Owen has performed and recorded with many of traditional music’s top performers including Aoife Clancy, Liz Carroll, Darol Anger, John Doyle, Andrea Beaton, Jerry Holland, Ari & Mia Friedman, his own traditional Irish trio “The Press Gang” and the acoustic trio “Haas, Walsh and Marshall”. His music has appeared on NPR’s “Thistle and Shamrock,” BBC television, and the back of his left elbow has appeared on MTV. In addition to being a respected performer, Owen is in demand at music camps throughout New England and the U.S., where he shares his approach to accompanying traditional music.
Artist Category: Trad
Kalos
Ryan McKasson, Eric McDonald and Jeremiah McLane are masters of tradition who purposefully explore the dark corners floating on its edges. Their individual artistry is enhanced when together. In short, the sum creates a greater whole. The result is an alluring complexity, full of spontaneous musicality.
Kalos is drawn to water. Every performance is like stepping into a river—they never play a song the same way twice. They make music inspired by the maritime traditions of Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia and North America. Their album titles—Harbour and Headland—honor the meeting point between the land and sea and they sing songs about shorelines, seafarers and drownings. They revel in the driving danceability of Irish tunes, but also take inspiration from the pastoral melodies and naturalistic metaphors of Scottish music. But while the music they write is forged in tradition, it is nonetheless cast and tempered in new and unexpected ways.
Eric McDonald
Eric McDonald has been a professional performer and instructor of traditional and acoustic music for a decade.
The early part of his career was spent cutting his teeth as a mandolinist in the rich local folk and roots music scene in Boston MA. Most of his time was given to Passim, a non-profit arts organization in Cambridge with an enriching and formative community surrounding it. Later Eric attended Berklee College of Music where he studied under world renowned mandolinist & guitarist John McGann, as well as gaining a practical knowledge of music in many styles. His education continued post Berklee and he soon found a gateway into the realm of traditional music through playing for contra dances, a native form of New England folk dance derived primarily from a combination of English, Scottish, Irish and Acadian traditions. Following the path set before him, Eric’s quick ear and tasteful approach drew the interest of many around him and he found himself quickly in demand as a DADGAD guitar accompanist for musicians playing traditional music, finding a particular niche in the Scottish & Cape Breton realm.
In 2014 Eric re-located to Portland, ME and began a new chapter. Now well established he maintains an active touring schedule, supplemented by recording sessions and a variety of teaching endeavors. In addition to Eric’s current projects some of his touring credits include celtic supergroup The Outside Track, hodge podge folk band The Dave Rowe Trio, up and coming Scottish fiddler Katie McNally, New England contra dance band Matching Orange, folk-pop outfit Pesky J. Nixon and renowned Cape Breton fiddlers Andrea Beaton & Wendy MacIsaac.
Hawktail
Haas Kowert Tice asked the question, what if? After forging their own brand of roots music—one grounded in timeless tradition, crafted by top-shelf musicianship, and performed with jubilant comradery—what if this trio of America’s finest string players became a quartet?
Brittany Haas (fiddle), Paul Kowert (bass), and Jordan Tice (guitar) own the sweat equity of a decade spent stoking the fires of their passion project. Haas, whose 2004 self-titled release instantly became the touchstone for a generation of old-time fiddlers, has since lent her sound to Crooked Still, Live From Here, Michael Daves – and David Rawlings, where she plays alongside Kowert, well known as Punch Brothers’ virtuosic bass player. Tice is a rare guitar player whose music showcases his unique identity and a particular knack for tune-writing. Haas Kowert Tice was a special road they could travel together.
Their 2004 album You Got This displays a breadth of acumen and ambition rarely heard on a band’s debut. Norwegian dance rhythms astride traditional Appalachian folk, bluegrass woven progressively into fundamental notions of jazz and chamber music. But for all their success, they found themselves grinding hard through recording sessions for a follow-up record. “I felt like we were missing an element,” says Kowert; “the sound was incomplete.”
Enter Dominick Leslie, the versatile mandolinist whose rhythmic sensibility has made him ubiquitous on the acoustic music scene (Noam Pikelny, The Deadly Gentlemen, Brotet). They had all already known each other for years. The trio wanted the rhythmic backbone he offered, and another plectrum to balance the dueling bows of bass and fiddle. His addition thickens the sound and tightens the groove, opening new creative doors. In short, Leslie is a great fit.
Reborn a foursome, they recut the music for the next album. The release of Unless, in reality Hawktail’s debut, is certain to confirm that this quartet has found its wings. “It feels as though this is now a whole band capable of doing anything,” says Haas.
Low Lily
With the release of their new record ‘Angels in the Wreckage’ (produced by Dirk Powell), the Vermont-based American Roots band LOW LILY brings their infectious sound to a new level. With the energy of fiddle music, the introspective quality of contemporary folk, the precision of bluegrass, and the drive of Americana, the members of Low Lily combine their individual talents into one stunning soundscape.
Low Lily has shared their signature sound with enthusiastic audiences throughout North America and the UK, garnering two #1 songs on international folk radio and two Independent Music Award wins. In 2018, the band released a full-length album with 2X award-winning title track “10,000 Days Like These” and their original song “Hope Lingers On”, which has been sung by choirs around the world as an anthem for peace and justice.
