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Jim portrait
(guitar, cittern, vocals, bodhran, tinwhistle) Jim is an award-winning songwriter and instrumentalist with a clear tenor voice that earned him honors with Hot Shandy as a three-time finalist for College Entertainer of the Year. He is the founding Director of the Swannanoa Gathering Folk Arts Workshops at Warren Wilson College, and in 1994, was awarded the first Fellowship in Songwriting and Composition from the North Carolina Arts Council. With numerous album and performance credits, including appearances with Emmy Lou Harris and Tom Paxton, Jim's original songs have been covered by such artists as Mike Cross, the Smith Sisters, Cucanandy & the Shaw Bros., and have been featured on NPR's Thistle & Shamrock. View our discography. In the world of graphic arts, his cover designs for the Swannanoa Gathering’s catalogs have won six design awards, he's been a two-time finalist for Photoshop World’s Guru Awards, and he has consulted on website design for several luthiers.
   
Beth portrait
(wooden and silver flutes, tinwhistle, vocals) Beth came to excellence early and by the age of 11 had garnered state and regional championships as a member of the Yalesville (CT) Junior Ancient Fife & Drum Corps. Classically trained, she was a member of the Charlotte Flute Choir when she was captivated by Celtic music, and through studies with such luminaries as John Skelton, Mike Rafferty, Mike Casey, Grey Larsen, Chris Norman and Jerry O’Sullivan began exploring the complex possibilities of the wooden flute. A popular session musician, she has recorded several albums with singer/songwriter, Johnsmith, hammered dulcimists Jerry Read Smith and Jim Taylor and more. View our discography. With a passionate, exuberant style, Beth was also a founding member of Asheville's groundbreaking Celtic band, Mooncoin. She served as the music director for Highland Repertory Theater's production, A Mislaid Heaven, and she currently plays with The Magills, the contra dance band, Fly By Night, and various other musicians. She also enjoys a thriving Kindermusik studio, teaching music and movement to children ages newborn to five.
   
Andrew portrait
(fiddle, low whistle, guitar) Andrew started Suzuki method violin at age 9 but soon discovered a passion for Irish music. Over the next few years he studied with such masters as Seamus Connolly, Liz Carroll, Tommy Peoples, Martin Hayes, Brendan McGlinchey, James Kelly, Brian Conway and Brendan Bulger. Andrew is a four-time gold medalist at the New York Fleadh Cheoil, and has twice competed at the All-Ireland Championships in Ireland. He served as an instructor in Irish fiddle at the Swannanoa Gathering for two years, and in 2005 released his first CD of Irish fiddle music, Drive & Lift, featuring John Doyle on guitar and bouzouki, and John Skelton on flute. Cuts from that CD have been featured on several compilation CDs as well as on NPR's Thistle & Shamrock. He is a founding member of the Celtic trio, Midnight at Kittredge, and has ten years experience as a voiceover actor for radio and TV commercials. In April of 2007, Andrew was featured in the Asheville Bravo Concerts’ “Rising Star Showcase” at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville. He recently graduated with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill with a major in ethnomusicology, and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to develop a multimedia fundraising project to benefit AIDS patients and their families in Malawi, east Africa. You can follow the progress of the project at Andrew's blog: http://fulbright.mtvu.com/author/andrewmagill/, and that of his girlfriend Kaitlin, who is helping him with the project: http://kaitlininafrica.blogspot.com/