Irish Aires

Blending rock guitars, bass,and drums with soaring bagpipes and reeling Celtic fiddle, Needfire offers a fresh alternative rock sound to the world of traditional Irish & Scottish music. Headlining festivals coast to coast,Texas-based Needfire invigorates vintage Celtic music with the heart of rock & roll.

BRAD MADISON- Highland bagpipes, uilleann pipes, guitars, melodica
JACOB FRASIER- drum kit, percussion, vocals
MAGEN MILLER- fiddle, piano, accordion, vocals
ED WALEWSKI- bass, mandolin, dulcimer, recorder
KEVIN HANLON- electric & acoustic guitars, vocals

Hello, we're Needfire: five people from Dallas, Texas that make a kind of Celtic-folk-rock style of music. That is, we take traditional Celtic melodies and instrumentation and bring them into a modern context. Electric, acoustic traditional, original. Fiddles, bagpipes, mandolins, piano, electric/acoustic guitars, and a rock rhythm section. We blend multiple styles of music and instruments into a unique style that has made us one of today's most distinctive and original bands.

Since forming in late 2004 we've gained a reputation of delivering highly entertaining live shows. Performing at a variety of venues such as outdoor festivals, pubs, colleges, and theaters our shows are high-energy crowd pleasers, appealing to all ages and interactive-  often mingling with the crowd while performing(wireless instruments!). This has allowed the group to quickly progress from regional favorite to a nationally-headlining artist at some of the largest Celtic and arts festivals in North America.

2010's "Long Lonesome Tour" put quite a few miles on the ol' tour bus (well, our mostly reliable Ford van) with performances throughout North America from Florida to California, Washington to New York, Texas to Ontario, Canada. Our current 2011 tour brings much excitement as we're performing several new tunes of which some will end up on our new CD due out this year. Needfire's current touring line-up consists of Ed Walewski (bass, mandolin), Brad Madison (Highland bagpipes, uilleann pipes, guitars), Magen Miller (fiddle, piano, vocals), Kevin Hanlon (guitars, vocals), and Jacob Frasier (drums, percussion).