Filk performers at Confluence 2016 as of June 19:
Filk Guests of Honor
Jeff Bohnhoff is a professional musician, songwriter and recording engineer/producer. With his wife Maya, he has released 6 CDs including 3 albums of hilarious parodies of classic rock songs, and 3 albums of beautiful original songs. He has also produced albums for Seanan McGuire, Nancy Freeman, Mary Crowell, Betsey Tinney, Twotonic (Katy Dröge Macdonald and Steve Macdonald) and Harmony Heifers and Scott Snyder. Midichlorian Rhapsody, a spot-on parody of Bohemian Rhapsody from Jeff and Maya’s most recent album Grated Hits, went viral on Youtube, and won a Pegasus award in 2014. Jeff and Maya have been frequent musical Guests of Honor at cons all over the US and the world, including the UK, Germany and Canada. Their most recent album is titled I Remember the Rain.
Writer of speculative fiction as the result of a horrible childhood incident involving Klaatu and a robot named Gort, Maya Bohnhoff is the New York Times bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy including STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (with Michael Reaves). Her short fiction appearances include Analog, Amazing Stories, Interzone, and Baen’s Universe; she’s a Nebula, Sidewise, and British Science Fiction award finalist. When she’s not writing, she’s performing original and parody music with her husband, Jeff. Their most recent album release is I Remember the Rain.
Special Guest
Steve Goodie is, in all modesty and candor, the genius of our age. Comedian, writer, singer, director and producer, Steve was a founding member of Monty Python and has written scripts for Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, Mahatma Gandhi, Matt Groening, and Queen Elizabeth (for which he was knighted in 1972 at the unprecedented age of six). The Beatles credit much of their fame to his early studio work, during which he developed their recording sound with his apprentice, George Martin. His film scores and theatre work need no introduction, and he became a household word with his ground-breaking recording of The Biggest Belch In The History Of Man. It is a tribute to his humility that, on the suggestion of his long-time fan and sometime paramour Liz Taylor, he entered the Federal Witness Protection Program and began a new career, “to level the playing field,” as he put it, “for the other idiots trying to make it in Show Business.”
Under this new identity, Steve (who hails from Nashville, TN) has recorded 26 albums of comedy material, including a dozen or more tunes about the Harry Potter universe. His tunes have been played on The Dr. Demento Show over 250 times, as well as on morning-show radio throughout the country. He is a longtime core member of The Funny Music Project (www.thefump.com).
Also featuring:
Robin Baylor: If I told you, I’d have to shoot you. A native Pittsburgher, I got out just before they cleaned up the air, eventually to move to wildfire country after trying out all 4 CONUS time zones and a total of 25 years without “winters”. I’m NOT a writer, which probably shows. For a living, I’ve done wet chemistry (plastic explosives), radar deception, image processing, and code testing — I actually have gotten to use most of the odd math classes from school. For hobbies, both music and science fiction have been there for some decades, so naturally I became a filker. Other things I am or have been into are camping, scuba (not lately, alas, the ocean is too far), yarncrafts, occasional photography and baking. Oh yea, and Fred proposed to me in Esperanto.
Marilyn “Mattie” Brahen is a singer-songwriter-guitarist who performs both original songs and covers by other notable performers. She has also has published fiction in American and British magazines and in anthologies. Her 2003 first novel, CLAIMING HER, and its 2009 sequel, REFORMING HELL, (published by Wildside Press) received good reviews. A third novel, BABY BOY BLUE (also Wildside), a police procedural mystery set in Philadelphia, was published in 2011 and resold to Linford Mystery Library (large print edition) in Great Britain in 2014. She lives with her husband, editor and author Darrell Schweitzer, and their two cats, Tolkien and Lillyput, in Northeast Philadelphia.
Fred Capp: I was invited here for the filking but plan to stay for the programming. I have been playing music all of my life when I wasn’t doing things like turning down a job working for Santa at North Pole (the work was too seasonal, but he played a fine banjo) and chasing Frost Giants in Norway (they have some mighty fine Fjords there, but no Chjevys). I’m currently living in East Central Colorado (somewhere which has, so far, been safe) near Denver, in a nice house looking down the hill at downtown, with my genius wife and my two amazing and talented daughters. I describe my interests as “just about everything; yes, that too.” And, like my friends Jeff & Maya, whom I know from while we lived in California, I am a follower of the Baha’i Faith. I love to tell stories, the more improbable but true, the better. And I’m also a vegetarian, an Esperantist, and a webcomic artist, and you can read my comic at littlelevers.com/Angels. Everything else you may have heard about me is subject to change.
Errandofmercy is a geeky musical collective from Rochester, NY. Their music is inspired by the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, including Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Trek, and other lesser-known series. Errandofmercy strives to capture the best of these imagined worlds in their songs, from the darkly emotive to the festive and silly.
The Faithful Sidekicks are the acoustic geek comedy musical duo of Eric and Jen Distad. They write and perform original comedy songs about the geeky/fannish things they love. Based in Andover MN, they have been making music together at coffeeshops and SF Conventions around the Upper Midwest as The Faithful Sidekicks since 2014. They recently released their first geek/filk CD, entitled *.* And Other Star Things.
Jane Garthson has been involved in filk (fan music of fantasy and science fiction) since 2003, and fandom since about 1992, starting with Ad Astra in Toronto. Avid reader, mostly of fantasy. Married to Phil Mills. Active in February Album Writing Month (FAWM). CoChair FilKONtario 23 and Past President of the Filk Society of Upper Canada. Formerly on the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Board. Part of filk circles in the Greater Toronto area, at fan conventions and wherever I travel on business. Leadership consultant to charities, associations and governments when not singing, being a servant to two cats, riding my Quarter Horse or out in my garden.
Gabrielle Gold has been singing, writing filk, and attending sci-fi/fantasy conventions for over ten years. While some of her songs are based on her own in-progress fantasy novels, her current favorite topics to write about are mythology, folklore, and anything to do with stars or plant life. She won second place in the 2012 OVFF Songwriting Contest and went on to record the entry as a single under the Indianapolis-based Dragon Scale Studios. When not at conventions, she masquerades as a Digital Asset Cataloguer for an orthopedic surgical device company in southwest Florida.
Kari Maaren is a wandering English professor who has turned grumpiness into an art form. She has a completed webcomic, West of Bathurst, and an active one, It Never Rains. She writes and performs geeky ukulele music, and she has produced three CDs, Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off, Everybody Hates Elves, and (with Copy Red Leader) Pirate Elves in Space. She has won Aurora Awards for her music (2013 and 2015) and comics (2015). Her first novel, a YA fantasy, is due out from Tor in the fall of 2017.
Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Garnering comparisons ranging from modern rock groups such as Matchbox 20 & The Fray to classic singer-songwriters such as Paul Simon & Elton John, the Cleveland, Ohio based performer mixes an intensity with a sensitivity wrapped in effective contradictions. Astride his motorcycle with a guitar strapped to his back, making references to quantum mechanics or science fiction, McFarland embraces and explores his wide spectrum of knowledge, interests, experiences, and hobbies in his music and writing. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.
Phil Mills lives in Toronto, Canada. He writes lyrics about science fiction, fantasy, and fandom. Of necessity, he frequently adds music and attempts to perform these creations. He released the CD Rain on the Sand in 2009 and the Bandcamp album Mix Until Absurd in 2014. He has become an avid promoter of the FAWM and 50/90 online song-writing communities, using those as inspiration sources for yet more songs.
At Confluence 2016, Judi Miller will once again provide her own unique brand of American Sign Language interpretation for selected concerts.
Staff
Randy Hoffman, filk@parsec-sff.org