Listen
About
Take one Irish fiddle, add a dash of banjo, a whiff of tin whistle, a healthy serving of guitar, and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle a little accordion on top, and the result is a charming blend of original Celtic tunes and old favorites, presented with a twist. Kettle of Fish is the brainchild of Nashville songwriters Robin Ruddy and Sarah Wilfong, who began writing quirky, Celtic-inspired tunes together in 2017. Like all good stories, this one begins in a pub, with a fiddle.
Sarah Wilfong began playing a tiny violin at the age of three, and discovered Irish fiddle tunes at eleven. By the time she moved from her native Chicago to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music, she was already an experienced recording session player with multiple album credits to her name. After performing with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler at the Berklee Performance Center and Charlie Hayden and Michael Brecker at Carnegie Hall, Sarah relocated to Nashville to join the all-girl country band, Mustang Sally, with whom she toured for eight years over three continents. Sarah kept busy in the recording studio as well, releasing two albums of traditional and original fiddle music, and lending her fiddle and arranging skills to numerous projects, most notably on the recently discovered and posthumously released track, “The Way is Love”, by Roy Orbison on the 25th anniversary re-release of his iconic album Mystery Girl. Still an Irish fiddler at heart, Sarah began playing regularly in a trio with Canadian singer-songwriter Steve Benoit at McNamara’s Irish Pub. One day the other member of their trio subbed out. As fate would have it, that sub was Robin.
Robin Ruddy might hail from Miami, but Nashville nurtured her love of songwriting and performance, and encouraged her to expand from guitar to banjo, dobro, pedal steel, mandolin, bouzouki, and ukulele. Robin’s multi-instrumentalism drew the attention first of Lynn Anderson, with whom she toured for fourteen years, followed by Rod Stewart, which lead to a three year tour that covered twenty-six countries. A sought after songwriter, Robin’s songs have been recorded by Aberdeen Green, The Darlins, Savannah Lynne, Sarah Alison Turner, Holland Marie, Tim Watson, Emma Leigh, Kelsey K , Wade Trammell, and Kim & Kandy; her song “I’m Just a Girl” is featured in the 2019 film Santa Girl. Robin’s recordings have garnered accolades, including a Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional Folk Album in 2004, for her involvement on Beautiful Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster. Robin also wears the hat of author, having penned a banjo method book, The Ruddy Method- Beginner Banjo, and Coconuggets, 10-Secrets to Success in a Coconut Shell. It was no surprise that when she set foot on the McNamara’s stage, she played with a group of strangers as if she had been playing Irish music all her life.
Fast forward six months, and Robin’s smile and tasty banjo were a permanent fixture of the trio. When the call of the Canadian North became too strong for Steve to ignore, Robin and Sarah found themselves in a fine kettle of fish without their lead singer. Necessity being the mother of invention, the two women began writing up a storm and in 2018 they released their first album of original music, Kettle of Fish: Celtic Mist, featuring multi-instrumentalist Josh Culley appearing on tin whistle, accordion, bouzouki, and bodhran. Their second album, Kettle of Fish: Celtic Christmas, is set to be released in November, 2019, and features vocalist Luisa Marion in addition to Josh Culley.