland’s Bothy Band.”

John Martin started winning fiddle competitions and made his first recording for the BBC at the age of 14. He also plays cello, viola and sings. In addition to his work with the Tannahill Weavers, he does a great deal of studio work, and has been involved as a traditional musician in various theatre, film and television productions, as well as recording a solo fiddle album and The Braes of Lochiel as a duo with Billy Ross He has also been a member of Contraband, Ossian and the Easy Club.

Kati Penn started playing the fiddle in Frankfort, Kentucky at the age of 9. Her father played several instruments (but not on a professional level) around the house when she was little. She remembers him playing mandolin, fiddle, and guitar, but the fiddle was what caught her attention. In the 1980s and '90s, bluegrass musician Pete Wernick, first President of the International Bluegrass Music Association, assembled various all-star bands of young musicians, the Young Acoustic All-Stars, which included a twelve-year-old Kati Penn. She then went on to work a stint with the New Coon Creek Girls and later joined band mate Dale Ann Bradley in her band the Dale Ann Bradley Band. She then followed that with a try at a country-oriented career before returning to Bluegrass. Her main influences were Stuart Duncan and Bobby Hicks (who performed at the 2004 Great Lakes Folk Festival) on fiddle and the singing of Alison Krauss, Suzanne Cox, Sonya Isaacs, and Lee Ann Womack.

 Kati's husband, Junior Williams, complements Kati with high harmony and lead vocals, banjo and guitar. Growing up in a Baptist preacher's home, Junior learned early how to sing and play music. Learning guitar at 6 and singing even earlier, Junior is a veteran in the music business. He spent ten years with the gospel group, The Bishops, playing five instruments. The retirement of The Bishops opened a door for him to get into bluegrass, and Junior went on to found the Bluegrass band, NewFound Road, which he led for seven years as banjo/guitar player, lead and tenor singer.

 C.J. Cain is the guitarist and senior member of Newtown. C.J. was originally drawn to the guitar by the blues. His original goal was to become a rock musician but after attending a bluegrass music festival with his father, where he was first exposed to the sound of the Seldom Scene, his obsession with bluegrass music was sparked. He soon began studying the styles of Tony Rice, Chris Eldridge, Tim Stafford and Clarence White.

The Down Hill Strugglers (formerly known as the Dust Busters) strive to integrate a wide range of old-time songs, ballads, fiddle tunes, and jug band blues into every performance, infused with the old-time feeling and freewheelin’ high energy that characterized early string bands such as The Skillet Lickers, Dykes Magic City Trio, The Mississippi Sheiks, and J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers among many others. They are influenced and inspired by the direct fusion of Scots-Irish and African music that took place in Appalachia, the Western states and the Deep South from the earliest colonial times through the Second World War. The band has had the opportunity to learn directly from living tradition bearers, especially Kentucky fiddler Clyde Davenport, North Carolina fiddler Joe Thompson and Kentucky banjo player Lee Sexton, as well as from their friend and mentor John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers, who himself learned from tradition bearers including Roscoe Holcomb, Maybelle Carter, George Landers, Frank Proffitt, Wade Ward, and others. 

Eli Smith was raised in New York's Greenwich Village, and began playing folk and blues guitar at an early age, soon also taking up old time banjo, mandolin and harmonica.  Eli has had the opportunity to learn from rural tradition bearers as well as from traditional music masters Mike Seeger, Jody Stecher and occasional Down Hill Struggler, John Cohen.  Eli also produces two folk music festivals annually in New York City — the Brooklyn Folk Festival and the Washington Square Park Folk Festival.  He has produced a folk, traditional and vernacular music podcast, Down Home Radio, which has recently transformed into a television program as Down Home TV on the Brooklyn Independent Media network.  Eli co-founded Down Home Radio with the well-known folklorist/ethnomusicologist Henrietta Yurchenco.  He has conducted many interviews and field recording sessions with traditional musicians and is currently preparing a forthcoming book, the "Oral History of Folk Music in New York City: 1935-75" which will be published in 2016. 

Raised in Virginia, Minnesota, and New York City, Walker Shepard has developed a strong style on the fiddle, banjo and guitar.  He has been influenced by the fiddling of Clyde Davenport in person, as well as by numerous sources from field recordings and 78rpm records. As a singer, Walker has been attracted to some of the most unusual and unfathomable voices of the past, including Roscoe Holcomb, Jimmie Rodgers, Gaither Carlton, Fiddlin’ John Carson, and B. F. Shelton. They all serve as a springboard for his interpretation.

Jackson Lynch was raised on New York's Lower East Side and began playing blues guitar at an early age, quickly branching out to include old-time banjo and fiddle.  As lead fiddler of the Down Hill Strugglers, he has learned music from a broad array of sources, including field recordings, 78rpm records, and directly from Clyde Davenport and Pat Conte.

Over the past decade the traditional Québécois group Genticorum has become a fixture in the international, traditional, folk, and Celtic music circuit. Firmly rooted in the soil of their French-Canadian homeland, the trio also incorporates the dynamism of today's North American and European folk cultures in their music. They weave precise and intricate fiddle and flute work, vocal harmonies, energetic foot percussion, and guitar and bass accompaniment into a jubilant musical feast.

Genticorum was formed by Pascal Gemme (fiddle), Yann Falquet (guitar) and Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand, three musicians who found a love for French Canadian fiddle tunes and folk music. Genticorum gained their name from a word which Gemme remembers his grandfather singing, although he is unsure of the meaning. He believes it carries with it an association with the words gentil (gentle or nice) and quorum.

