Trip Over the Mountain are an exciting new ensemble from western North Carolina
featuring two old stalwarts from Traditional Irish music–-Don Penzien and Steven Payne–-
and an accomplished newcomer—Joseph Marino.
For CelticFest 2025, they’ll be joined by noted Carolina fiddler Cailen Campbell.
Together they bring an eclectic blend of traditional Irish, Carolina old time, and a hint of delta blues to the stage and dance hall.
Don Penzien has long been a top-flight performer of Irish traditional music. He
frequently is on the road playing concerts and festivals with Haley Richardson, Gailfean,
Brian Conway, Gerry O’Connor, Randal Bays, and The Máirtín de Cógáin Project, and he
has served as accompanist for numerous other well-known performers (e.g., Seán Gavin,
John Whelan, Liz Hanley, Nuala Kennedy, Tim Britton, John Williams, Pat Broaders, Gabe
Donohue, Tony DeMarco, Billy McComiskey). Widely recognized for his reserved backing
style, Don’s dexterous work on DADGAD-tuned guitar provides solid, driving rhythms to
traditional tunes as well as perceptive and sensitive accompaniments to songs and airs.
Steven Payne: Steven Payne, a life-long partisan of home-made acoustic music, plays
harmonica and whistles in his own unique yet traditional style. He appears on stage
with well-known Trad Irish performers (e.g., Haley Richardson, The Máirtín de Cógáin
Project, Donie Carroll & Dan Neely). As an avid supporter of trad Celtic music festivals
and events and well known in the Trad community nationwide, Steven can be found at
most such events within a few days’ drive of his home in Mississippi.
Joseph Marino: While a relative newcomer to traditional Irish music scene, Joseph is
an experienced, accomplished, and versatile musician and performer. After spending
most of his musical life studying and performing Jazz (upright bass), Joseph has recently
and wholeheartedly devoted himself to Irish music and the wooden flute. Hailing from Pennsylvania, Joseph now resides in Asheville, NC, where he is a fixture in its vibrant Irish music scene.
Special Guest: Cailen Campbell is a North Carolina fiddler and multi-instrumentalist
steeped in the traditions of Irish and American Old-Time music. For nearly two decades
he toured nationally playing contra and square dances with the String Beings, the Rocket
Boys, and Contraversial (with David Brown of Rising Appalachia). He toured nationally
with The Greasy Beans, an Asheville area bluegrass band, performing Shindig—the NC
Dance Theater’s acclaimed “bluegrass ballet.” Said the Washington Post of their
Kennedy Center performance…”The steps were fairly 19th century, whirled into
hyperdrive and sent soaring on the mighty fiddling of Cailen Campbell.” He has
contributed to numerous recordings—his own and those of many local and national
recording artists including Peia, Rising Appalachia, Don Gato, Samara Jade. For the last
decade, Cailen’s passion has been Irish traditional music, playing fiddle, tinwhistle,
bouzouki, and concertina. When not making music, he raises fruit trees with his young
son on their farmstead north of Asheville
