Roland O'Vinyard, musician, writer and photographer, outdoor adventurer ... is a graduate of a couple of universities. But he earns his living as a farm real estate broker, is married, with 3 adult children. His interest in folk music started with hootenannies when he was 14 and now it spans a large number of genres, nearly all of them traditional: which he sometimes performs solo under the stage name, The Bard Rocks. He usually plays one kind of guitar or another, but also messes around on a variety of banjos, autoharp, jews harp, or mandolin. With The Munster Pickles, he shares vocals, writes some songs & tunes, and does announcing and patter.
"A hootenanny at a Bible camp in 1960 did it for me. I came home determined to teach myself guitar so I could contribute in the future. I bought songbooks and began to learn songs, bought records when I could find (and afford ) them. A professor in college steered me toward Old Time music, I led Outing Club songfests and things progressed from there. When I moved to my present home, I wanted to find someone to play with, saw a posted note for Irish music, and inserted myself into that group before I realized they were a band. Can’t believe I did that! There’s been other bands since, but I was in that one for 18 years until aches and pains caused them to disband this summer. Fortunately by then, The Munster Pickles had started, giving me a continued outlet for Irish (and other) music."
Kris O'Berner plays fiddles, both conventional and an unique-sounding Lithuanian folk violin. She works as a physical therapist, plays in another duo (The Montgumry Misfits), and cares for a mother who is aging faster wiished-for. Dogs and other animals are central to her non-professional life.
"I suppose I would say I grew up with it (ever since I was a puppy) attending the Fox Hollow Festivals when I was quite young and later, Old Songs…. Luckily my parents have always enjoyed music and tried to give us kids a broad exposure (folk, classical, radio, guitar lessons and then fiddle) - when I first heard some traditional fiddle music at Fox Hollow probably 1978 I knew I wanted to play like that.....been fiddlin'around ever since."