The Green House by Grey Larsen & Paddy League

Bach, began composing at age 12, and as a teenager began delving into Irish and Appalachian music on guitar, flute, concertina, fiddle and other instruments. He graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a degree in composition in 1976.

Grey's musical childhood also included stints in a grade school garage rock band comprised of classical guitar, snare drum, clarinet, and piano, and later in various folk and early music groups throughout high school and college. At Oberlin, Grey met fellow Cincinnatian Malcolm Dalglish, who would become a longtime musical partner. While they did not focus exclusively on Irish music, Grey's and Malcolm's early recordings, such as Banish Misfortune and Thunderhead, which became classics in the U.S. folk scene, were deeply influenced by the elder Irish players they knew such as Michael Kennedy, Tom Byrne and Tom McCaffrey. After seven years as a duo Grey and Malcolm joined forces with Vermont songwriter and old-time fiddler Pete Sutherland to form the trio Metamora, which for seven more years reached deeply into American, French Canadian, Irish and other European traditions, both vocal and instrumental, and explored progressive composing inspired by those traditions.

Currently, Grey records, produces and masters recordings, scores films, and edits music for various books and for Sing Out! Magazine. He is equally at home playing the fiddle music of Appalachia and his native Midwest as he is playing Irish music, and performs in a wide range of groups and venues. However, in recent years, Grey has chosen to focus foremost upon deepening his understanding of Irish traditional music, especially as represented in flute and tin whistle playing. His solo recording, The Gathering, and his recording with Québecois guitarist/vocalist/foot percussionist André Marchand, The Orange Tree, trace his increasing mastery of the subtleties of flute and whistle playing.

In recent years, Grey has become a much sought-after teacher of Irish flute and whistle. Mel Bay Publications will soon issue a comprehensive book series of Grey's writings on Irish flute and whistle traditions in which Grey explores both techniques and philosophies of playing and presents his own new notation system for flute and whistle ornamentation.

Paddy League's first formative musical experience came at the age of three in the form of an encounter with the bass drum of a New Orleans brass band. While he didn't formally take up the drumsticks until a teenager, the myriad dents in his family's kitchenware attest to the influence of that early childhood event.

Paddy was born in 1979 into a family with a rich and varied musical history. His mother Asimoula and grandfather Henry Kelly were both accomplished musicians in the fields of orchestral and swing music, and his paternal great-grandfather Tom McAviney was a flute player who, along with his younger brother Mike, was active in the Philadelphia Irish music community of the early 20th century. The soundtrack of Paddy's childhood was further composed of the Greek dance music of his grandmother's culture, and the funk, rock, and rhythm and blues of his father's eclectic record collection. These seemingly disparate influences took a firm hold early on and have remained constant sources of inspiration and growth throughout his musical journey.

Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, Paddy was exposed to even more music, and took up a serious study of jazz and Latin percussion while in high school. He was soon performing regularly in jazz and fusion groups in the D.C. area, mentored and encouraged by musicians such as saxophonist Tim Eyermann and percussionist Keith Killgo. He also spent several years studying Indian tabla and Nepalese folk percussion with the late Prof. Indra Lal Shrestha of Kathmandu, and began incorporating all of these influences into his bodhrán playing.

Paddy's involvement in traditional Irish music initially came about through an interest, acquired from his grandfather, in the Irish language. In seeking out avenues of learning, he became involved in the D.C. area's flourishing traditional music community, and has since become one the most respected percussionists and bodhrán teachers on the North American acoustic and traditional music circuit.

Grey and Paddy met in 1996 while teaching at the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren-Wilson College outside of Asheville, North Carolina, and mutually recognized a kindred spirit. They began performing together in the Spring of 2000, and "The Green House" is the result of their first full year of making music together.

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