“[Low Lily has] an incredible knack for putting a little pop twist on a traditional Folk/Americana sound… it’s a blend that works beautifully.” ~PopMatters
“Low Lily brandishes their formidable individual Folk foundations within a collective sound that’s as smart with sense of pop phrasing and flair as it is roots-savvy.” ~Roots Music Report
Gogofski
Gogofski plays music of the Balkans. Not the loud and fast brass of Goran Bregović. Not the massive thirty-voice choir of Mystère des Voix Bulgares. We bring you other great music from the Balkans, from the complex dance rhythms of Macedonia to the heart-wrenching Sevdah song tradition of Bosnia.
Gogofski plays for a dance evening the way they do in the old country: the musicians on the floor playing right in front of you, to you, for you. A Gogofski club evening gives you a feast of comic songs and intimate ballads, traditional and modern, and brings you to understanding, to sharing, and to feeling. And at an outdoor festival, Gogofski brings a new sound and a new excitement that brings the audience out of their seats to dance in front of the stage.
Kasia Sokalla studied voice in her native Poland, and graduated with honors from the Berklee School of Music.
David Golber has been playing Balkan-style clarinet for decades. He speaks Macedonian, and has studied in the Republic of Macedonia with Risto Krapovski, Bajsa Arifovska, and others.
Gawain Thomas comes from a musical family, and began playing accordion at an early age. He has studied for years with Bulgarian maestro Ivan Milev, and is well-known in Boston’s Balkan music scene.
Henry Goldberg is a true master of the Balkan drum tapan. When the Bulgarian group Kabile came on tour to Boston, they were traveling without a tapan player. Henry stepped in and played with them, seamlessly and completely in style.
Revma
REVMA passionately displays the living art of traditional Greek music (“Dimotika”), to listening and dancing audiences. Mesmerizing pentatonic and polyphonic Epirot mountain laments and celebrations, lyrical melodies and the “springing” sousta and ballos dances of the Aegean, Dodekanese, and Ionian islands, powerful odd-metered Macedonian and Thracian rhythms, and the delicate modal tones of urban Smyrnaika, are all shaped by a history drenched in struggle, war, migration, resilience, and philotimia, and charged with Greek life-embracing passion and wit. Our musicians are: Rohan Gregory on violin, Glenn Dickson on clarinet, Fabio Pirozzolo on percussion, guitar, and voice, and Sandy Theodorou on laouto, accordion, and voice.
Sandy Theodorou – accordion, laouto, vocals
Mal Barsamian – clarinet
Rohan Gregory – violin
Fabio Pirozzolo – percussion, vocals
Our fabulous guest musicians:
Harry Bedrosian – oud
Stephanos Karavas – oud
Phil Papadopoulos – bouzouki, vocals
Georgios Galanakis – guitar
Zdravets
ZDRAVETS is a Boston-based ensemble which has been performing traditional music from Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia since 1989. This village music is the wild ancestor of the music that modern composers have tamed and adapted for large choral ensembles.
Bulgarian music is characterized by highly resonant, close harmonies and energetic asymmetric rhythms. The vocal styles are free, full, and thrilling, while the instrumental music makes your feet itch to dance. ZDRAVETS brings you the whole gamut – instrumental music, unaccompanied voices, and the full ensemble combining instruments with voices.
ZDRAVETS’s instrumentalists usually play the old-style Bulgarian village instruments – kaval (end-blown flute), gadulka (bowed lute), tambura (mandolin-like instrument), tapan (large double-headed drum), tarabuka (hourglass shaped drum), and gaida (goatskin bagpipe); occasionally they play newer folk instruments (clarinet, violin, saxophone) as well.
About the group’s name: zdravets is a wild mountain geranium (Geranium Macrorrhizum) whose aromatic leaves stay fresh and green all winter. Zdravets is beloved by Bulgarians, to whom it symbolizes all that is healthy and longlasting.
The currently active members of ZDRAVETS are Chaya Bromberg, Dean Brown, Dick Forsyth (in spirit), Martha Forsyth, Ralph Iverson, David Skidmore, Dana Sussman, Patrick Yacono, and Janet Yeracaris.
NEFFA
The New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA) is a non-profit educational and cultural organization. Our mission is to encourage, sponsor, and preserve the traditional folk arts in New England and beyond. NEFFA produces the annual New England Folk Festival every April. It is currently held at the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.
After considering many factors, the NEFFA Board has made the difficult decision to cancel our April festival due to public health concerns. The showcase night will still be held at Club Passim.
Tyler Hughes
Tyler Hughes hails from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he began learning the traditions of mountain music and dance at age 12. He performs regularly, but also dedicates time to teaching through private lessons, camps, and a variety of music classes as an adjunct professor at the Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap. Tyler is an accomplished square dance caller and also took the 3rd place ribbon in clogging/flatfooting at the Morehead Old-Time Festival in 2015. As a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, he has performed all across the southeast of the United States both as a soloist and with several bands including the East Tennessee State University Old Time Pride Band, Fifthstring, and the Empty Bottle String Band. He graduated from East Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies in 2015. He has studied traditional music at home in the Appalachians and across the Atlantic in Ireland and Scotland.
Today, Tyler performs a mix of Old Time, Country and Western music reminiscent of the first half of the twentieth century. His country music variety show is sure to include influences from his native Wise County, Grand Ole Opry stars like Little Jimmy Dickens, and Hollywood cowboys such as Roy Rogers. Along with solo performances, Tyler appears with the Empty Bottle String Band and as a duo with Sam Gleaves. He is available for teaching private lessons, workshops, and camps.
