Tree of Life
Guitarist William Coulter has been recording and performing traditional music since 1981. He has performed with the bands Isle of Skye, Orison and, currently, with the Coulter-Phillips Ensemble. He has recorded two solo albums–Celtic Sessions and Celtic Crossing–as well as three albums of traditional Shaker melodies with cellist Barry Phillips–Simple Gifts, Tree of Life and Music on the Mountain–all on the Gourd Music label. William has appeared on compilations produced on the Narada label, Windham Hill and Hearts of Space. Four of these recordings have appeared on Billboard magazine’s “top ten” lists. In 1998 William produced Celtic Requiem for Windham Hill Records, which features vocalist Mary Mc Laughlin. He was recently featured on a sampler produced by the Columbia Record Club featuring violinist Hillary Hahn and Máire Ní Bhraonáin, the lead singer of Clannad.  As well as performing and recording, William works as a producer and recording engineer, and teaches guitar at the University of California, Santa Cruz. During the summer he teaches at a number of music camps including the National Guitar Summer Workshop and Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School.  Barry has been 'cellist and percussionist with Orison, Martin Simpson's Band of Angels and The Anjali Quartet . He received his MM in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1990. Moving back to Santa Cruz with his wife Shelley in 1991. Phillips’ previous recordings include Gourd’s Shaker Trilogy (co-produced with William Coulter): Simple Gifts, Tree of Life, and Music on the Mountain. He also composed and produced The World Turned Upside Down in 1990, which was featured in the PBS production of Ken Burns’ Thomas Jefferson.