Entertainment

We are thrilled to announce that the following performers will be a part of the 2008 Potomac Celtic Festival! More will be posted as soon as they are confirmed, but in the meantime, click on their band names to check out their web sites for tour dates, music samples, and more.

 

Tinsmith

Tinsmith is a high-energy folk band playing traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Appalachia. Citing influences from blues to bluegrass, from funk to jazz to mountain music, they bring traditional songs and tunes into the new century. Known for their fun and energetic performances and for the taste and delicacy of their arrangements, Tinsmith has been making audiences dance since 1997. They are three-time invitees at the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas, Tx, and have played such prestigious gigs as The Barns at Wolf Trap Park for the Performing Arts, Potomac Celtic Festival, The Institute of Musical Traditions and Blackrock Center for the Performing Arts. Tinsmith has also been invited to perform at the National Folk Alliance Convention and has numerous WAMMIE (Washington Area Music Association) awards to its credit.

Led by core members, multi-talented Rowan Corbett (guitar, bouzouki, bones, djembe) and WAMMIE-winning vocalist Brooke Parkhurst (banjo, Irish flue, tinwhistles), the group also includes superb bassist Henry Cross and their talented, WAMMIE-winning guitar and mandolin virtuoso, Avril Smith.

Beggar’s Circus

Hard core traditional Celtic, Beggars' Circus is known for energetic live shows and an extensive repertoire of traditional Celtic music spanning some 800 years. The band's multi-instrumentalists perform on a wide range of instruments essential to the genre.

Beggars' Circus has been featured in a variety of publications from local newspapers to Dirty Linen magazine where they have appeared twice in the Reel World section. Having received airplay on several radio stations in Virginia, DC and North Carolina, Beggar’s Circus attempts to provide the most authentic performance of Celtic music that an American group can. They have great respect for the people and traditions from which this music sprang, and value their audidences who give them the opportunity to put their talent to use

 

Coyote Run

Coyote Run is a high energy, Celtic Folk Rock band that gets the audience up on their feet, clapping their hands, laughing out loud
and dancing. Drawing on the deep wellsprings of Celtic and
Maritime traditions, Coyote Run bends those traditions, finding new and exciting veins within rock and alternative styling. Their music is driving and powerful, yet resonates and is layered with Celtic traditional music — perfect family fare and a performance you won’t soon forget!

Coyote Run hails from Williamsburg, Virginia and tours extensively throughout the eastern half of the U.S. In 2003 and 2005, they took their signature sound on tour in Ireland and Scotland, respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

Fynesound

Fynesound became a trio in late 1997, while Sharon, John and Warring were living in Eastern North Carolina. While there, they performed at many venues, entertaining and educating audiences about the Scottish arts through their music and dance. Members of the group and their families moved to the Washington D.C. area in the autumn of 2000. In 2002, Karin Loya joined Fynesound. In Year 2004," the Fyne" line up welcomed the addition of Linda Rice-Johnston, songstress extraordinaire and Kim Lyons, high-stepping Highland dancer! 2006 adds the amazing young talent of Irish step dancer Rachel Smith.

Fynesound takes listeners back a couple of hundred years to a time when Scottish fiddling thrived (especially for country dance), and earliest manuscripts first transcribed. Melancholy, slow airs are artfully arranged to break your heart, while jigs and reels are plucked and bowed with string snapping, foot stomping energy, and Irish step dance makes this a visual experience not to be missed!

" ... a variety of moods and styles are conveyed - from the rousing Donald McGillivray to the stately Flora MacDonald set to the poignant and evocative ... Almost Home. " - Grainne Hambly

" ... Fynesound lives up to its name in this beautiful recording which transports the listener to 18th century Scotland. " - Billy Jackson

 

 

 

Hen

Sue Richards and Sharon Knowles bring an extensive depth of experience in performing and recording, as well as teaching and adjudicating. The evocative power of the Celtic harp has no greater genius than sue Richards who was called, “one of America’s brightest stars,” by the folk magazine, Dirty Linen. She has performed for President Bill Clinton at the White House, is a multi-WAMMIE winner, four-time National Scottish harp champion, teacher and adjudicator in harp competitions nationwide, and member of Ceoltoiri and Ensemble Galilei. Her second recording, Morning Aire, won the coveted WAMMIE awards for “Album of the Year”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iona

