William Pint & Felicia Dale

Felicia Dale grew up in an environment steeped in the traditional lore of the sea. Born and raised on Vashon Island in Washington State’s Puget Sound, she spent her childhood sailing Northwest coastal waters and cruising Canada’s Inside Passage. Her father was a sea captain who brought back tales and treasures from exotic ports of call. From her mother, a transplanted Parisian, Dale learned French as her first language and acquired a lifelong love for the songs of the French seafaring tradition. William Pint was led astray into the folk world in 1970. The folk/rock sounds of Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention wooed him away from his early rock and roll influences (The Who, The Kinks, and The Beatles). This led to a growing interest in the more traditional, less electric music of such artists as Martin Carthy, John Renbourn, The Chieftains and the eclectic songs of the Incredible String Band. In 1979, with his band Morrigan, he recorded an album of Irish tunes and nautical songs By Land or By Sea, for Folkways Records. Along with composer Paul Ely Smith and Robert Kotta in the group Ellipsis, he investigated the unusual combination of minimalist, folk and classical music. Flying Fish Records released their 1984 recording, Ellipsis produced by the late famed Irish musician Michael O’Domhnaill. The same trio also performed and recorded as Copperfield, a popular Northwest band specializing in traditional British Isles and Celtic music.