Hi, everyone, I had to go to Denver last week, so I missed the start of this thread. Got back at Midnight, and I'm too exhausted to re-type a bio, and decided to copy and paste part of my old one from "Why we gravitate to Mudcat".
Since we are dropping our virtual masks, I can tell you that my full name is Alice Colleen Flynn. I was born in Great Falls, Montana on Dec. 20, 1951, raised in Helena, and have lived in Bozeman since 1970.(Photo at http://www.mcn.net/~acflynn/Alice.html ). Back in 1976 I travelled from Montana to Central America and back in a 1949 Buick, and have a love of El Salvador, where I lived for a couple of months. I like most kinds of music. Irish and American folk music was my early family influence. We wore the grooves off the Clancy Brothers/Tommy Makem records. When I worked at the college FM radio station as a student in the early 70's, I would spin alot of blues, rock, and an eclectic mix of records. Since I have been taking classical voice lessons for the last few years, I developed a taste for singing and listening to Opera. I love to sing anything... but my main repertoire is Irish and Scottish ballads and other folksongs. I studied piano through my childhood, and now have a collection of instruments... guitar, harmonium, lute harp, bodhran, as well as whistles (that I still need to learn) and my grandfather's old violin. My son plays violin, piano, and harmonium, and seems to have a talent to pick up any instrument and play it. I have dabbled in classes of Polynesian dance, flamenco, tango... you can see I like lots of cross-cultural musical/dance styles.
I am a professional illustrator and graphic artist. My website
www.mcn.net/~acflynn/
has more information about me, my folk instruments, singing and our Irish session here, and is illustrated by some of my nature paintings that were created for my clients who manufacture tee-shirts for the tourist souvenir market.
Being the sole support of myself and my 11 year old son, I don't have the time I would like to spend on practicing and performing music. My degree is in fine art, and I have been a professional artist for so long that I am burned out on it... I wish I could just make music and get away from the tedium of the drawing board!
My grandfather was born in County Leitrim, Ireland and came with his parents and brothers and sisters to Tintah, Minnesota, when he was a teenager. They left the wet, poor farm behind in Ireland and started over in the US on a homestead in 1881. They spoke both gaelic and English, but unfortunately, gaelic was not passed on to us. My dad came to Montana in 1916, when he was 14, to work on the railroad along with his older brothers and relatives. My mother was raised on a homestead in Eastern Montana, and was a photographer in the 30's and 40's. My parents, with one of my aunts, were killed in a car accident in 1979. My son and I are pretty much alone in the world, but have a few good friends. We are happy as a family of two.
Montana is a beautiful place to live, 90's in the summer, and down to -20 (f) or lower in the winter. The state is sparsely populated, and is one of the lowest in income. I make money consulting for clients in more prosperous parts of the US. The internet has made it even easier to work from my home.
The Mudcat has been a great way for me to beat the isolation of Montana and the loss of my family. I have met Anne Cooke here, who teaches Gaelic and answered my thread on sean-nos, as well as Alison, who emailed to my son when he broke his leg last spring, (and thanks all of you, who emailed to him with messages) and many others who have contacted me with lyrics and other messages about music. The Mudcat forum has been a great asset. I love you all...
Alice Flynn in Montana