Album Notes

Multi-instrumentalist Beth Patterson is foremost a player of the eight- and ten-stringed Irish bouzoukis (adaptations of a traditional Greek instrument). This native of Lafayette, Louisiana began her professional musical career in her early teens as a classical oboist and a Cajun bass player (with the required teenage heavy metal stint on the side), but not truly belonging to any of these, set out to create her own niche. She now integrates into her style her experiences of playing Celtic, Cajun, rock, jazz, blues, country, gospel, classical, Latin, and folk music. She has played in eleven countries throughout the Americas and Europe, and maintains an active gigging schedule in her home base of New Orleans. She spent a year studying traditional Irish music and ethnomusicology at University College, Cork in Ireland, where she first studied the music of West Africa, India, Indonesia, and the Caribbean, and began to experiment with fusions of these musical genres and her previous influences. A firm believer in the healing power of music, she also holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy from Loyola University, New Orleans.

Whether playing solo or with her band Kalafka, her performances are chock-full of drive and passion, laced with humor. Her stage presence has been decribed by viewers as "a cross between a cobra and a puppy."