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Mary Malone
Mary playing fiddle
                    Mary began her journey in the world of music when her father put a fiddle in her hands at the age of 9, leading her to a lifetime filled with music and all the friends you meet along the way. She is a classically trained violinist but has been playing Irish traditional fiddle, almost exclusively, for the past 25 years. She plays fiddle in Irish trad seisiùns wherever she goes and performs and records with other Philly-based musicians. Mary is founder and organizer of the band. Her son, Dave Palan, is a well known professional musician in the Philly area.
Den Vykopal
Den playing flute
              Den has been playing mostly woodwind instruments, since he was a young boy growing up in what is now the Czech Republic/Czechia. Though mostly self-taught, Den initially learned from his father and played in bands with him from the time he was 12 years old. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and singer, Den made his way to the US as a musician on the Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1978. He joined the Irish trad music scene in the mid-1990's upon advice from a friend that he might have "more fun" playing music with the Irish. Den plays simple system wooden flute, whistle and Irish uilleann pipes.
Bud Burroughs
Bud playing bouzouki
A well known professional musician, arranger and multi-instrumentalist based in the Philly area, Bud has been active in the Irish music scene for over two decades and plays Irish bouzouki, button accordion and mandolin with the band. He also performs regionally and nationally with Americana stalwarts Boris Garcia, and with Grateful Dead tribute Box of Rain, and frequently records and performs with a variety of other musicians.
John LaValley
John playing concertina
                    Talented folk musician and multi-instrumentalist, John has been a cornerstone of the Philadelphia Irish music scene since the late 1970’s. John is a self-taught musician whose passion for and knowledge of Irish music has led him to explore music of other related Celtic traditions, so besides playing guitar, mandolin and concertina, he has recently added Northumbrian and Scottish small pipes to his repetoire of instruments. He sings, too, and sometimes in Manx Gaelic.
Dave Hanson
Dave playing bodhran
                               Dave studied the baroque recorder in the Netherlands for 5 years before stumbling across the world of Irish traditional music and the playing of such bodhran greats as Kevin Conneff & Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh. While taking his kids to fiddle, accordion, and flute lessons in the 90's, he decided to get in on the fun and learn to play the bodhran he'd stowed away in his closet many years before. In the last 15 years he's played at sessions, festivals, gigs & fleadhs up & down the east coast and in Ireland. Dave teaches the recorder and the bodhran in the Philadelphia area.
Kevin Brennan
Kevin playing guitar
Originally from Belfast, Kevin is renowned for the masterfully distinctive versions of classic and contemporary songs that he passionately performs. He came to the United States in 1979, and before his recent move to the East Coast, he was an important figure in the music scene in San Francisco, CA. Throughout the 1980's, he performed with such well-known names as Van Morrison and The Chieftains. He now appears regularly in area venues and is the most recent addition to our band. His first solo CD, "Belfast Water: Songs of Lore, Love, & Liberty" was released in 2008.
Judy Brennan
Judy playing piano
                                                Locally renowned keyboard artist and member of Kevin McGillian's Ceili Band, Judy is a regular anchor at ceili dances in the Delaware Valley. She is also a member of the locally renowned Brennan family, long time mainstays in the community of Philly Irish Trad musicians.