Wave Bird Dance

Billy Walsh is an award winning singer-songwriter from central Massachusetts who has performed throughout New England for over twenty years. The Jamaica Plain Arts News says, 'Walsh lives a full, rich life and shares it with style and grace through his art.' These new songs range from mystical prayers to silly humor to philosophical provocations to love of life and wife and family and friends. Accompanied by some of the finest musicians of New England (and the world), Walsh sings about the existential angst, joy, and beauty of being alive. If you're sick of being insulted by songs that have nothing to say, Billy is the cure. Your head and heart will be in a different place when you finish listening to The Wave, The Bird, The Dance. The Band: John McGann's (lead acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin) long resume features live and session work in the bluegrass, folk, jazz, Celtic, country, and rock idioms. He is a National Guitar and Mandolin Champion and has performed in clubs, concert halls, and festivals throughout the United States and in Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan. John is a master transcriber of all string music and the author of numerous books on guitar and mandolin. In addition to recording and concerts, he also currently teaches at Berklee School of Music in Boston. Joyce Andersen (fiddle, harmony vocals) glides effortlessly between the haunting melodies of the ballads and the rip-roaring fun of the fiddle tunes. Her music has brought her from the coffeehouses and taverns of her native New England to national and international shows with folk virtuoso Harvey Reid, the stage of Carnegie Hall, the Conan O'Brien show, and country music in Japan. Joyce's recent CD 'Swerve' is an enthralling blend of electric and acoustic fiddle, soaring vocals, and soulful songwriting. The discography of Richard Gates (bass) reads like a who's who list of the top folk artists of our time: Deb Talan, Patty Larkin, Bob Franke, Bill Morrissey, Ellis Paul, Dar Williams, Jennifer Kimball, and Paula Cole to name but a few. He has toured internationally with Suzanne Vega, and he is a frequent accompanist on the national folk scene. Dave Mattacks (drums) is a world-renowned percussionist. From his early days with English folk super group Fairport Convention, he has gone on to record with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Nick Drake, George Harrison, Joan Armatrading, Richard Thompson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Jethro Tull...to name just a few. Joe Sonny Barbato (keyboards and accordion) has performed at festivals and concerts with Ravi Coltrane, Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine, Donald Harrison, Joe Locke, Jerry Bergonzi, Jeff Tain Watts, David Sanchez, and Larry Coryell. Some of the artists he has recorded alongside with are Luciana Souza, Lori McKenna, Kenny Barron, Duke Levine, George Schuller, David Budway, Bobby Previt, Jenifer Jackson, Ben Sher, Marvin Sewell, and many more. Tom Megan (keyboards) is a composer and lyricist of several musical theater pieces that have been presented in Boston and New York. He has won numerous ASCAP songwriting awards as well as the Yip Harburg Lyricist Award from the Musical Theater Project in New York. A musical he wrote with his brother Jack - 'The Kid Who Would Be Pope' - won rave reviews in the 2011 New York Musical Theater Festival. The New York Post called it 'a hit...just adorable' and the Back Stage Review wrote that it reminded one of times when magic made everything possible '. Additional harmony vocals provided by Mary Walsh and Mica Richards.