BIOGRAPHY
"You can imagine they would hush any folk club, or bring it to its dancing feet”
Graham Reid, Elsewhere
“evoke a lovely musical imagery”
Gerry Jones, Living Tradition
"You guys were "otherworldly" last night and no one has ever had a standing ovation after all our years of putting on (BFC) house concerts. You guys have something really special going on".💖
Brenda Shearer - singer songwriter artist attending BFC concert
ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE are passionate artists from Americana, Celtic and often Scandinavian traditions. Together they explore musical diversity with a unique expression that reflects the group’s love for the music.
Tony Burt and Karen Jones have always enjoyed merging the music and styles they were respectively familiar with, to come up with something a little different.
Karen took up the challenge of applying Celtic guitar rhythm to fast rousing bluegrass, Americana tunes and Tony’s original compositions. Tony in turn, arranged dobro for Celtic airs and fiddle tunes to accompany Karen’s exquisite harp performance and paced guitar fuelled jigs and reels.
When you add the exquisite soprano sax and Scandinavian folk influence from Internationally renowned Swedish artist Hanna Wiskari-Griffiths the result is something new, a unique sound intricately woven, all the while retaining respect for the traditions. A true folk fusion.
Karen Jones
Vocals, Celtic Harp , Guitar, Keys,
music educations specialist
From New Zealand, traditional folk singer, instrumentalist and music education specialist Karen Jones, spent 14 years in Edinburgh, cutting her teeth in Scottish traditional music and educating herself in Scottish art and culture.
There she began seriously studying the clarsach (Celtic harp) under the guidance of the widely respected Isobel Mieras, ran a very popular weekly folk and traditional session, set up a music school and became an active member of the folk community.
Here she received much invaluable experience playing among some of the greats of Scottish music. Consequently, traditional Scottish music soon became her inspiration and passion.
Based now in New Zealand she continues teaching music, and was the instigator and co founder of the 'Trad-bearers singing session' in Auckand.
https://www.childrensmusiccentre.com/
https://www.theharplady.co.nz/
Hanna Wiskari-Griffiths
Soprano Sax, Vocals
Internationally respected Swedish saxophonist Hanna is a musician and tutor with her roots in the Scandinavian traditional music.
Growing up surrounded by music, on the Swedish west coast, she has always had traditional music in her life, mainly thanks to her father and his playing the Swedish instrument, the nyckelharpa. Since saxophone is not traditional, Hanna has found her own way of using the instrument in this music.
For the last 20 years she has been active as a musician in a number of different bands and projects, such the Goodland Trio alongside many others.
Now a musician in New Zealand, she teaches and leads ‘Ethno’, a 10 day music camp where young musicians share their traditional music with each other and is a renowned teacher of international traditional music courses.
Tony Burt
Resonator , Guitar
Tony's resonator and guitar performances cover a wide range of styles. When he heard the sound of the dobro Tony was instantly hooked and worked to uncover the mysterious versatility that produces speed, bite and exquisite melody
Also, as an accomplished film maker, Tony is always looking to the challenge of how music can blend together to create new and inspiring ideas. Tony produced the Snapper Sandwich, a documentary incorporating live music performance and narration and in addition has composed music for film and TV documentaries. His films have gained recognition from the National Geographic Society.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERJJWNstNvA
He has contributed to many albums and writes tunes inspired by the melodies and rhythms from both sides of the Atlantic.
Tony's music community is also important to him and he leads a weekend Americana music festival in NZ "the Mid-winter Holler'.
https://www.facebook.com/Midwinterholler/
Other links to Tony's projects:
https://www.tonyburt-creative.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/curiofilms