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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 49^th parallel, we regularly try the patience of border guards in order to play the music we love together. And yes, you Irish speakers, we know that there's a missing n' to make it the proper spelling for Tune of the Gael.

Members

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.

Origins

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.