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James Spalink is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist. His studies on the classic guitar led him to an obsession with the Renaissance Lute, which in turn led to an interest in ancient music and instruments of all sorts. A Luthier by necessity, Jim built his Lute in 1980 and his first Celtic harp in 1989.He has since built many harps as well as many other ancient musical instrument replicas. Jim played Lute and Recorder as a minstrel at the Michigan and Silver leaf Renaissance festivals and the annual Grand Rapids Community college “Musicall Feaste” for several years. He began playing music with Fred in the early 90’s with the Celtic band “Amadaun”. Jim went on to found his own Celtic band “Puck Faire” performing in pubs and at festivals throughout the West Michigan area for many years. He is currently active producing solo Early Music recordings from “The Music Hole”, his home recording studio in Rockford, MI. in which he plays all of the instruments and makes many of them.

Fred Willson started playing guitar at age 8. He was very active in his high school music program and eventually found himself in the Music Education program at the University of Michigan, School of Music in Ann Arbor, MI. After college he rambled about and taught wind instruments in

Israel for two years. When he returned to the

U.S. he studied classical guitar for 2 years with Brad Cooper at Grand Rapids Community College. He eventually fell in with some people who played Celtic music. This was a musical turning point for Fred. He developed a keen interest in traditional music of all kinds. He was a founding member of the Celtic band Amadaun where he first met James Spalink. He taught himself to play mandolin as a way of learning fiddle tunes. His main interests are Traditional (Celtic/Old Time), Classical, and Jazz styles. Fred has recently started a teaching practice and is accepting students at his home studio near Caledonia, MI