Beltain Bio & History

Beltain Bio
Band Members
Band History
Band History
Band History
Discography

Beltain are Mikkel & Morgan McDow and David Cowan. Sue Carney often sits in.

Beltain performs original and traditional ballads and dances. Songs range from Purcell catches to Celtic ballads and English broadsides set to a rocking beat.

Performances at the California State Fair in Sacramento, the Mammoth Lakes Celtic Festival, the California World Music Festival and the Covenant of the Goddess Merry Meet are a few highlights of Beltain's seventeen year career.

Mik and Morgan play all sorts of things including mandolins, guitars, bass and percussion. Morgan plays button accordion and the recorder family. Mik pounds a mean boogie woogie piano whenever he gets the chance. He is also known to play the slide trombone.

Dave Cowan

Dave joined in 1999 bringing his array of ethnic instruments including the Irish flute, panpipes, cana, charrango, accordion, hammered dulcimer and jaw's harp. He also slings a mighty guitar.

Prior to joining Beltain Morgan played in Berkeley's Cyderman's Fancy, a band that included Jon Berger, later of Tempest. Dave led his own bands. Mik was a member of the Alliance featuring guitarist / inventor John Nady. Before that he had some success with his eighties new wave band, The Jars.

Sue Carney

Beltain has recently released a collection of their earlier work. Palimpsest draws from archival recordings and releases going back to 1993 and features a new song recorded in 2006.

Beltain is preparing a CD & DVD of their current set. Recorded live at Electric Canyon Studio by Dale Price, Bud & Blossom finds Beltain performing in beautiful Chico Creek Canyon.

For a preview of Bud & Blossom visit the Beltain Theater.

These are just some of the instruments in Morgan's arsenal. She is also Beltain's primary bass player and she solos on the mandolin.

From 1978 to 1992 Morgan led a dance band at the Renaissance Faires in Agora and Blackpoint. In the eighties she was one third of Berkeley's Cyderman's Fancy playing bass, mandolin and concertina.

Morgan and Mikkel were introduced in 1992. By January 1993 she was rehearsing with an early version of Beltain that included Chris Kemp and Robert Hill on guitars, Mikkel on keyboards and J Boyd on drums.

Mikkel McDow is a professional sound engineer. His first band, The Jars, signed a succession of record contracts. Three singles and two cassettes were released. In 1981 The Jars second single, Jar Wars, spent six weeks at the top the Bay Area club charts, and it was used as the theme song for the nationally syndicated Gavin Report. The A side, Time Of The Assassins, was a Bay Area radio hit peaking at number one on the KALX record charts.

Morgan and Mikkel were married in Cohasset, California in October 1998. David Cowan was an usher.

Dave has led his own bands for as long as he can remember, and though he is a full time player in a touring group he still finds time for Ruby Hollow.

In the eighties Ruby Hollow went by the name of Willowgreen. David's next band was Tar'd And Feather'd with his then wife Debra Cowan. Later they were Wholly Cow. Together they made a CD called A Dram For the Singer. When Debra went solo David joined Beltain. Years later he rebuilt Willowgreen around the original players plus an additional guitarist and renamed them Ruby Hollow.

Morgan has known Sue Carney since 1980. Sue was a founding member of The Terra Nova Consort. The Terra Nova Consort issued two CDs on the Dorian Records label. Sue has been called the Janis Joplin of early music. She performed with Morgan and Mikkel in 1999 when she guested on their cable access variety show The Green Room. She contributed her instruments and voice to Jongleur and Other Stories.

Sue Carney is the executive producer of the Green Show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. She has her own career in early music though it doesn't keep her from performing with Beltain on a regular basis.

Morgan is also a voice in the early music community. Besides playing with early music heavies Sue Carney, Mitchell Sandler and Doron Sherwin, she has issued her own collection of early music entitled A Medieval Feast.

A Medieval Feast was produced by Morgan and her husband Mikkel and recorded at home on a Pro Tools rig. This was possible because Morgan played all the instruments herself. A video of Douce Dame Jolie was released to youtube and continues to get upwards of forty hits a day.

Mikkel says he's going to record a solo album. When it might happen is anybody's guess.

Beltain was born in Oakland, California. The photo at left was taken in 1993. Morgan Thomas, not yet Morgan McDow, is playing bass. Chris Kemp is playing guitar and Mikkel McDow is singing. Behind Mik is J Boyd on the trap kit.

In April 1994 Chris left the band and returned to the Bay Area. He was succeeded by Spark & Cinder's organist Kim Gimbal, who moved to bass when Beltain ditched electric gear for folk instruments. Kim left altogether in October of that year, though he still plays with Mikkel and Morgan as the Rock Creek String Band.

