Eric Slaymaker: Vocals, Whistles, Octave Mandolin, Mandolin, Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars:

Born of lowly heritage in a place still unknown to even himself, Eric migrated to the US at the age of 3, having run away from home. Travelled the country widely prior to his 10th birthday, before finally settling down at the advanced age of 12 in the San Francisco Bay area. Took up playing the Irish whistle after finding one discarded in a garbage can. Eric was a multi instrumentalist for various groups in the Bay Area, . Took a self employed job later in Ireland as a Guinness Team researcher, visiting local establishments throughout the island and developing a taste for the celtic tradition. Also began playing odd instruments such as bouzouki's and the smallish to larger mandolins.  With the melting of celtic music with Americana roots, Eric & Slaymaker Hill have now truly mangled the beautiful Irish sounds we all love into an eclectic mess!  Eric has recently developed a distrust of large people with genital herpes, and also rarely uses public restrooms, instead preferring the great outdoors! Eric has had the time of his life while playing with the critically renowned "All Night Bangkok String Threesome", and also the touring edition of the "Third Reich Whistle Blowers". .

Kenny Gordon: Piano, Keyboards, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals
Born among the giant redwoods of Northern California, Kenny has played keyboards in many a jazz band, but also rock bands, salsa bands, and ska bands. Kenny left Utah at a young age for LA to study jazz piano at Groves School of Music. After being convinced by Eric that he should be playing in a "celtic jam band" because of his Scottish ancestry, Kenny has become an integral part of Slaymaker Hill. In addition to providing all of the fantastic piano and keyboard parts to the band, Kenny also gets to stretch out and show his skills on guitar (somewhat reluctantly at times). In Kenny's spare time, he plays with a jazz trio,  takes care of his ever growing nuclear family, and keeps American Express travelers happy.

Randy Budd: Bass Guitars, Fretless Bass and the occassional Irish Trombone
Christened as a child as Sir Randy of Clan Budd, and hailing from the forest of St. Louis of the Midlands, Mr. Budd honed his immense musical chops on the trombone at an early age. He only later focused his diverse talents onto the bass after learning that the trombone is not an authentic celtic or bluegrass instrument. Do not be dismayed, however, since you will oneday hear a trombone in our songs, so be prepared, you Jigheads!   Randy is rumored to have lived in the hills of West Virginia, publicly disguised as a music teacher. He then spent the next several years as a long-haul truck driver, while also finding the  time to attend and graduate with honors from the Al-Abu School of Bombmaking.  When clan Bud moved to the progressive state of Utah (US), he spent his first couple of years again teaching music while also identifying and befriending young and moldable innocent minds. Eric began the unscupulous recruitment of Randy a while ago, and with the mention of a few magic words such as "Mixolydian", "5/4 meter", and "Pentatonic", Randy was soon mesmerized, and later completely confused. Still, Randy loves being on the bottom of the Slaymaker Hill jam. Outside of music, Randy now lives in Arizona with his wife Loretta, and two daughters (there's a lot of estrogen). Enjoys playing co-ed softball, skis when necessary, and will golf with Eric & Dennis when forced. Randy is currently working on a book to be titled "Bombmaking for Dummies", and a semiautogiography titled "My Life as a Transvestive Truck Driver".

Chris Carroll: Drums, Percussion & Occassional Bohdran
Originally hailing from County Cork, he was stolen from his biological parents, his identity erased, nick-named "Cleatus MacAbilly", secretly moved to a suburb of Boston, and raised in complete isolation while rarely able to come out of his small locked room.  While in isolation, Chris began to become quite proficient at beating on things.  It began with beating sticks on a wall, but his adoptive parents claim that Chris was completely obsessed. One day his guardians decided to buy Chris some odd percussion instruments to keep him from either beating the walls or himself, and a drumming master was born!  He had already developed an acute sense of timing through personal experimentation.  Finally escaped from his childhood and was carried by a current into the big city of New York, where he started to impress his peers with his unique style of percussive mastery.  While living somehwer in the NYC area, Chris had an unfortunate industrial/chemical accident which left him completely bald, with the exception of small tufts of hair below his mouth.  After the lawsuit was thrown out of court, Chris was convinced to move to Utah and live among the Mormons, all while being paid by the state as a poster child for it's diversity effort.  Chris was then recruited by Slaymaker Hill because of their need for a bald member.  It was only after joining SH did Eric realize that Chris really did have a great talent.  His past credits include "Long and Hard", "Ride Em'Cowboy", and "Lonely Sailors in Love".  Instructional Videos include "Playing with Yourself - A Personal Guide".

Dennis Harrington: Fiddle
Dennis is the member of the band who has had a much more proper upbringing, at least from a musical point of view. Adopted into an African American family in the southside of Chicago, Dennis knew growing up that he was different. I'm not trying to say that the rest of us were neglected children, but when Dennis first showed up to practice with us, he actually took out his notation and began "reading music". Well, of course, the rest of us were all terrified and completely intimidated. Again, I'm not trying to imply that the rest of us can't read music, but it does seem to be a skill that we haven't used for the last couple of years. I will say that once we got over the panic that initially set in upon seeing Dennis' competency, we soon realized that he was a really cool guy and we really got on well since then. Dennis grew up in the Chicago area, and was classically trained as a violinist since he was a wee lad. He moved out to Park City, UT in 98 to become the orchestra conductor for the local high school. When he became part of Slaymaker Hill,he realized that he had found a group that can be more immature than even his school aged kids. For some odd reason this is OK with Dennis.  When Dennis isn't teaching or playing music, he can sometimes be found on the ski slopes around Park City, trying not to re-injure his surgically repaired ACL. Luckily, all of his fingers still work perfectly!

Special Guest:      Chas Waltz: Violin

Chas was originally asked to play the violin on the Slaymaker Hill recordings primarily because drummer Chris Carroll wanted to find another bald guy in the mix to feel more at home.  We thought about asking either Tony Levin, Patrick Stewart, Billy Zane, Vin Diesel, or Peter Garrett to special guest, but we found out that none of them could play the fiddle at all!  Then our producer Jim Wirt suggested to get the bald guy from the Young Dubliners.  This Chas guy can flat out play!  He also plays mandolin, keyboards, harmonica, sings, and has a new beautiful baby mint green Gretch hollow body guitar that will probably make it's way onto the next Young Dubs CD!  Chas made a significant contribution to the Retrogression sessions, and we hope to have him record & play with Slaymaker Hill in the future.  Make sure you check Chas and the Young Dubs out on their fantastic latest release "With all Due Respect -The Irish Sessions"!  Every once in a while we hope to get Chas onstage with us and have dueling, double fiddles. It's sounds really cool -  I swear!  When Chas is not on the road or recording with the Young Dubliners, he calls the valley in LA home, where he always keeps open the possibility of one day becoming a stage grip on the film sets of many of the fine straight to DVD productions that are produced in the area...                     

Cheers,

Eric