Kelt
Bio: Bill Mullen - Musician and Entertainer... Bill was born and raised in Dundee, Scotland in the mid-1950s (so that makes him about 35) in the middle of all sorts of great Scottish and Irish music (and a lot of other crap). With Grandfather Paddy Kelly from Dublin and Grandmother Annie McPherson, from Glasgow, Bill is a real Celt (Celt roughly translated as “he who partakes of the golden liquid, foaming brew and deep-fried haggis with chips”). Surrounded by music all his growing years, Bill taught himself to play the guitar by the age of 12 (too mean to pay for lessons) and was performing at the (in)famous Gibson family parties, learning traditional Scottish and Irish songs from his highly musical neighbors (also Celts (see definition above)). By the age of 16, Bill was playing regularly around Dundee and a few years later all over Scotland. As a weekend musician, Bill played folk music, rock music or pop music… as long as it was music (and payed money) until the age of 29 when he moved to Aberdeen, Scotland to further his business career. In 1986, Bill moved to the Netherlands where he discovered (much to his wife’s horror) that his next musical instrument would be the bagpipes. He joined the 48th Highlanders of Holland (yes… highlanders, in a country which is flat and partly below sea-level) and after a year of wrestling with the (#$@*&) primitive instrument, he was marching with them and playing with grace (and other men in skirts) in many places in Europe. He played in the 50th anniversary D-day celebrations in Normandy, France ; the national Liberation parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands and many other locations including Vienna and the Millennium Pipes record where 10,000 pipers and drummers marched through Edinburgh in the year 2000. In the Netherlands, Bill also started playing in the folk duo “Keltic Fire” with his Irish friend Feargal MacConuladh. They shared the same keen interest in folk music (and the wonders of drink), played regularly around the Netherlands and recorded two CDs (while almost sober). Bill moved to the USA in 2007, again for work, and is now settled in Lake Oswego, near Portland in Oregon. Bill still records with Keltic Fire at a distance (Feargal now lives in Barcelona, Spain) and has always managed to play a gig or two (as long as there’s drink involved) with Feargal when they get together. After one of the Keltic Fire gigs in Kells in Portland in 2009, Bill was approached by David Maher of Mahers Irish pub who eventually convinced Bill to start playing solo in Mahers, Lake Oswego in January 2010. Since then David has purchased a new hearing-aid and remarkably, Bill’s solo musical career has gone from strength to strength… follow the story as it unfolds in Bill's Blog!
Bill Mullen's Blog 