Changing styles meant cultivating a new audience. Beltain set out to build a following in the North State of California and the mountain communties on the eastern slopes of the Sierras. Their 1996 performances at the State Fair in Sacramento and the Chico World Music Festival in Chico marked Beltain as an up and coming band that, in the words of one reviewer, had pulled ahead of the pack. Two songs from their debut album, Any Port Town and Evergreen, helped to establish Mikkel as a songwriter.

Along the way several players came and went. Sid Lewis and Sam Good joined from the Sid Lewis Acoustic Project. Sid played banjo, mandolin, guitar and sang with Beltain from 1994 to 1997. His cohort Sam played bass and stayed with the band until 1999. Dawn McConnel was Beltain's fiddler, though Bill Dick of the Pockets 'o Gold Band played with Beltain on their 1997 Mammoth Lakes performances.

Beltain was missing a wheel running up to the 1997 festival season. The band was booked to headline the Mammoth Lakes Celtic Festival when it was announced that Dawn would not be coming along. Sid and Sam let it be known a tour was not in their future either so Beltain hired Mark Wilpolt for a truncated schedule of performances.

Mark was hired because he knew the jigs and reels that were the band's bread and butter. With no coaching required he admirably negotiated the twists and turns of Celtic chord progressions, sometimes abandoning the bass for a mandolin or a banjo. Beltain was asked to return the next year with the very same line-up.

By the summer of 1997 Beltain had issued an album and Morgan and McDow had released a cassette titled Too Hot In The Kitchen. After the summer tour it was decided to record a live album featuring the entire seven-piece band. Sid was devoting his attention to his Acoustic College and left the band before the recording was made. The resulting album, Crankshaft Grinding, is a band favorite.

Crankshaft Grinding was the template for the Beltain's second studio album, Merry Begot. Merry Begot was meant to be a swan song. Mikkel, Morgan and J were moving in an electric direction, and the loss of Sid Lewis had cost the band some instrumental fire. Mikkel prevailed upon the band to record his songs so Merry Begot was produced at Pro Audio Services in Chico, Ca. by Beltain and Dale Price.

Merry Begot was issued in 1999 on Beltain's own label and as a download on mp3.com. Two songs quickly rose up the mp3.com charts. Wild In The West and Drawing Down The Moon ended the century near the top of the mp3.com listings for independent artists.

Bouyed by the news that Drawing Down The Moon was big in places like Disney World (home to techs from Chico State) and other unlikely places such as Baltimore, Beltain decided to regroup and record a definitive album. It would not be another collection of concert favorites. Trebuchet would weave a tapestry of sounds from the most delicate pluck of a harp to the awesome power of the electric slide guitar.

This was too much for Mark Wilpolt who left amiably in early 2000. Slide guitarist John Glick was invited to join. Rhiannon Hawk had joined in October 1999 in place of departing Dawn McConnell. When Sam declared that he was leaving Morgan moved back to bass and Dave Cowan joined the performing group on flutes and accordion.

In the summer of 2000 Beltain and producer Dale Price began work on a version of Time Of The Assassins, a song written by Mikkel and JD Buhl and released by The Jars. Four other songs recorded in the session were Drawing Down The Moon and The Wild Hunt, both of which were part of Merry Begot, Bedlam Boys and Ancient In The Modern World, a song on Beltain's set list since 1992. These five were issued as an ep on New Year's Eve 2001.

Many fans did not like the new sound and complained vociferously. Criticism aside, Time Of The Assassins caught the ear of Putamayo Records. Unfortunately Putamayo scaled back. Even so, Trebuchet was not given a thumbs down.

A second session yielded O'Carolan's Castle Kelly played by Rhiannon Hawk on the Celtic harp and Dave Cowan on the Irish flute. The Rights Of Man and The Butterly were recorded and Rhiannon's Tall Trees / Manawydan. A third session was begun though Driftwood, Circle Of Light and Trebuchet remain unfinished.

Beltain insists that Trebuchet will one day be complete. A portion of it was made available as a SNOCAP download in 2008. An edit of the title track, an excerpt from Drawing Down The Moon / The Wild Hunt and Bedlam Boys are included on the Palimpsest CD.

As recording progressed Beltain turned their attention to the casino stages. Studio time had to be payed for and local Indian casinos provided much needed cash flow. A document of Beltain's Saint Patrick's Day show exists as a limited edition CD-R titled Saint Patrick's Day Live. It features Mikkel, Morgan and J with Rhiannon Hawk and Dave Cowan.

