Mark Bickford started playing Irish music on mandolin as a graduate student in Madison Wisconsin. After moving to Austin Texas in 1983 he started a session there and met Ken Fleming at Texas Irish music events (and was even at Ken and Peggy’s wedding reception). He took up concertina, tenor banjo, and button accordion (B/C initially, switching to C#/D two decades later). He now lives in Ithaca New York where he has run a weekly session since 1987 and recorded three CDs with his group Traonach (the Irish name of the Corncrake).
Mark
Bickford