CHARLIE WILSON and ELLEN GIBLING (Flute and Harp - Instrumental Folk Duo)
Charlie Wilson and Ellen Gibling are a new instrumental duo of wooden flute and harp, performing original compositions by Charlie and an eclectic mix of traditional dance tunes.
Ellen is a harpist based in Halifax where she plays classical, free improvised, and folk music. In 2018, she travelled to the University of Limerick to study Irish traditional music performance. She released her solo harp album “The Bend in the Light” in 2022, garnering award nominations from Canadian Folk Music Awards and Music Nova Scotia. She performs regularly with folk duo The Bombadils and improvising quintet New Hermitage.
Charlie and Ellen met through their shared background in Irish traditional music, playing in Irish sessions and larger ensembles over the past decade. They began playing as a duo in earnest in 2023 during the recording of Charlie’s upcoming album of original folk instrumentals – debuting their work together in a sell-out series of 7 intimate shows in Crousetown, rural Lunenburg County. Their instrumental sets are joyful and intricate with Ellen’s deeply rhythmic playing grounding and lifting the melody of the wooden flute. The first year of their work together has homed in on and celebrated the local and specific – playing concerts of music inspired by Charlie’s river home, on the banks of the Petite Riviere, their music featuring the poetry of Naomi Blackwood, also from Petite Riviere, and stories about the impetus behind the tunes.
LARKA (traditional music quartet)
At home on the South Shore, Charlie has teamed up with Scottish players, Eilidh Campbell (from Mahone Bay) and Andy Webster (from the Annapolis Valley), together with bodhran player RJ Genge to form a new traditional music ensemble, Larka. They play regularly at Betty’s in Mahone Bay and have performed for Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival’s Music in the Park series.
PENNYBROOK (acoustic duo)
For over a decade now, Charlie has worked with Jude Pelley in the acoustic duo, Pennybrook. They play traditional and original instrumentals, and sing old-fashioned songs. Their music is rich and atmospheric, drawing on both traditional and contemporary influences.
Jude plays fretted strings – guitar, bouzouki, mandolin – in a variety of styles including Irish, bluegrass and American old-time. His other musical projects at this time include a roots, blues, and Appalachian old-time music duo with fiddler and singer Amy Lounder, called Sloecooker; he has also been working collaboratively on an extended chamber music piece, which premiered at the Manning Chapel in Wolfville this Fall.
As the duo Pennybrook, they have traveled across Canada many times, playing festivals and concerts in every province and in the Yukon Territory. They released The Edge of Waiting, their first full-length CD of original music in 2012; their second album, Row On, was released in 2024.