Fred Gilmartin

© 2015 Last Small Town

With Scottish and Irish music influences going back to grade school, Fred has been involved in the music most of his life. “My father used to wake us up on Saturday morning with the Scottish Highland bagpipes. He played them either live or on the stereo.”

© 2015 Last Small Town

Fred started playing piano in grade school. He later sang in a boys choir and played the bagpipes in the Liberty High school pipe band. During high school he learned to play the guitar and spent the next 15 years playing for himself and jamming with friends at parties. In 1994 he went to his first bluegrass festival and became interested in the mandolin.

Shortly after that he bought his first mandolin and began learning Irish, Scottish, Canadian, old-time and American fiddle tunes. Once he started attending bluegrass festivals he started learning traditional and contemporary bluegrass songs.

Fred also performs regularly with the acoustic rock ensembles “the JK Trio” and “Skulldiggers” and plays in a traditional Irish band known as “Piper’s Request” There are so many crossovers between Irish and Bluegrass music, yet so many differences! Fred enjoys both styles and you’ll see him on area stages for a long time to come.