Music Tour Hosts

Chuck Brodsky is a storyteller, a songwriter, a troubadour, a modern day bard and has led 19 music tours to Ireland. Over the past 25 years, he has performed at festivals and in concerts all across the USA, Canada, Ireland, Denmark, England, Israel, Lithuania, Latvia, Wales, and the Shetland Islands of Scotland. Chuck has performed three times at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and 22 of his Baseball story songs have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame’s sound recording library. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Chuck hitchhiked to San Francisco as a young man and sang weekly at the Tattoo Rose Cafe’s open mic. He spent a few years singing for tips on the streets of Europe, and worked as a fruit picker back in the USA. In the late 1980’s, he began performing in small coffeehouses around the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Chuck and his songs have appeared in several films and on tv. Having received worldwide acclaim for his previous albums, Chuck’s 11th release “Tell Tale Heart” was among the top ten most played CDs on folk radio for all of 2015. His 12th and most recent album, "Them And Us" was released in 2018 and was the 3rd most played CD on folk radio nationwide for May 2018.
 
Visit ChuckBrodsky.com

Jonathan Byrd is a preacher’s kid, Gulf War veteran, and award-winning songwriter with a near-cult following. With twenty plus years of touring and over a dozen albums, Byrd’s deceptively simple, working-class songs have become campfire standards and crowd favorites for artists like Sam Bush and Tim O’Brien. A Jonathan Byrd show will take audiences on a journey from hell-raising sing-alongs to heart-wrenching ballads and back across the backroads of his native North Carolina.

A lifelong collaborator and innovator, Jonathan Byrd’s latest project is Song Miners, a project to not only write and release new songs, but also to teach others how it’s done. Leading powerful online songwriting workshops and creating free songwriting education for social media, Byrd seems on a mission to fill the world with great songs- not least, his own. Not to be missed.

"...one of the top 50 songwriters of the past 50 years."—Rich Warren, Chicago Tribune

“...a folk singer with the heart of a rock 'n' roll band.” — K. Oliver, Free Times

Visit JonathanByrd.com

Tom Kimmel is a singer-writer-poet extraordinaire. Soulful, inspiring and funny, he’s as vibrant and creative as ever in his sixth decade of music-making. He’s released seven solo albums, three trio records, published a book of poems and toured widely across the US, Canada and Europe. 

A singer’s singer and writer’s writer, Tom’s songs have been covered by a host of top artists, including Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, and Randy Travis—and they’ve been featured in many films and TV shows. Fans and critics agree, however, that he remains his own best interpreter. 

Tom’s hosted music tours in Ireland since 2011, and he looks forward to new adventures in Scotland, where he has deep family roots. He and his wife Kat reside in the great music city of Memphis, Tennessee... with a very feisty eight-pound barking dog.

Visit TomKimmel.com  

Janet Feld is an award winning performing songwriter appearing at folk festivals and coffeehouses nationally and internationally since the mid 80s. She's released 5 solo albums, the latest being Messy Beauty
 
Over the last year, having a blast jamming with pals Esther Friedman and Jackie Damsky evolved into them forming their new band, The Secret Sauce. Performing with people who's music you love, and are fun to hang out with is how they roll.

Janet is also the Founder and Chief Music Officer at Janet’s Planet: Music Lessons For Humanoids, Inc., offering lessons and classes to people of all ages. Her goal is to help people experience the fact that you don’t have to be from the “special talented planet” in order to play music.
 
www.janetsplanetmusic.com

Tour Guides

Raven is the founder of Traceless Tours and takes care of all the logistics and itinerary and joins as many tours as she can. She is an intuitive counselor and facilitator of ancient wisdom teachings with an ancestral and heart connection to Scotland. She has been involved with tours and tour companies with a focus on Scotland for two decades. Raven is the founder of  Quintessential Human Coaching & Mentorship.  She also teaches deep introspective processes related to Hermetic Principles & Alchemy and speaks internationally on topics of conscious change and evolution, working with the laws of Nature.

Raven is the mother of three grown children and two stepsons and is heavily involved as a volunteer for FurEver Friends Cat Rescue. She lives in Western North Carolina with her husband, Steve, and their five kitties and a rotating door of foster cats. She is currently working on her Master's in Scottish History at the University of Dundee. 

Visit RavenSinclaire.com

Rob Ellen lends his expertise and contacts to our music tours and books world class musicians for us. When available, he also joins our tours to share his love and wisdom for Scotland. He is a Publicist, Promoter, Presenter and Stravager who has been involved in music development in Scotland for over 35 years. He keeps a trail open around the Highlands for touring roots musicians, small combos and bands. He helped found and continues to help organise Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival. He also organises the Tartan Heart Fringe and Potting Shed Stage. He founded the European House Concert Hub and edits Flyinshoes Review. Rob also broadcasts a popular Community Radio Show from Ullapool that was syndicated around the world.

Rob has been on the road for the last 5 years living and broadcasting live streaming from 2 internet TV-ready Campervans, the Medicine Show Radio Moose Mobiles, one this side and one stateside. The Medicine show has traveled some 120,000 miles visiting 14 countries, 25 States of the Union and 4 Canadian provinces in support of independently minded musicians, community venues, festivals and house concerts, 

Rob will tour many of The Medicine Show favourites around Europe through "The Medicine Show Radio Revue." The Highland tour has become a pilgrimage with American Musicians in particular, wishing to trace the roots of "The Great American Song Book" back to its home in the Highlands. Rob says, "I am fascinated by the song lines and tracing the roots of music, but equally fascinated with the contemporary shoots that keep it all alive and well". Rob's particular interest, is supporting and setting up House Concerts. Rob maintains the Euro House Concert Hub. This is a place for artists, guests and hosts to social network. www.facebook.com/eurohouseconcert for more info and follow the Medicine Show on facebook.

James Barrowman lights up our tours with his energy and knowledge. He is a full-time PhD student and tutor in the English department at the University of Dundee. His own research interests are in Scottish literature and history, specifically Scots language writing from the sixteenth-century and his project seeks to reimagine the lost plays of James Wedderburn, who wrote both a comedy and a tragedy before being exiled to France for 'counterfooting the conjuring of a ghaist' in mockery of King James V.
 
James has a theatre background, having acted and written for the JOOT theatre company in Dundee, including in work adapted from the great makars Henryson and Dunbar. He's also a member of the Dundee Burns Club, which still has its own premises right in the heart of the city. He has run various events over the years that saught to celebrate Dundonian writing, both historical and contemporary. James edited an anthology of new writing from the city a few years ago, and co-created a pop-up Poet's Box shop for a local literary festival.
 
He is originally from Cumbernauld, just outside of Glasgow and, though he describes himself as too tone deaf to have success with an instrument,  Scottish folk music is a great love. James is also a barista, so you can count on him to remember your coffee order!