GreanStalk was a traditional Celtic music duo from Ontario, Canada. The duo performed imaginitively arranged traditional and traditionally-based original compositions on the Irish flute, guitar, cittern, tin-whistle, bodhran and bones.
GreanStalk was formed in 1996 and first performed in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada for six months, before moving eastward and performing for two more years in the province of Ontario. Greanstalk disbanded in 1998.
Greanstalk was: Brent Santin (Irish flute, tin-whistle and bones), and Jim Maxwell (Guitar, lead-vocals, cittern, and bodhran).
Band Members:
Brent Santin - Irish wooden flute, tin-whistle, bones. Brent composed the songs "King's Company" and "The Night After We Slaughtered Seals" as well as the instrumentals "The Money Pit" and "Farewell All Dark Haired Lassies".
Jim Maxwell - Guitar, Cittern, Bodhran. Jim composed the tune "The Money Pit" as well as the song "Blackamutt Jack".
Ray Caldwell - Uillean bagpipes[guest musician]. Ray is a Uillean piper who currently resides in Southern Ontario. He performs as a guest on the track "Ray's Reels" from the album "The Money Pit".
Brent & Jim have known each other since Kindergarten and started playing music together in High School through various musical incarnations: The SillyHearts, The Spleen Bishops, The Hoolies, GreanStalk and other bands since (The Pendletons, The Duncan Cameron Band, Haggis)
We played all over Victoria, BC, and southern Ontario. Brent Santin and Jim Maxwell now play live in various other bands.
Altan, Chieftains, Solas, Bothy Band, Matt Molloy, Planxty, Ossian.
Traditional instruments and microphones (or acoustic!).
Yeah, Brent now makes Irish wooden flutes and has published an article on-line with instructions on how to make a bodhran (check out the web-site link on this page).
Since GreanStalk, Brent has played with Canadian Cetlic virtuoso Duncan Cameron and then the Eastern Ontario band "Haggis" (search for them on Soundclick.com). He has produced and released two albums of historic 19th century Canadian music (search for "Brent Santin and Gary Mallon" on Soundclick.com). He is also into non-celtic music. You can check out his band "The Ovoids" here on Soundclick (again, do a search).
Jim does digital matte painting for big Hollywood movies now and has composed and recorded some amazing pop music with bands such as the "Pendletons" and "Tenzing Norgay".
If you download this music and like it, please drop me a line or leave a message in the "message-board" section of this site. Hundreds of people download our music every month but I hardly hear from anyone!