Julia Lane   Show/Hide Text

Julia has had a fascination for singing, understanding and creating folk music since childhood. Growing up in New Hampshire and Maine she heard her mother sing many folk songs, which she learned at an early age, enchanted by the stories embodied in them.

Her singing of old ballads in her kindergarten class greatly confused her teacher. Julia began making her own songs at the age of 10. As an adolescent, she took guitar lessons to accompany the songs and became active in madrigal and Renaissance music groups, performed as a soloist and provided music for a children's theater group.

Julia was greatly inspired by the ancient mythology of the Celtic lands, the Arthurian matter and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, her interest in British Isles and Irish folk music and lore led her to study the subject in Oxford, England. She continues to conduct in-depth research into the social history and folkways of her Celtic ancestors and her native New England.

Realizing the power of music in conveying a story, she has created multi-media programs of history and myth with both traditional and original music.

Julia is self-taught player of the Celtic folk harp and her unique style has won three international competitions. She is also a fine vocalist whose voice has been compared favorably with Loreena McKennitt, Maureen O'Hara and Maighread ni Dhomnaill.

Julia has raised three children and engages in "full contact" gardening at her home on the Maine coast where she grows roses and hybrid daylilies.

Fred Gosbee  Show/Hide Text

Fred has collected and performed folk music for over thirty years. As a child in central Maine, he heard his older relatives, who had worked in the lumber woods, singing the old woodsmen's songs and playing fiddle and accordian. Through high school, he became fully conversant with several band instruments, including the tuba, but also dabbled in folk instruments building himself a electric banjo from scrap wood panelling and an old bedpost. At the University of Maine, he was inspired by the folk music he heard in a college folklore class with Dr. Sandy Ives who became Fred's advisor. Dr. Ives became influential in Fred's awareness and appreciation for his own heritage of folk music.

Fred also began serious lutherie in 1973, building several guitars and a lute. He has building instruments as the touring schedule allows. Fred has designed and built several lever harps (including Julia's Greenwood Special), low whistles, and a baroque guitar. Many of his instruments can be heard on Castlebay recordings.

Having had wide experience with community theater, both onstage and in production, Fred combined his theatrical experience with his knowledge of folk music when he arranged, composed, and performed new incidental music for a production of A Spoon River Anthology. The resulting sound tapestry included 56 pieces of music with songs, instrumentals and new works for voices, guitars, banjo and fiddle performed live for each show

Fred has continued to write original songs in the traditional style, celebrating the humor and humanity of ordinary people. His works have since been recorded by other artists and have garnered him invitations to international music festivals. Two of his songs were used in a WTBS documentary about Maine.

He currently sings and plays classic and 12-string guitar, viola, fiddle, Irish flute and tin whistle and enjoys experimenting with both traditional and ethnic instruments. (He has been known to elicit music from a squash vine).

Fred is also a skilled woodworker and technician having learned from his resourceful and inventive father and grandfather. When he is not touring with Castlebay, he engineers and produces recordings as well as designing and building Celtic harps and other instruments and constructing his post and beam home, Harperswood.

Castlebay  Show/Hide Text

has been musically weaving together the heritage of New England and the Celtic lands since 1987. Members Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee have loved,sung and researched traditional music for most of their lives and blend history, legend and experience into their personable performance style. Treating the audience to a musical journey through time and across the Atlantic, their concerts feature poignant ballads sung in Lane's ethereal soprano and Gosbee's rich baritone. Interspersed with songs are joyous dance tunes and soulful airs played on Celtic harp, guitar, fiddle and woodwinds.

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The duo occasionally presents special theme concerts on various aspects of Celtic lore, nautical life or Colonial America. Although they are known for their intelligent arrangements of traditional music, Gosbee and Lane also compose their own musical works, many of which have their roots in the Celtic tradition, expressing an intimate experience with the elemental. Gosbee's finely crafted narrative ballads celebrate the dignity and humanity of ordinary people while Lane's songs are known for imagery and beautiful melodies. In the time-honored art of meaningful songwriting, they give new voice to an ancient tradition.

The duo is equally adept at evocative instrumental music. They have produced a series of 6 full length instrumental recordings collectively titled Tapestry, and have provided soundtracks for several award-winning videos. Together, they composed The Skye Suite for a quintet of folk instruments inspired by a tour of the Scottish island of Skye. Subsequently, the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association commissioned them to compose a similar piece for that region. Sang O' the Solway was performed in Scotland several times in 2000, 2001, and 2002, culminating with a performance at the prestigious Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow.

After more than five years of research both in the US and Ireland, Julia created The Grand Design,an historical play with music commemorating the 1740 shipwreck of Scots- Irish immigrants in northern Maine. Combining both period traditional music and original compositions, the play includes excerpts from historical documents and Native American story and song. Premiered by Heartwood Theater in Damariscotta, it has subsequently has played in Canada, New England and South Carolina. See the-grand-design.org for more information.

Castlebay tours the Eastern U.S., Ireland, England and Scotland performing folklore and music programs for schools, museums, libraries, festivals and arts centers, as well as on radio and television. The duo also maintains a commitment to cultural education, exchanging music and lore with colleagues worldwide. Castlebay has released 27 recordings including both original and traditional songs. Castlebay's most recent recordings are:
Bards & Blarney , celebrating Irish bardic song and storytelling tradition. This recording features several spoken word stories and poems accompanied with harp n the bardic style as well as songs and tunes.
Imbolc- Rekindling the Flame which highlights the traditions of St Bridget's Day and is the first in a series illuminating the ancient Celtic "crossquarter" days.
John Earthy's Tavern, fifteen songs about (mostly) Maine history from 1607 to 1883. The CD is accompanied by a book of extensive notes on the songs.

Inspired by the traditional music passed down in Fred's family, Castlebay is working on a program and CD featuring songs culled from regional collections in the Maine Folklife Center at the University of ME Orono, giving these old ballads new life.

Quotes  Show/Hide Text

"Thank you so much for coming to the Ridgefield Library to share the fascinating life and work of Robert Burns with our audience. What a wonderful evening of music, poetry, and song. You can't get a better combination than that!

Everyone I spoke to afterwards really enjoyed the show, especially the Scottish contingent. I think you probably made a lot of people yearn for the "old country!"

Good luck and thanks again,

Leslie Lambton
Adult Programming Director
The Ridgefield Library and Historical Association
Ridgefield, Connecticut

__________________________

Your Performance at Crandall on April 7th was everything I hoped it would be -- delightful, entertaining and inspiring. It seemed to me you invited us into a world of music and poetry that was very special. We all had a wonderful time with you, as you shared your knowledge of the life and times of Robert Burns.

I can't remember when I heard a person's life described so truthfully and with such sympathy. Burns is a completely human and flawed character, yet you helped us warm to him and admire him. Your own enjoyment of the music and poetry is infectious. Thank you for sharing your time and talents with us.

Many people in the audience that night came up to me later to thank me for this program, but the thanks goes to you. Let us know when you are next playing in this area."

Katherine Chansky
Crandall Public Library
Glens Falls, NY