Artists:Caryl P. Weiss

Caryl P. Weiss performs five hundred years of music from both sides of the Atlantic, including traditional American and British ballads, sea shanties and drinking songs; old-timey, country, and bluegrass music; folk songs of the '60's, contemporary songs, and her own compositions. She has played about 38 instruments, including the guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, dulcimer, autoharp, oboe, bagpipes, tin whistle, piano, concertina, and bul-bul tarang.

Caryl P's interest in the guitar and folk music began in 1963 (when her sister gave her a few guitar lessons). Originally from Philadelphia, she established herself as one of that city's most active musicians while still in her teens. She gave her first professional performance at the age of 15, began composing at 17, and won a songwriting contest sponsored by RCA Records when she was 19. That same year, she was elected to the board of directors of the Philadelphia Folksong Society (which runs the famed Philadelphia Folk Festival). Since then, she has performed both solo and in such diverse ensembles as the sea shanty groups Outward Bound and the Liverpool Judies, Folk Goddesses (with Mary Catherine Reynolds), the Juggernaut String Band, the Kerrville All-Stars, and the Buzzard Band (Waldemar's jazz band), and has backed up many other performers, including Bill Staines, Priscilla Herdman, Eugene O'Donnell, David Amram, Robert Earl Keen, Jr., Carolyn Hester...even Ken Kesey! She has performed "from Alaska to Austria, from Canada to the Caribbean": Besides performing in 24 states, she's played in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Holland, England, Wales, Canada, and Mexico. She's been heard on numerous broadcasts on radio and TV, including "The Dr. Demento Show" and NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Car Talk". The Liverpool Judies sang with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music in that great city.

Branching out into the publishing field, she's edited and published three music books (one of original material and two traditional songbooks). A sea shanty volume waits in the wings, and she began a screenplay based on "The Handsome Cabin Boy". Her discography includes eight releases on her own label, and appearances on more than twenty others.

Aside from performing and publishing, she has had her own booking agency--booking Stan Rogers' first three American tours, plus tours and concerts by Kate Wolf, Barde, Sara Grey, Carolyn Hester, and others. She's a Life Member of the Philadelphia Folksong Society, she produced Philadelphia's Sea/Song Festival, and has coordinated many benefit concerts. She was a charter member of Guitar Players of America, Hey Rube!, and Fat Folksingers of America.

Caryl P. moved to the Texas Hill Country in 1984, working as administrative assistant of the Kerrville Music Festivals. She moved to Austin in 1990, promptly winning the prestigious Austin Songwriters Competition, was named "Best Folk Act" in the 1995/96 Austin Music Awards, and was biographed in Who's Who in Entertainment. Additionally, she has presented a sea shanty program under the auspices of the Texas Commission on the Arts, and was commissioned an Admiral in the Texas Navy by Governor Ann Richards!

As a student of psychology at St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia, Caryl P. was president of the Twilight Players, and was inducted into the Alpha Psi Omega national dramatic honor fraternity. While studying communications at Temple University, she was on the sailing team, and served in VISTA. She earned her Emergency Medical Technician certificate from Austin Community College, and has been studying homeopathic medicine since the late 1980's. She is a member of British Actors' Equity, the National Polar Bears Club, and Daughters of the British Empire; she's a Major in the Civil Air Patrol (United States Air Force Auxiliary), where she flies in an air search and rescue squadron, and also serves in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. She had a disabling motorcycle accident in 1981, and served on the Austin Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities, where she wrote the award-winning Disabled Parking Enforcement Volunteer program for the City of Austin.

Outside of the music industry, Caryl P. has worked as a portrait photographer, swimming and sailing instructor, police and fire dispatcher, pizza chef, pharmacy technician, and traffic reporter (both on the ground and in the helicopter). Her hobbies include photography, sailing, flying airplanes (with and without engines), SCUBA diving, old English sports cars (particularly MGs), and appearing as an extra in movies (Walt Disney's The Big Green, plus Where the Heart Is, Movie Star, and Miss Congeniality), and on TV ("Walker, Texas Ranger").

She currently lives on the Chesapeake Bay with her cat, where she pursues her love of sailing, music, and photography. She sings regularly aboard the 74-foot schooner Woodwind, the boat used as Christopher Walken's private yacht in the movie Wedding Crashers. You can hear the song that she wrote about Woodwind and the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, at www.schooner-woodwind.com. She presents her "Sea Shanties 101" program at maritime museums around the bay, and attends as many sea shanty sings as her schedule allows.

Caryl P. Weiss' musical tastes are as varied as her experiences: She is just as comfortable in the traditional fields as she is as a songwriter; just as competent singing a capella as playing an instrumental. As she reminds us, "The more you love music, the more music you love/"