Tullamore

The Musicians

Alli Johnson & Jaycie Skidmore
Alli Johnson and Jaycie Skidmore are a highly-talented acoustic duo and founding members of, and lead-singers for the award-winning Dallas-based Celtic group The Selkie Girls. Alli is a multi-instrumentalist performing throughout the States with various projects. She is the guitarist for the Milwaukee-based modern folk and contemporary Celtic act The Stirling Latelys, the newly-appointed Director of the Milwaukee Irish Fest Choir, and is a private instructor of voice, piano, ukulele, guitar, and Irish and Scottish Gaelic singing. A classically-trained flutist, Jaycie picked up the Irish flute and tinwhistle shortly before joining The Selkie Girls and now considers them to be some of her favorite instruments to play. When not playing Celtic music, Jaycie plays piano and leads worship as the Director of Music Ministry at Hackberry Creek Church.

Ed Miller
Ed Miller has been hailed as “one of the finest singers to come out of the Scottish Folksong Revival” and as “One of Scotland’s best singing exports.” A native of Edinburgh, Ed first came to the USA for “a year or two” to do graduate studies at the University of Texas, earning a PhD in Folklore. Over 40 years later, Ed is still based in Austin and travels throughout North America – a regular at concerts, clubs, house concerts, festivals, Highland Games and Burns Suppers across the country, as well as at lectures and workshops. He has recorded 9 CD’s of Scottish songs. Ed also leads annual tours of Scotland, putting an emphasis on visiting the sites and locations made famous though Scottish music.

Jil Chambless & Dan Vogt
Jil Chambless and Dan Vogt are a well-heeled Celtic duo based in Tuscaloosa. Jil is originally from Montgomery, and has been a prominent figure in Alabama’s Celtic music scene since the late-1980s. She regularly performs, and has collaborated on recording projects with a veritable Who’s Who of Celtic musicians, and released her first solo recording, The Ladies Go Dancing, in 2009. Dan is relatively new to Celtic music. He has been a long-time rocker – an electric guitarist who’s played with dozens of Tuscaloosa- based rock bands. Jil’s Celtic influence rubbed off on him and inspired him to take up DADGAD-guitar, and subsequently bouzouki and tenor banjo. When not rocking out or playing at regional Celtic festivals, you can find Dan at his store, The Guitar Gallery.

Kendall Rogers
A Kentucky native now living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kendall Rogers is a piano and bodhran player who also dabbles in accordion, whistle, and DADGAD guitar. He grew up amid the rich folk music and dance traditions of Kentucky, with traditional dance music from Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, England, and North America. In his younger days, Kendall studied classical piano, then joined the school band in middle school and then the jazz band in high school and college. Since college, Kendall has focused mostly on playing for various kinds of folk dancing across the US (and twice in Denmark.) In addition to playing music, Kendall has led dance band and piano workshops at various folk-dance weeks and the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat and Youth Camp.

Linda Relph
Linda Relph has been playing fiddle since age 10, and has been a fixture in the Texas Irish music scene since relocating from California in the early 90s. Besides traditional Irish, her background includes contest fiddling, Celtic rock, country, and greengrass. She was a four-time California State Ladies Champion, a founding member of The Killdares, and fiddler for Nine-8ths Irish. Currently, she performs with Jiggernaut, the Garth Brooks Tribute Band SHAMELESS, and is an active member of the TIMES (Texas Irish Music Education Society) Band & Session Players. A self-described “Mercenary Fiddler”, Linda will perform with anyone, anywhere, and is equally at home on stage with electric guitars, bass and drums as she is around at festivals, ceilis, and sessions.

Richard Kean
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland and raised in Alberta, bagpiper Richard Kean is a transplanted son of the Lone Star State – where he has lived for nearly two decades. He began playing the bagpipes at the age of 10, and has become a fixture in the Texas piping community – performing with Revels Houston, spicing it up with Poor Man’s Fortune, laying down some groovalicious piping with Jiggernaut, and competing with the World-Champion St Thomas Alumni Pipe Band – the highlight of his musical exploits and one that has taken him halfway around the world. Richard is a custom bagpipe-maker by trade, and when he’s not hip-deep in reeds and chanters, you’ll find him indulging his passions for sci-fi movies and mountain-biking.

Tullamore
Now in their 26th season, a steady slate of performances throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the US have made Tullamore one of the Heartland's premiere Celtic bands. Fueled by Rachel Gaither’s stellar vocals and hot fiddling, Mary Hanover’s beautiful singing and inspired dulcimer-play, Michael Coakley’s soaring tenor voice and tasty accordion stylings, and Mark Clavey’s creative savvy and passion for folk and Celtic music, Their sound is unmistakable - an American-folk body with a traditional Celtic soul. Their take on Celtic music is rich and clear vocals, tight harmonies and instrumentals, and cool and clever arrangements. Across the country and across the ocean, from Irish Festivals to Scottish Highland Games, from arts-centers to pubs, Tullamore are favorites wherever they go.

The Wee Heavies
The Wee Heavies are a mostly a cappella band started in 2014. They were drawn to the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland because they felt that they could all really relate to the main themes of traditional Celtic music: Drinking, working, fighting, love, and drinking. (Truth be told, their bass is a tee-totaler and has never been drunk in his life, but he makes up for it with the fighting.) The Heavies love nothing more after a long (and typically futile) day of whaling on the Mississippi near their home base of St. Louis, to pick up a frosty glass, reminisce about the days of the Jacobite rebellion, and sing in earth-shaking, heart-rending four-part harmony about the complexities of coal mining.