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Port na Gael is a 4-piece musical group specializing in
“mostly Irish most of the time.” Our unique style of vocal and instrumental
arrangements, soul-stirring harmonies and lively tunes are our defining
characteristics. With members from either side of the 49th parallel,
we regularly try the patience of border guards in order to play the music we
love together.
While Port na Gael's music is clearly "Celtic," individual
band members come from varied musical backgrounds, bringing those rich
influences with them into the musical knit.
Gerry Bradley, fiddle – is
unabashedly and solely a creature of Irish traditional music, and often travels
to Ireland to play in sessions and renew his love affair with the country and
the culture as well.
Barbara Denz, vocals –
blames 60s folk artists and the British Commonwealth folk music for her musical
tastes, but can be heard tearing into sea shanties and Scandinavian folk songs
at the least provocation.
David Denz, Uilleann pipes,
Irish flute, vocals, cittern, guitar (and whatever else is lying unprotected
within reach) – claims an Irish musical background, with frequent forays almost
anywhere.
Sasha Pawliuk, vocals,
Irish flute, whistles and bodhran (only when musically necessary) – has never
quite recovered from her attempts to channel Joni Mitchell in her youth, but has
allowed other folk music into her psyche before being overwhelmed by Irish
traditional music.
Port na Gael is the culminating event of a collaboration that
started in the late 1990's in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, at Chris Norman's
Boxwood Wooden Flute Festival. Since then,
Port na Gael has played at a variety of folk festivals and venues on either side
of the border.
Port na Gael at the Celtic Music Festival on Hornby Island, BC, April 2008.