Treebeard have been a popular attraction on the pub, festival & beer festival circuit for many years now, with regular appearances at Sheffield, Derby, Tamworth, Newark, Stockport, Lincoln, Stoke & Barnsley festivals, as well as Earls Court for the Great British Beer Festival, and the Cropredy fringe. This year the band have shows at Rockstock & Barrel, Holmfirth Folk Festival, Altrincham, Marlpool & Hope Valley Beer Festivals, Sheffield’s Sharrow & Peace in the Park Festivals, Festival8, Farmer Phil’s, Solfest, Tramlines and Whitwell Festival. 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 ‘ReelAle’ 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 film making 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 and Catrin Ashton have a track featured on the 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. Paul Pearson left Treebeard in 2016 and now concentrates on our original progressive rock band Haze.
