Biography

The band play lively Celtic folk rock; traditional, original & contemporary songs & tunes on a variety of acoustic instruments, always guaranteed to get an audience up & dancing.

They describe their style as 'Heavy Wood',  a concept stolen from the Nottingham duo Twice Bitten, who used to support Haze back in the day. Treebeard released their first CD 'Heavy Wood' 2002, and a second CD 'Reel Ale’ in 2010. Their track ‘Train’ is also featured on the ‘Forged in Sheffield’ folk compilation CD, and video for 'Over The Hills' won the runner up prize in the 2 weeks 2 make it filmmaking competition 2011, as well as attracting over 200,000 youtube views.

The band have been through a number of line-up changes over the years and are currently led by founder member Chris McMahon (of Haze, Strongheart, Silverwheel, The Outlandish Knights, etc), with long time flautist/fiddler Ceri Ashton (Cadellin, Mother of Crows, Jabberwocky, The Outlandish Knights), and new members; in demand percussionist James Howe (Bellhagg Orkestar, Silver Darlings), talented singer/songwritier Rob Lowdon (Jabberwocky, Broadsword) and fabulous singer/guitarist Paul Pearson.

Original percussionist Paul Chisnell (of Haze) left due to increasingly bad tinnitus in February 2013 and now plays in a (much quieter!) folk trio Ar Faoued. Paul recently released a CD 'Mr C & Friends' featuring songs & musicians from  Treeebeard, Ar Faoued, Old Pekuliar, Twice Bitten & Haze. He was replaced by current Haze drummer Danny McMahon, who is now away at University studying sound engineering.

Paul McMahon & Catrin Ashton have a track featured on the new Seville House Records CD "At One With The Bells". It's a traditional tune "The Banks Of Green Willow" & features Paul on guitar & Cat on vocals. You can order the CD for £10 from Seville House Records. Paul left Treebeard in 2016 and now concentrates on our original progressive rock band Haze.

We are about to release a new Treebeard CD 'New Leaves' and are taking festival bookings for 2017-8.