Randal Bays

Randal Bays is a US-born musician who’s been playing Irish fiddle for more than forty years; “stone mad” for fiddling, as the saying goes. He’s now widely recognized as a master, with a special love of the traditional styles of Co. Clare and Co. Galway. He’s “among the best Irish style fiddlers of his generation”, according to Fiddler Magazine. Randal has toured and recorded with many of the great Irish musicians of the day, including James Keane and Daithi Sproule (in the band Fingal), James Kelly, Martin Hayes, Michéal O’Domhnaill and many more. He also has a string of great independent recordings to his credit, including his recent release “Up The West”. Randal is also a well regarded fingerstyle guitarist.

Randal has taught Irish fiddle for many years, and recently published his book of original Irish tunes, “The Humours of Cascadia”. He co-founded and served for ten years as Artistic Director of the Friday Harbor Irish Music Week, and is now Artistic Director of the Cascadia Irish Music Week, bringing together students and teachers of traditional Irish music every summer in the Pacific Northwest. Randal lives in Olympia, Washington.