Kevin has been involved in Irish music since about 1979 after many years of interest in folk and jazz idioms. He has performed with Ken and Peggy Fleming continuously since 1988 and was a founding member of the Lone Star Ceili Band and the TIMES Band & Session Players. Kevin is moderately proficient on flute, whistles, guitar and cittern, but hopeless on bodhran.. … [Read more...] about Kevin Alewine
2004
Russ Alvey
Russ Alvey has played guitar for more than 40 years. He has played rock to folk, ol' timey to Irish, all influencing his accompaniment style. He has played with the New Dallas String Band, Tinker's Dam, Malarky and currently plays with the TIMES Band & Session Players. In addition to his guitar abilities, he is recording and sound engineer specializing in acoustic music. … [Read more...] about Russ Alvey
Emily Bryant
Since coming to North Texas in 1998, Emily Bryant has established herself as an accomplished rhythm guitar accompanist and vocalist in the traditional Celtic music scene. Her playing style centers on dropped-D tuning, which she has focused on for the last 10 years. Growing up in a musical family, Emily was exposed to Irish music at a very young age by her father. She began playing guitar in her … [Read more...] about Emily Bryant
Séamus Connolly
We are proud to welcome back fiddle legend Séamus Connolly, who inaugurated the first annual O’Flaherty Retreat in 2004. This year Séamus returns in a special class to discuss his work on The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music, which reflects more than 14 years of collecting and organizing music that links three generations of musicians and pays tribute to those in previous … [Read more...] about Séamus Connolly
Janis Deane
Janis Deane, M.Ed., CCC-SLP is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and has more than 30 years of experience working with patients who have voice disorders, swallowing disorders, chronic cough and vocal cord dysfunction, and those requiring voice restoration following total laryngectomy. Janis is a classically trained singer, but also an avid instrumentalist. She has played Irish … [Read more...] about Janis Deane
John Delaney
John Delaney is currently a member of Beyond the Pale, a well-established Celtic quartet. John plays flute, hammered dulcimer, tinwhistle, English concertina and saxophone and adds his baritone to the band's vocal performances as both a lead and backing vocalist. John has been performing Irish, Scottish and other traditional music for many years with several well known Texas-based groups including … [Read more...] about John Delaney
Michelle Feldman
Michelle Feldman has over 20 years of Irish fiddling experience. Her driving style powers many of 5SR’s dance sets, although she is equally at home adding a wistful phrase to a ballad or spicing up a bluegrass tune. Michelle is also a songwriter and has performed with many groups in the past, including Idle Road and Gallus. She can be heard regularly on weekend afternoons with the TIMES … [Read more...] about Michelle Feldman
Peggy Fleming
Peggy Fleming has played traditional music for most of her life. Classically trained in violin, she was introduced to traditional folk music through “old-timey” American fiddle, which led to an interest in Irish music. She has played previously with the New Dallas String Band, Blackland Grass, Tinker’s Dam, Stone Soup, Waifs & Strays, and Loose Change. She now performs with … [Read more...] about Peggy Fleming
Ken Fleming
Ken Fleming has been playing Irish music for more than four decades in the Dallas area on tenor banjo, button accordion, concertina, guitar, bouzouki and mandolin. His love of Irish music led him to become involved in 1983 in the formation of the Southwest Celtic Music Association and North Texas Irish Festival of which he was the founding president and founding director respectively. In the … [Read more...] about Ken Fleming
Jeff Gard
Jeff Gard taught beginning bodhran at the 2004 retreat. … [Read more...] about Jeff Gard