The Band
Paddy O’Brien
A product of County Offaly in the midlands of Ireland, Paddy O’Brien is regarded by serious players and collectors of Irish traditional music as one of the tradition’s most important repositories; in a musical career that spans nearly forty years, he has collected more than 3,000 compositions—jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs, and marches, including many rare and unusual tunes. His mastery of the two-row button accordion was also acknowledged through prestigious awards: he was named Oireachtas champion four times, and All-Ireland senior accordion champion in 1975.
In Ireland, he played and recorded with the famed Castle Ceili Band and Ceoltoiri Laighean. In 1978, Paddy began playing regularly in the United States, in Washington DC, Saint Louis, Saint Paul, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and many places between. He has been featured on six recordings with Shanachie Records since 1978, and in 1988 released his first solo album, Stranger at the Gate, on the Green Linnet label (and recently re-released by Compass Records). His most recent recordings include The Sailor’s Cravat, with fiddler Tom Schaefer, bouzouki player Paul Wehling, and singer Erin Hart (who happens to be his wife); and a new solo CD, Mixing the Punch. Both of these recent recordings are available from New Folk Records/Cló Iar-Chonnacht.
Paddy has taught at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School held in Milltown Malbay, County Clare, Goderich Celtic College, The Swannanoa Gathering, and the Catskills Irish Arts Week, and has served several times as a master artist in the Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. Since 1994, he has received a number of grants and fellowships to undertake an unprecedented project, recording and cataloging 1,000 tunes from his vast repertoire of traditional music; the result of that effort, The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection: A Personal Treasury of Irish Traditional Music, has received accolades from players of Irish music around the world.
In 2012, Paddy was selected as Ireland’s TG4 Gradam Ceoil Cumadóir, or Traditional Composer of the Year, among the highest honors in Irish traditional music. For more information on the award, please visit the Gradam Ceoil website.
Nathan Gourley
Nathan Gourley held his first fiddle at two years of age. With support from his musical family (in particular his father who is a fiddler), Nathan enrolled in Suzuki violin lessons when he was five years old. He went on to study classical violin with Gene Purdue, former first violin of the Thouvenel Quartet. In his younger years, Nathan made regular stage appearances as a guest in many of his father’s bands such as Stone Soup, Buffalo Trail and Rosewood Moct.
It was during annual trips to numerous fiddle and folk music festivals where Nathan was exposed to all sorts of fiddlers such as Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll, Alasdair Fraser, Brendan Mulvihill, Dale Russ, and Laura Risk. In spite of his classical background and a stint as a member of the University of Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, traditional Irish music has become Nathan’s passion. Now settled in the Twin Cities, he is also a member of The Two Tap Trio, The Doon Ceili Band, and O’Rourke’s Feast, and is active in numerous Irish sessions.
Brian Miller
Brian Miller started playing Irish music as a 17-year-old in his decidedly non-Irish hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota. Since 1998, he has lived in the Twin Cities where a vibrant and supportive community of Irish musicians has nurtured his developing musicality. County Derry guitarist and singer Daithi Sproule and County Offaly accordion player Paddy O’Brien (both long-time residents of the Twin Cities) have been big influences. More inspiration and encouragement has come from many months spent in his other adopted home of Cork, Ireland.
Brian’s primary instrument has always been the guitar and over the years his backing style using the DADGAD tuning has earned him a strong reputation throughout North American Irish music circles. Esteemed Irish music critic Earle Hitchner writes: “The backing of Miller on guitar flexes not just muscle but a fully complementary style.” Also a strong traditional singer, he is the founder of the Traditional Singers Club of the Twin Cities. He added the Irish flute to his arsenal in 2000 while studying Irish music in Cork where he learned his first flute tunes from Conal O’Grada and Padraig Kelleher.
As a member of a number of traditional Irish music groups and duos including Bua, Norah Rendell and Brian Miller and The Two Tap Trio, Brian has performed throughout the US, and in parts of Canada and Ireland. He has been featured on RTE television and RTE radio in Ireland as well as the Irish language TV station TG4. He has also performed on CBC Radio in Canada and on Minnesota Public Radio.
A diligent student and teacher, Brian has been a guest lecturer on the Irish song tradition at University College Cork and he is currently a flute, whistle, and guitar teacher at the Saint Paul-based Center for Irish Music. In 2008 he was awarded two grants for his work with the songs of early Irish immigrants in Minnesota logging camps.