IONA's music is a unique, acoustic weave of the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany (France), the Isle of Man, Asturies and Galicia (Spain), as well as their transplants in America.. Blending songs, dance tunes, and aires into a rich and stunning tapestry, their style is outstanding in an arena where these traditions are seldom intertwined.  Conceived in 1986, IONA was the musical offspring of lead singer, bouzouki, guitar and bodhrán player Barbara Ryan and wind section, Bernard Argent. With fiddlers Jim Queen (banjo and vocals as well) and Cassie Smith-Christmas and bass guitar player Chuck Lawhorn, IONA has become the leading Celtic group in the Mid-Atlantic region. They are all seasoned performers: entertainers who involve their audiences with the history and cultural backgrounds of the music, with teaching words to the songs -- even those sung in a Celtic tongue, with leading simple Breton dances, with humor, and with every emotion in the spectrum.

 

 

 

 

The Flying Cows of Ventry
Consisting of three brothers, Tim, James, and Jeff Walthall, The Flying Cows of Ventry perform in a variety of venues in the Washington Metropolitan Area, including pubs, restaurants, festivals, concerts, as well as weddings, clan reunions, birthday parties and other special occasions and events. An evening with the Cows is often full of surprises, ranging from "round the world" musical tours, rousing sing-along sessions (including their "world-famous Kangaroo song) comic relief in the form of jokes and stories, to step-dancing and general mirth in theaisles. The origin of the group's name is a family secret, but the Cows offer a unique "Legend of the Cows Contest," wherein participants submit their own "true" stories of how the Cows got their name with a prize awarded each St. Patrick's Day to the best story of the year. Their music preserves, and yet enlivens and extends, the intelligence and subtlety of the ancient and powerful traditions of Irish music.

The Cow's repertoire includes traditional jigs, reels and airs on the fiddle, a lively assortment of traditional and contemporary ballads, as well as original vocal and instrumental compositions spun tastefully from the finest of the Irish Tradition. With strong vocal harmonies and driving instrumental pieces, the Cows fill a need for music that you can actually sing along with or, if the mood strikes you, even dance to. Their unique blend led one fellow musician to dub them "the Clancy Brothers with a fiddle." From their solid Irish base, the Cows will often stray into related musical pastures such as bluegrass, country and western swing. They've even been known to dabble in popular and rock 'n' roll tunes!

 

 

Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra

What do you get when you cross Scottish and Irish jigs with a rock and roll rhythm section; power-pop and classical symphonic themes with spine-tingling electronics? You get OCEAN, the exotic new musical brew from the pen of genre-bending composer/bandleader Jennifer Cutting. In this eight-piece acoustic-electric big band, Cutting directs an all-star ensemble of the Washington, D.C.-area's favorite Celtic musicians. The lineup features Cutting on electronic keyboard and accordions; Grace Griffith on vocals; Zan McLeod on bouzouki, mandolin, and electric guitar; Lisa Moscatiello on vocals, whistle, and acoustic guitar; Dave Abe on fiddle; Bob Mitchell on bagpipes; Rico Petruccelli on electric bass; and Chris Stewart on drums.
Alternately ethereal and house-rocking, an Ocean Orchestra concert features Cutting's newest electric folk arrangements of traditional tunes and her award-winning originals, as well as reprising a few of the best-loved pieces she wrote for her critically acclaimed British folk-rock band, The New St. George. With its buoyant beats and
soaring Celtic melodies, the OCEAN ORCHESTRA provides an uplifting soundtrack for traveling hopefully on life's changing seas.

Folk instruments such as button accordion, bagpipes, and fiddle join forces with pulsing electric bass, drums, and electronic keyboard for a sizzling synergy that will appeal to fans of folk, classical, and pop music alike. As much at home in the concert hall as on the festival stage, the Ocean Orchestra can tailor its performances to each kind of audience and venue. Audiences can lose themselves in dreamy reverie, or cut loose and dance to the propulsive beat of electric jigs and reels. It's a marriage of otherworldly Celtic beauty and raw World-Beat energy. There's nothing else like it anywhere...OCEAN is Celtic Music for Ancient Moderns!

 

 

 

 

 

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