Tim Hart
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“Wonderful stuff. Very fancy whistle playing...”
Bob Campbell, "Folk Music & Beyond,"
KALW 91.7 FM (NPR), San Francisco

"Affable and intelligent ... Tim stands out for the beauty of his melodious whistle playing,
and the intricate rhythms he keeps on the bodhrán."
Mark Mardon, Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco

“Tim takes this Irish traditional music and pushes the edges in various ways. 
Personally, I think this is exactly what keeps the Irish tradition alive and keeps it dynamic."
-Andrew Doerr, “Roadtunes Sessions,” KCSB 91.9 FM, Santa Barbara

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Tim Hart first took the plunge into Celtic traditional music one day while walking down San Francisco's Market Street. There, each Friday afternoon, was a Scottish Highland piper, honking out sweet tunes to the passing throngs of work-weary dot-com employees and lazing bike messengers. Hart stopped and asked which instrument would be good for a rank beginner and the piper said, "the whistle. It's only six bucks. How can you go wrong?"

From there, he taught himself to play the traditional, high-pitched Irish whistle, eventually moving into the low and midrange whistles and the bodhrán (traditional frame drum). Like many in the tradition, he learned tunes one at a time from friends and in pub sessions in San Francisco, Chicago, Dublin and other towns. Later, Hart began to pen his own compositions in the traditional style.

Hart’s first band was Kilmor, a trio based in San Jose, Calif.; he later played with Tinker’s Damn in Oakland, Calif., quickly becoming a regular performer and workshop leader at Scottish games and local folk festivals. Hart also plays with Tom Wagner (Oak, Ash & Thorn) and Michael Mullen (Tempest), and occasionally with other artists including Ireland’s Celtic jazz pioneer Melanie O’Reilly, with whom he played at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage Coffee House.

Hart released his debut solo CD, Five After Four, in June 2005, a collection of traditional and original tunes that explores the whistle from several musical perspectives. Joining Hart on the recording are some gifted and well-known California artists including Richard Mandel (Tipsy House), Ann McChesney Young (Tinker’s Damn), Mullen and Wagner. The self-produced CD was recorded and mastered at MuscleTone Studios in Berkeley, home to other artists including Wake the Dead, Shira Kammen, Kammen & Swan, Radim Zenkl, Steve Baughman and Sylvia Herold.

In addition to performing and recording, Hart can also be found teaching workshops on the whistle and bodhrán at such venues as The Berkeley Free Folk Festival, the San Francisco Free Folk Festival and the Lark in the Morning Summer Music Celebration (camp).

Hart plays Michael Burke and Chieftain whistles and Albert Alfonso and Del Eckels bodhráns, along with "the birthday goat,” a small, dubiously dyed drum with a big voice modeled on the African djembe (and given to him on his last birthday by his musical friends).