The group is active in Quebec's traditional dance scene and offers custom tailored bilingual workshops on fiddle, flute, guitar, songs, and foot tapping. Genticorum's second album, Malins Plaisirs (2005) won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Ensemble and was nominated for Canada’s Juno and the Félix Awards.

Kati Penn started playing the fiddle in Frankfort, Kentucky at the age of 9. Her father played several instruments (but not on a professional level) around the house when she was little. She remembers him playing mandolin, fiddle, and guitar, but the fiddle was what caught her attention. In the 1980s and '90s, bluegrass musician Pete Wernick, first President of the International Bluegrass Music Association, assembled various all-star bands of young musicians, the Young Acoustic All-Stars, which included a twelve-year-old Kati Penn. She then went on to work a stint with the New Coon Creek Girls and later joined band mate Dale Ann Bradley in her band the Dale Ann Bradley Band. She then followed that with a try at a country-oriented career before returning to Bluegrass. Her main influences were Stuart Duncan and Bobby Hicks (who performed at the 2004 Great Lakes Folk Festival) on fiddle and the singing of Alison Krauss, Suzanne Cox, Sonya Isaacs, and Lee Ann Womack.

 Kati's husband, Junior Williams, complements Kati with high harmony and lead vocals, banjo and guitar. Growing up in a Baptist preacher's home, Junior learned early how to sing and play music. Learning guitar at 6 and singing even earlier, Junior is a veteran in the music business. He spent ten years with the gospel group, The Bishops, playing five instruments. The retirement of The Bishops opened a door for him to get into bluegrass, and Junior went on to found the Bluegrass band, NewFound Road, which he led for seven years as banjo/guitar player, lead and tenor singer.

 C.J. Cain is the guitarist and senior member of Newtown. C.J. was originally drawn to the guitar by the blues. His original goal was to become a rock musician but after attending a bluegrass music festival with his father, where he was first exposed to the sound of the Seldom Scene, his obsession with bluegrass music was sparked. He soon began studying the styles of Tony Rice, Chris Eldridge, Tim Stafford and Clarence White.

Masters of Harmony originally organized in 1953, and have performed with many concert notables from the Christian music industry and they foster a bridge from the best of the old to the best of the new, ministering to the young and old alike.

Group members of The Masters of Harmony include founder Brother Thomas Kelly, and members Brother Neal Lewis, Brother David Greer, and Brother O’Brian Walker.

Brother Thomas Kelly’s family migrated from Earlstown, Alabama to Detroit in 1922 for employment. Years later he and his wife raised three children while he managed a Capella gospel quartet performances. In the 1930’s there was a strong demand for live Sunday religious programing and he worked nearly every week at WJLB-AM. “Detroit used to be the best black gospel city,” noted Brother Kelly. Over the years the quartets have made several recordings.

When he was 16, he played his first official concert, earning $100 in South Central's West Adams neighborhood, playing songs by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lightnin' Hopkins. It was also at about this time that Jerron's eyesight began to fail him, and at 17, he was diagnosed with congenital retinal deterioration and cone dystrophy; he was legally blind. 

Jerron would be the first in his family to go to college, attending Marist College near Poughkeepsie, New York. He studied philosophy and history, but would often cut classes to spend time in the music room in order to practice piano. Whenever he could, he went to New York City to explore the folk scene. He discovered The Jalopy in Brooklyn, where he met the Wileys; Feral Foster (who hosted the "Roots and Ruckus" hootenannies on Wednesday nights); Eli Smith (Down Hill Strugglers, host of the online Down Home Radio Show, co-founder of the Brooklyn Folk Festival); and banjo player Hubby Jenkins (now a member of the old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops).

Paxton will serve as artistic director of the Port Townsend festival, where he'll play and teach in late July and August. 

The Tannahill Weavers were formed in 1968 in Paisley, Scotland, following a regular session in a back room of a club run by Pat Doherty, father of one of the group's founding members, Neil Doherty. They take their name from the town’s poet laureate and writer of folk songs, Robert Tannahill (known as the "Weaver Poet"), and the industry for which Paisley was once known: weaving. Known as the Tannahills, or the Tannies for short, the band’s traditional musical style focuses on Highland Celtic music, and it was one of the first bands to incorporate the predominately solo instrument, the Great Highland bagpipes, as a main stage instrument.

Two of its founding members, Roy Gullane (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Phil Smillie (flute, whistle, bodhrán) are still with the band, which also includes John Martin (fiddle, vocals) and Lorne MacDougall (Highland bagpipes, Scottish small pipes, whistles). Gullane has long been fascinated with traditional Celtic music, and notes that it was hearing the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem sing “The Wild Colonial Boy” on television that convinced him that he wanted to play Celtic music. As a group, “we were very influenced by the energy of the JSD Band in the early days. We actually hung out with them every time they were in town. We were also very much influenced by Ireland’s Bothy Band.”

John Martin started winning fiddle competitions and made his first recording for the BBC at the age of 14. He also plays cello, viola and sings. In addition to his work with the Tannahill Weavers, he does a great deal of studio work, and has been involved as a traditional musician in various theatre, film and television productions, as well as recording a solo fiddle album and The Braes of Lochiel as a duo with Billy Ross He has also been a member of Contraband, Ossian and the Easy Club.