Kevin Alewine - Standard Guitar
For more than two decades, Kevin has played with traditional American or Irish ensembles performing on guitar, mandolin, flute, tinwhistle and tenor banjo. He has been active in leadership with the Southwest Celtic Music Association and has directed the North Texas Irish Festival. He has been a member of Sweet Song String Band, Waifs & Strays, Loose Change and is a current member of Jigsaw, Lone Star Ceili Band and the Trinity Hall Session Players. Kevin teaches mandolin, flute and guitar at workshops in the North Texas area.
John Burleson - Flatpicking Tunes
Playing Celtic music on acoustic and electric guitar and telling stories in the Fort Worth/Dallas area since 1983, John has become a regular in the festival, concert, club and session scenes. He played for many years with the former Dallas-based band, Lost Tribe and currently plays with the Trinity Hall Session players. John is accomplished in both guitar flat-picking and rhythm accompaniment.
Jeff Moore - Dropped D Guitar
One of the most notable Irish musicians living in the Southwest, Jeff has been playing the guitar since the age of seven and has been studying and performing traditional Irish music for the past decade. Though versed in many tunings and styles of play, Jeff is most known for his distinctive style of rhythmic accompaniment in DADGAD and Dropped-D tunings. Jeff has performed with many of the Southwest's foremost Celtic music ensembles. He was one of the founding members of the high-energy Texas Irish band Cluan and he continues to perform with Irish duo partner, fiddler Heather Gilmer. Jeff has also accompanied international touring musicians such as Scottish singer and songwriter Ed Miller, Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland and most recently Dublin-born Irish accordion master James Keane. http://www.jeffmooremusic.com
Tommy O'Sullivan - DADGAD Guitar
Tommy is a versatile guitarist. His is often described as a percussive flatpicking guitarist but he also has a highly-developed fingerpicking style which is the fabric of his high strung playing and song accompaniment. For tunes, he usually accompanies in DADGAD. For songs, he regularly uses dropped-D or standard tuning.
Tommy O Sullivan was born in London in 1961 to John L O Sullivan of Lispole, Co. Kerry and Mary Lynch of Garfinny, Dingle, Co. Kerry. He began playing guitar at the age of ten and shortly afterwards moved with his family back to Lispole, five miles east of Dingle. His already keen interest in music was fuelled by the great sessions that he heard locally and in particular in Cahir's Bar, Corofin, where he heard the likes of Mary Bergin, Tony Linnane, Noel Hill, and Paddy Keenan.
One early influence on Tommy was Dublin guitarist Eoin Pender who started him on fingerpicking techniques. Other major influences at that time were Dick Gaughan, Paul Brady, John Martyn, Nick Jones and Donal Lunny. Tommy returned to London when he was 2l and there he played with, and absorbed, much from renowned London/Irish musicians such as Raymond Roland, Liam Farrell, Bobby and Sean Casey and the McCarthy family. He was also often found singing in english folk clubs and arts centres, both solo and amongst the likes of Barry Dransfield and Martin Simpson. After a time in Copenhagen playing with Ash Plant where he replaced Seamus Cahill, Tommy returned once again to Lispole.
Shortly afterwards, he made a solo recording entitled Legacy to considerable critical acclaim. In 1995, along with Matt Cranitch and Donal Murphy (4 Men and a Dog) he formed Sliabh Notes who has played the North Texas Irsh Fetsival in recent years.
Tommy has also kept a busy international schedule with Paddy Keenan (The Bothy Band) since 1997. While mostly concentrated in the U.S., they also appear regularly in Ireland and at European festivals.
For many, his vocal contributions to Sliabh Notes three albums so far ‘Sliabh Notes’, ‘Gleanntan’ and ‘Along Blackwater’s Banks’ and his duet with Paddy Keenan ‘The Long Grazing Acre’ were highlights as much as the musical content. Tommy’s personal view of himself is "a singer who plays as opposed to a player that sings." To that extent, he has recorded a new solo album entitled "Song Ablaze" focusing on his singing.