Performers
Meet our 2024 Entertainers
Find out more about our talented performers and exhibitionists
Featuring Traditional Irish Music
The IRISH AIRES is an Irish folk band from St. Louis, Missouri. They have played at a variety of local Irish events and pubs including in and around St. Louis and played at the Southern Illinois Irish Festival in 2023 and many more. The Irish Aires have been playing in the St. Louis area for well over 30 years and continue to be a mainstay at many Irish events. They recently won Battle of the Bands and will be performing at several other Irish festivals this fall.
SEAN FOLSOM‘s love of traditional folk music led him to the Scottish bagpipes in 1969-70 and to England, Scotland and Ireland. Later on he discovered the Northumbrian and Irish bagpipes, in 1973. Since then he has collected more than 30 bagpipes (all of which he plays) from Europe and the Middle East. In addition, he performs music on the hurdy-gurdy, flutes, reed pipes, Asian harmonica (Chinese sheng), and a host of other rich and varied instruments also in his extensive collection. In order to foster the understanding and similarities of peoples of the world, as well as to pass to others his love of music in all its rich and varied forms, he performs for schools, festivals and at corporate meetings; throughout the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand.
ROISIN DUBH is an Irish music duo performing traditional Celtic & Scottish folk music in its own distinctive style featuring the Great Highland Pipes, Ceilidh bagpipes, guitar, whistle, harmonica, vocals, and keyboard, and blending these diverse instruments to perform standard folk songs, dance tunes, aires, and Piobaireachds, combined with traditional American music of Scots-Irish roots. The duo consists of Les Lannom on pipes, guitar and vocals along with Holly Kee on keyboards and vocals
THE STERNWHEELERS are an Irish-Americana band based in Nashville, TN. Drawing from the canon of both Irish and American traditions they present a unique crossover “transatlantic” folk. This show consists of original music, traditional Irish tune sets, ballads, pub songs and some unique interpretations of music from other genres. In keeping with the folk tradition their arrangements are all individually their own. The Sternwheelers offer something new, fresh and fun steeped in history and tradition.
Together these musicians blend their various interests and experiences with their one common love, Irish Music. What resulted is an authentic, trans-Atlantic Irish-American music. Country, Americana and Irish Traditional music mingle in songs with themes like unrequited love, immigration and general frivolity. In addition to original songs The Sternwheelers offer up fresh reinterpretations of songs from the canon of Classic Country and Irish Pub songs. And of course, a fair serving of session tunes.
SEAN CLELAND AND THE KILGUBBIN PROJECT Seán Cleland (Drovers, Bohola), a well-known Chicago Irish musician and stalwart of the local Irish music scene, has spent decades becoming a master Irish fiddle player. The Kilgubbin Project is the culmination of his life’s work as an ambassador, cultivator, educator and preservationist of traditional Irish music in Chicago. The Kilgubbin Project strives to be true to the melodies and rhythms of Ireland, while embracing how the tradition has evolved in Chicago. The Kilgubbin Project is Jesse Langen (guitar), James Reilly (timber flute/whistle/vox/bodhrán), James Conway (harmonica, whistles, jaw harp), Liz Hanley (vox, fiddle), Steve Morrow (bodhrán) and Tim Britton (uileann pipes, whistle, mandolin, Höfner violin bass). The Kilgubbin Project takes its name and its sense of wildness from the actual Chicago Irish Shantytown ‘Patch’ called Kilgubbin (now known as Goose Island); a small natural island on the Chicago River.
