Special Guest- Marc Gunn
Marc Gunn plays Irish, Scottish, and folk music. But he adds a twist. He fuses his love of science fiction, fantasy, and comedy with his Scots-Irish heritage.
He calls it Sci F’Irish music. You will laugh and smile to songs inspired by Lord of the Rings, Firefly, Star Wars and Star Trek, dragons and cats, plus traditional Irish drinking songs.
His musical weapon of choice is the autoharp. This obscure instrument is great for singing along. Gunn makes his shows fun and accessible with a sonically unique rhythm & folk musical style.
For Gunn, it started small, wearing a kilt on campus at the University of Texas. As one half of the acclaimed Brobdingnagian Bards, Gunn and partner Andrew McKee developed a loyal following with weekly performances on campus. This quickly led to gigs at renaissance faires and eventually science fiction conventions, where their popularity exploded.
When the Bards split up in 2008, Gunn left Austin and began producing albums in overdrive.He now has over 20 solo albums on his homespun Mage Records label. His most-popular albums include Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers, Don’t Go Drinking With Hobbits, Firefly Drinking Songs, Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion, and Sci Fi Drinking Songs. He has released over fifty albums in his catalog.
Selcouth is Gunn’s newest album. “Selcouth” means, “when everything is strange and different, yet you find it marvelous anyway.” That nails Gunn’s strange but marvelous mix of Sci F’Irish music.
In 2014, Marc Gunn launched the Gunn Runners Club on Patreon where he continues to release new songs to fans. He believes the music industry is changing and that musicians will rely more heavily on fan support in the future
Gunn’s activities are not restricted to musical performance alone. In 2005, he transformed his popular Celtic Music Magazine into one of the first podcasts. Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was one of the earliest podcasts to go online and definitely one of the longest lasting. It is still published after 12 years and has since won twice for Best Music Podcast in the Podcast Awards.
Whether it was from playing D&D as a kid or having his mother move to Italy in 1985, Gunn has an adventurer’s soul. He combines his love of travel with his love a music. Every year, he takes other Adventuring Souls on Celtic Invasion Vacations. These are small groups of people who want to not just see famous sites, but to experience their culture, history and legends.
Marc Gunn continues to change the way we look at the music industry. He has raised the bar and held it high. Using the musical past and a vivid imagination bolstered with ambition and drive, he blazes trails from Verse to cyberspace, encouraging others to follow.