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Biography
“Wonderful stuff. Very
fancy whistling ...”
--Bob Campbell,
"Folk Music & Beyond,"
KALW 91.7 FM (NPR), San Francisco
"Affable and
intelligent ... Tim stands out for the beauty of his melodious whistle
playing, and the intricate rhythms he
keeps on the bodhrán."
--Mark Mardon, The Bay Area
Reporter, San Francisco
“Tim takes this Irish
traditional music and pushes the edges in various ways.
Personally, I think this is exactly what keeps the Irish tradition alive
and keeps it dynamic."
-Andrew Doerr,
“Roadtunes Sessions,” KCSB 91.9 FM, Santa Barbara
---
Tim Hart first took
the plunge into Celtic traditional music one day while walking down San
Francisco's Market Street. There, each Friday afternoon, was a Scottish
Highland piper, honking out sweet tunes to the passing throngs of
work-weary dot-com employees and lazing bike messengers. Hart stopped
and asked which instrument would be good for a rank beginner and the
piper said, "the whistle. It's only six bucks. How can you go wrong?"
From there, he taught himself to play the traditional, high-pitched
Irish whistle, eventually moving into the low and midrange whistles and
the bodhrán (traditional frame drum). Like many in the tradition, he
learned tunes one at a time from friends and in pub sessions in San
Francisco, Chicago, Dublin and other towns. Later, Hart began to pen his
own compositions in the traditional style.
Hart’s first band was
Kilmor, a trio based in San Jose, Calif.; he later played with Tinker’s
Damn in Oakland, Calif., quickly becoming a regular performer and
workshop leader at Scottish games and local folk festivals. Hart also
plays with Tom Wagner (Oak, Ash & Thorn) and Michael Mullen (Tempest),
and occasionally with other artists including Ireland’s Celtic jazz
pioneer Melanie O’Reilly, with whom he played at Berkeley’s Freight &
Salvage Coffee House.
Hart released his
debut solo CD, Five After Four, in June 2005, a collection of
traditional and original tunes that explores the whistle from several
musical perspectives. Joining Hart on the recording are some gifted and
well-known California artists including Richard Mandel (Tipsy House),
Ann McChesney Young (Tinker’s Damn), Mullen and Wagner. The
self-produced CD was recorded and mastered at MuscleTone Studios in
Berkeley, home to other artists including Wake the Dead, Shira Kammen,
Kammen & Swan, Radim Zenkl, Steve Baughman and Sylvia Herold.
In addition to
performing and recording, Hart can also be found teaching workshops on
the whistle and bodhrán at such venues as The Berkeley Free Folk
Festival, the San Francisco Free Folk Festival and the Lark in the
Morning Summer Music Celebration (camp).
Hart plays Michael Burke and Chieftain whistles and Albert Alfonso and
Del Eckels bodhráns, along with "the birthday goat,” a small, dubiously
dyed drum with a big voice modeled on the African djembe (and given to
him on his last birthday by his musical friends).
Click here to view photos
Click here
to email Tim
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