MEET ATLANTIC WAVE

Kaitlin Hahn

Fiddle, Accordion, Piano

A violinist since age 6, Kaitlin took up the Irish fiddle at age 18 (studying under Ed Paloucek) and hasn't looked back. With a penchant for the Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) style of fiddling, Katie attends the Celtic Colours festival there each year and has befriended many of the great artists who perform there. She's also learned from some the greatest names in fiddling, including Liz Carroll, Jerry Holland, Stan Chapman, Buddy MacMaster, Glenn Graham, Kimberley Fraser, and Melissa Emmons. Kaitlin teaches fiddle at the Milwaukee Irish Fest School of Music as well as the Milwaukee Irish Fest Summer School. When not fiddling on stage, Katie's been known to do some foot tapping, accordion, and even some keyboard work on Atlantic Wave albums.

Barry Houlehen

Guitar, Lead Vocal, Bass

A guitarist since 1977, Barry is the longest-playing musician of the group, and has the most diverse and eclectic musical background. Inspired at first by acoustic artists of the 60s and 70s, he later drifted into rock and blues, playing bass for a while with blues-rock outfits. It wasn't until he heard the Pogues in the 1990s that he became enamored of Irish music and returned to his roots as an acoustic guitarist and singer. Barry's known for his love of singing ballads and his encyclopedic memory of songs. His favorites are the songs from Scotland, but he's been known to break into country, blues, jazz, Elvis, Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, show tunes, rockabilly, latin, reggae, and Monty Python at the drop of a hat.

Ed Paloucek

Fiddle, Hurdy Gurdy, Banjo

Like Kaitlin, Ed started out as a classical violinist as a kid, and later became interested in Irish music. And, like Barry, he was also enthralled upon hearing the Pogues when they came out in the 1980s. A consummate tune collector and session player, Ed has travelled the backroads of Ireland in search of tunes, and has played with some of the biggest names in Celtic music. While Kaitlin's sound is Cape Breton, Ed's is the Scottish-tinged style of Donegal, the county in the far northwest of Ireland, and he also includes pieces from many other countries in his playing. In the 90s, Ed was a member of Milwaukee band 180 and the Letter G. In addition to fiddle, Ed plays banjo and the hurdy gurdy, a medieval instrument, and has been playing his custom-made hurdy gurdy live with the band.

Michael Smith

Bodhran, Banjo

From vaudeville to piano and organ tuning, music runs deep in Michael's family heritage. He has studied piano, violin, cello, organ, and percussion privately, and has dabbled in other instruments. He fell in love with Irish music at a very young age, watching a recording of the 1996 Radio City Music Hall debut of Riverdance, and getting his hands on a bodhran soon after that. By his teens he had developed the style similar to what you hear today, and after meeting Ed at a session in 2015, his love for Irish music became a passion. In 2019 Ed invited him to join Atlantic Wave, and the rest is history! Completely self taught on bodhran, he has drawn a majority of his inspiration from the recordings and performances of Colm Phelan and Amy Richter. Michael plays a Mike Quinlan bodhran.

The Origins of the Band...

In 2004, Ed, Kaitlin and John were all playing in different bands in the Milwaukee area, while Barry was just "looking for a band to join". Ed was leading the Irish music session at The Pub in Oconomowoc, and Kaitlin and John played there on a regular basis. All three expressed interest in starting a new band that better fit their own tastes in music. Around the same time, the Scottish band John was playing in was looking for a new guitarist/singer. Patty, the owner of Paddy's Pub on Milwaukee's East Side, asked Barry if he'd be interested, and introduced him to John one evening when they were sitting on opposite ends of the bar. In addition to the Scottish band, John also mentioned the idea of forming a new trad band. Months passed, and Barry continued asking John about the band opportunities each time they met at Paddy's. In the end, the Scottish thing never happened, but in November of 2004, Kaitlin, John and Barry met at Paddy's for the first band meeting, or, as it's also known, "Barry's Audition". They immediately agreed to put the band together, and by Christmas had already assembled a large repertoire to rehearse. After three months of rehearsals they were ready to rock, and it's been jigs and reels ever since...