I’m Alison Kline, Born in Australia, raised in South London and now live in the bay area I have always found that traditional music speaks to me having fallen in love with Streets of London by Ralph Mctell at school and discovered Fairport Convention after seeing them play Red & Gold (another Ralph Mctell song) on daytime TV. As a youngster my journey with music started with typically learning the recorder badly in school and then later with a few years of formal piano lessons after a relatively short period of time I switched to learning the Oboe – One stave of music was much easier to deal with :-). I studied the Oboe throughout school playing in school and local city orchestras as well as playing the Cor Anglais (a big oboe) for a year or two. I regularly took Royal Schools of Music exams available in the UK and prior to leaving school achieved my Grade 8. I also gained an A Grade in Music GCSE (the UK High School leavers exam).
I continued playing Classical music in university orchestra and wind bands and during my university time discovered Folk music sessions where musicians were welcomed to join others playing in an informal pub or bar setting. I rapidly decided that the Oboe was physically impossible to play for long enough in this type of setting and broke out my old school recorders figuring that I could play the penny whistle part. This worked well and I was invited to join a band as well as became a regular at the irish night at the local pub. It was a major milestone when I was first cut in on the musician’s drink’s tab and then later on the $.
My career took a detour and I didn’t play much music for a decade or so, then when I had small children I wanted to share the joy of music with them. By then in California I sought out sessions and was invited to play with a band called Celtic Soul where I met the amazing Lynda MacNeil. A number of years later she asked me to join a band she was starting called Gaelic Muses and the three women trio was formed. I love the energy, flexibility and joy of creating music with other like minded women and look forward to sharing my future with my amazing band mates.
