Some folks are just restless. This may have been true of Brad Dunnells and Jason Tinney when they formed the Wayfarers. In 1998, Dunnells and Tinney co-founded the popular and award winning Irish American group Donegal X-Press, but as early as 1999, the two men could also be found in the Baltimore/DC area under the name “The Finn and Seamus Project,” an acoustic duo performing original tunes and stripped down versions of the Irish ballads and rebel songs that made up the bulk of Donegal X-Press live set lists.
Laura Cosner, an actress and singer-songwriter who knew Dunnells and Tinney from their days in college and regional theatre, began attending these acoustic shows and it wasn’t long before she was joining the two men on stage. It wasn’t long before the duo officially became a trio; they just needed to change the name.
By 2000, the Irish Voice (NYC) had named the Donegal X-Press and their second album, Quinn’s Diaries, Artist and Album of the Year, and the Baltimore City Paper had listed the album among the year’s Top 10. For Tinney, Dunnells and Cosner, the year 2000 also saw the birth of The Wayfarers, the name taken from the traditional folk song “Wayfaring Stranger.” As Donegal X-Press was experiment-ing and expanding, blending various Irish and world music and “good old-fashioned American rock-n-roll,” The Wayfarers weren’t fixing anything that wasn’t broke, throwing their hats in and staking claim in the American landscape of roots music: folk, blues and country. They were doing so with the most traditional of presentations: an acoustic guitar, a harmonica and a few voices. This intimate arrangement became the heart and soul of their performances and original music. The three songwriters wrote about familiar arenas of love and loss, the region (all three have strong family ties to Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia), hometowns and family. These songs were balanced by rollicking and jaunty odes to front porch whiskey and cold hearted, country-n-western-singing females who take advantage of hapless, forlorn hounds who lose the best song ever written on the back of a bar napkin. These original songs were coupled with popular standards by classic American performers: Sonny Boy Williamson to B.B. King, the Carter Family to Ralph Stanley, Hank to Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, as well as many others. The American songbook—like the Wayfarers’ repertoire—is a large one.
In 2001, The Wayfarers released their self-titled debut and one year later followed up with Like I Used To, about which Greg Yost of Music Monthly simply said, “The best part of listening to Like I Used To is that every song is good...”
With the help of some of the region’s most talented musicians, The Wayfarers recently released their third album, Sorrow & Snakes. Produced and recorded in Baltimore by Ed Tetreault and mastered at Bonati Mastering in New York City, Sorrow & Snakes combines well-crafted songwriting with sinuous energy and pop chart appeal in a genre of folk and country music that is uniquely their own. Sorrow & Snakes spans emotional surrender to dark humor and engages in a wide range of musical styles. There are songs of lost love, bar rooms and honkytonks, national pride, spiritual awakening, drunken repentance, bitter break-ups, and fallen starlets. Sorrow & Snakes is a must-have album for any music lover who enjoys clever songwriting mixed with memorable hooks and a roots-rockin’ feel.
Based in Baltimore, the group performs in pubs, clubs and festivals throughout the Baltimore and DC areas and beyond. The Wayfarers are currently seeking new venues to promote their most recent release.
Just dropped by to say hello.Hope all is well with you. Thought I'd drop by and let you know I have uploaded a new acoustic demo called Old Gang. Hope you like it. Have a great week and I'll catch up with you soon!
Hope all is well with you. Thought I'd drop by and let you know I have recently uploaded a new acoustic demo called Scream And Shout. Hope you like it. Have a listen anyway, see what you think....
