About Us
Hi Everybody!
I grew up in a family that worked the coastal waters of New England and Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island) for generations. I have many memories from when I was young of three generations of my family working together out on the salty brine harvesting our daily catch. There's one thing I can tell you about the "Wind on the Bay," it is a constant thing but it also always shifts a bit too.
This theme is what I hope to reflect with our festival as well. It is first and foremost, a weekend dedicated to traditional music played on wind instruments, that will never change. However, the winds of our tradition have shifted and what was once a purely "melodic" form now features various forms of accompiment as well. Keeping this in mind I have expanded the festival to include some of the other sounds we have all become used to hearing along with our flutes, fifes, whistles and pipes. In the past, we have featured the talents of Mr. Bill Black on bouzouki, guitar and vocals and it was our honor and great pleasure to feature vocalist Aoife Clancy as well. Last year we welcomed my long time friend Joshua Dukes as our bodhran, guitar and bouzouki instructor. I am very happy to announce that Josh will be returning for WOTB '09. Be sure to read Josh's bio and find out about his VERY interesting "day job"...
One stalwart feature since the festival began is a man I am honored to call my friend, the great John Skelton. As always, John will be with us again to share his wealth of tunes, stories and knowledge, all done with his usual good humor and wit. In the past we were also proud to feature the great Grey Larsen on our teaching staff as well. The three of us had worked together at the West Coast Flute Symposium many years ago and I had hoped to find a way to get us all in the same place at the same time again. Happily, the scheduling Gods made it possable and I and everyone at the festival were really thrilled with the results. Sadly, Grey will not be with us this year but we look forward to seeing him again at future WOTB`s!
I am equally happy to announce that my looooong time friends and fellow "Healy Cartel" members Marc "Swoop" Bernier and Mark "Thor" Bachand will be on hand again as well. They have also repeatedly lent their talents to our kitchen, concerts and sessions since the beginning and will around for this year too.
One BIG change last year had to do with our food service. In the past I have used a variety of local caterers and they have provided us with some great meals but since Marc Bernier and I fancy ourselves as "amateur chefs", we decided to do the food service ourselves. While it was a lot of work, it was REALLY a lot of fun too and we have decided to make this a part of the festival every year. Marc makes some of the BEST clam chowder you will ever taste! We also had the help of Jennifer Cooke with a great homegrown salad, Mark Bachand with a giant pot of raviloi's and Sue Kneeland with her famous "Death by Chocolate" gooey bars of calories! Looking forward to more this year too! More details coming up on the menu as the event gets closer...
Thank you all for your continued interest in Wind on the Bay. I'm looking forward to another great festival!
All the best,
Skip Healy