Overview
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Chris Caswell is a true Celtic bard and a natural raconteur. He casts a bright spell through his intense and creative playing, songs, and obvious delight in what he’s doing. His music is informed by Wales, the Middle East, Latin America, the French countryside–anywhere from which his experience can move the listener in an essential way.
Chris is one of the world's finest players and makers of the Celtic harp. He is also a respected performer on the Scottish bagpipes, Irish flute and tinwhistle, and the bodhran (Irish frame drum). His long history of songwriting has come to the foreground in recent years.
Background
Beginning in 1976, Chris recorded three albums and toured North America and Europe with Robin Williamson and His Merry Band. In 1980 he formed Caswell Carnahan with Danny Carnahan and recorded two albums (re-released in 1995).
HOLY WOOD (2001) is Chris's solo bronze-strung harp album displays this rare and hauntingly beautiful instrument in a mix of the popular and eclectic from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England and France,. CELTIC TIDINGS (1999) is his well-loved Christmas CD. He is on over thirty recordings, including Bonnie Rideout's multi-award-winning GIVE ME ELBOW ROOM and Grammy-nominated KINDRED SPIRITS. Chris was a featured artist with Bonnie’s national A Scottish Christmas tour, 1998-99 and Live from the National Geographic, 1997.
Chris continually works with Bay Area artists as an audio engineer, and has produced and composed for film and broadcast video. A natural teacher, he has held harp retreats throughout the country, and taught at numerous music camps. He also has a popular bodhran instruction video.
His CASWELL HARPS was re-established in 2004 in Berkeley, California. As a harp maker. Chris is known for blending tradition and innovation. His harps are considered among the finest traditional harps available.
Chris was a co-founder of the Sebastopol Celtic Festival. He has been National Chairman of the Scottish Harp Society of America, and a member of the Judges Panel of the Western United States Pipe Band Association. He studied pipes with Donald MacPherson at the College of Piping in Glasgow and later with Donald Shaw Ramsay. He was Pipe Major of the City of Petaluma Pipe Band. He studied harp with Allison Kinnaird in Edinburgh, and worked with folklorist Peter Kennedy in Devon, England. He was a music composition major at San Francisco State and more recently studied composition with Allaudin Mathieu. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy.
Quotes
"I deeply appreciate the quality...that I feel in every note. What a relief! It allows my heart to settle and open into the effect of the music on subtle levels, which I have found is not often the case with other Celtic music I have heard. I feel that for the first time I am able to connect with the finer sentiments of this music and it is very sweet indeed." (L. H., Iowa, on Holy Wood)
“When you play I find that dancer inside of myself and am dancing freely and naturally. Your music bypasses my mind, resonating with something more essential within me, much like reading ecstatic poetry.” (R. C., California, on Chris’s live performance)
"Chris Caswell is particularly versatile playing flute, penny-whistle, Scots harp and bodhran, the last a drum, and playing all well." (Variety)
"Chris is well-known worldwide as a maker of fine harps and he's an incredible performer as well." (Plowshares Newsletter, San Francisco)
"Not all the current crop of harp albums feature the harp as a lead voice. Caswell Carnahan's new LP "Borderlands" shows the harp in quite a different role. Chris Caswell, one of this country's leading harp makers, plays one of his harps on much of the album, but he uses it in the arrangements like a string section–or more aptly like the Celtic equivalent of the ubiquitous Rhodes piano. It seldom stands out, but if you listen for it, you'll hear it in the mix, tying everything else together, smoothing out the seams." (Jim Hatlo, Frets Magazine)
“A prolonged residence in the United States during the 1970's saw the formation of Robin Williamson's Merry Band, a group who combined the early instrumentation and musical intricacy of The Chieftains with the drive and immediacy of American roots music. In so doing, they provided the blueprint for Loreena McKennitt and a host of others in the creation of what's commonly regarded as North American "Celtic music" today. (thebeesknees.com)