Post Trebuchet Beltain continued in the acoustic tradition that established the band. The departure of John Glick prompted Beltain to stop hiring soloists and have Mikkel play the solos himself. This meant that a well chosen player could replace two former members of the band. Morgan called her long time friend Sue Carney of the Terra Nova Consort who came out to Chico to lend a helping hand.

Sue had been playing with the band as far back as 1999. Recording time was booked at Electric Canyon Studio with Dale Price producing. The title track to Trebuchet was finally recorded with Sue on guitarria and Brian Fredson on lead guitar.

Morgan

With Sue Carney on rythmn guitarria, recorder, percussion and vocals the band made recordings for an album to include Jongleur, The Weaver & The Factory Maid, Billy Taylor, Hal N Toe, Circle Of Light, (Living With Your) Pride and the Peruvian panpipe tunes El Gato y la Pulga, Flor de Santa Vera Cruz and Morenada de las Sapos. To these were added Wild Rover and The Last Country Waltz. The resulting album was made available through SNOCAP and as a self-produced CD-R.

Dave Cowan

In 2007 founding member and drummer J Boyd left Northern California for sunnier skies. Performing without a drummer had certain advantages. One advantage was that Beltain no longer needed a PA to perform. It meant many new venues were available to the band. Most of them were in people's living rooms.

Since then Beltain has played in people's living rooms up and down the state of California. House concerts provide a low cost way of touring and Beltain is booked all over the west coast from Los Angeles to Seattle, sometimes months in advance. The band can also be seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland performing their own set and for the Green Show dancers.

Beltain can be found every weekend through Xmas at the Dickens Faire at the Cow Palace in Daly City.

Beltain is currently Mikkel & Morgan McDow and Dave Cowan with Sue Carney sitting in. Sue is not always in attendance due to her career and responsibilites at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but when she is gone the band does well as a trio. Look for the full four piece band on Beltain's fall 2009 tour of the Pacific Northwest and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2010 summer season.

	Beltain - Released October 1995. Includes: Paddy's Lamentation, Any Port Town, Far Between (You & Me), Jigs: The Athol Highlander's March / The Jig Of Slurs, Queen Mary's Galliard / Lord Darnley / The Road To Lisdoonvarna / Tarry Trousers, A Tree Song / The Flowers of Edinburgh / Maggie In The Woods, The Bedmaking, Rose Among The Thorns / Reels: The Little Beggar Man / Mackilmoyle's / Drowsy Maggie, Tara Hill & Evergreen / The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

	Merry Begot by Beltain - Released May 1999. Includes: Dance The Magic Round, The Jolly Highwayman, The Prince Of Wales, Old Soldier In The Barracks, Where Widows Walk, Reels: The Morning Dew / Dowd's #9 / Toss The Feathers #1, Trouble In Mind, The Old Straight Track, Drawing Down The Moon (acoustic version) & Wild In The West.

	Time Of The Assassins (ep) by Beltain - Released December 2000. Includes: Time Of The Assassins, Bedlam Boys, Drawing Down The Moon (abridged), Ancient In The Modern World.

	A Medieval Feast by Morgan McDow - Released December 2005. Includes: Douce Dame Jolie, Puisque Je Voy, Tristan's Lament / La Rota / Douce Dame Jolie (reprise), Edi Beo Thu Hevene Queene, Rufty Tufty, Quant Je Voi Yver, Puisque Je Voy (reprise), Angelus Ad Virgenem, Salterello, Alle Psallite, Nova Nova, Pucelete, Danse Royale & Momento Mori. The 2009 re-issue added Gathering Pescods, Once Twice Thrice, Pucelete (alternate mix), Westron Wynde, La Rota Explota & Douce Dame Jolie / Hey Diddle Dis (video mix).

	Jongleur & Other Stories by Beltain - Released February 2008. Includes: Jongleur, Morenada de las Sapos, Hal N Toe, The Last Country Waltz, Flor de Santa Vera Cruz, (Living With Your) Pride, Billy Taylor, Castle Kelly, The Weaver & The Factory Maid, Circle Of Light, El Gato y la Pulga & Wild Rover.

	Palimpsest - Beltain's 16 Year Retrospective. Released May 2009. Includes: The Jolly Highwayman, Far Between (You & Me), Uncle John's Band, Jongleur, Douce Dame Jolie, Any Port Town, Dance The Magic Round, Drawing Down The Moon, Circle Of Light, Bedlam Boys, Wild In The West, Billy Taylor, Kilmainham Gaol, Trebuchet & Evergreen.