Russell Pickett
Plays: Bass. Just bass. Lots of bass.
Sings: When threatened.
Russell was born and raised in the Great Middle America Lands(tm), and played bass in smoky bars from the time he was 15. Sometime around the ripe old age of 21, he decided that he'd rather eat dirt than ever play "Proud Mary" again. Accordingly, he forsook the well-paying bar circuit and moved to San Francisco to join the late, great original rock band The Rayn. Two EP's and scores of shows later, The Rayn collapsed under its own weight, and Russell went off in search of The Perfect Guitar Player to form his new power-pop trio. Somewhere during this search, Russell tripped over an email from Elton and landed in Annwn.
Russell is still looking for The Perfect Guitar Player, but Elton keeps him too busy to search with any seriousness.
Elton Wildermuth
Plays: acoustic guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, percussion
Sings: Lead and backup (bass-baritone)
Elton was born in London, England, and lived in four different countries and three states before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was primarily a folk and classical guitarist, playing in Germany and on both coasts of the U.S., before meeting Leigh Ann and developing a taste for Celtic music and jazz.
Leigh Ann Hussey
Plays: acoustic & MIDI fiddle, pennywhistle, percussion
Sings: Lead and backup (sub-alto)
Leigh Ann is a Berkeley native who received her degree in music at U.C. Berkeley. She was classically trained, spending more than a dozen years as a violist, then learned traditional music and began to develop her unique fiddling style by playing on the streets with piper Sean Folsom of the Irish folk trio Sheila na Gig and studying with Dave Balakrishnan of the Turtle Island String Quartet. She released four solo albums before joining with Elton in 1991 to form the Celtic rock band Daoine Sidhe, which eventually broke up and reformed to become Annwn.
For more than you ever wanted to know about Leigh Ann, look here.
Billie Mandel
Plays: flute, saxophone, percussion
Sings: Backup (soprano)
Billie is a New Yorker who came to California to attend Stanford University. She has played flute since longer ago than she can remember, and is an alumna of the infamous Stanford Band, having been both banned from Oregon and refused entrance to Disneyland because of that affiliation. Despite having played the flute for nearly 20 years, she had no idea that she might be able to play improvisational music before joining Annwn. At first, it was hard to make her start; now it's difficult to make her stop...
Larry "the O"
Plays: Trap drums and misc. hand percussion
Sings: Backup
Larry the O has done many things in his career, some of which he will even admit to. Having played drums and guitar since his teen years, the O romped through a variety of well-known music and technology colleges, yet managed to avoid obtaining a degree. He has performed and recorded in numerous musical styles, typically combining rock, jazz, folk, and whatever other genre strayed too close. The O began polluting Celtic music in this fashion as a founding member of Phoenyx, a late 80s/early 90s Bay Area contemporary of Annwn. The O's skills also extend to the other side of the recording studio glass, as he produced and mixed Phoenyx's album, "Keepers of the Flame", as well as many other album, film, television, and computer game products. His experience and skills have found warm welcome in Annwn, in contrast to his sense of humor.
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