Traonach

Website: http://www.myspace.com/traonach

"A deep knowledge and love of the music and a palpable zest for playing." Dirty Linen Magazine .....TRAONACH is a fortunate meeting of talented session musicians from around the USA who have all, to their own amazement, ended up living in the small city of Ithaca, New York. Over the past two decades they have created a tight, driving sound that has delighted audiences at festivals and concert halls throughout the northeastern states. With Mark Bickford, Harry Lawless, Matt Malone, Ed McGowan and Scott Whitham playing fiddle, whistle, concertina, accordion, banjo, bouzouki, bodhran and the African Kora.

Mark Bickford (accordion, banjo, concertina, guitar, kora) played sessions in Madison, Wisconsin and Austin, Texas before coming to Ithaca in 1986. He studied the Kora with Mamadou Diabate, and travels regularly to study and play in Ireland with Noel Hill and others.

Harry Lawless (bouzoukis) can be found playing away in Cork pubs, sessions in East Durham, New York, or at Contra Dances here in Ithaca. He is a regular attendee at Zoukfest where he studies bouzouki with Alec Finn and Roger Landes.

Matt Malone (whistle, concertina) formed his first working band with his brothers Mike and Dan, his sister Patricia, and Seattle fiddler Kelly Mulford in 1975. After living in Ennistymon, County Clare, London and the borders of Scotland, he returned to America and spent the '80s in various bands in Seattle and Vancouver, including "The Culloden Relief League."

Ed McGowan (fiddle) grew up in the rich musical life of New York in the '40s and '50s, and studied with James Morrison, Paddy Killoran and John McGrath. Ed gave up playing fiddle at the age of fifteen, when he entered Cathedral College Seminary. He came back to the instrument thirty years later, playing with "The Midnight Court" and "Dalriata" before joining the Ithaca session.

Scott Whitham (bodhran, fiddle) was seduced away from old-time American fiddle music in the '80s by playing in the Boston and New York Irish sessions, and studied fiddle with John Caulfield. Sitting next to the likes of Johnny (Ringo) McDonagh and Tommy Hayes, he picked up the bodhran around 1986.