Beltaine's Fire is a five-member Hip Hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

/Folk-Rock/Celtic Fusion

Celtic Fusion

Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for modern music which incorporates influences considered "Celtic," or Celtic music which incorporates modern music. It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the perceived "Celtic" musical traditions of all the Celtic nations, as well as from...

 collective from the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 fronted by Emcee Lynx

Emcee Lynx

Lynx, or Emcee Lynx is an anarchist hip hop artist in Vallejo, California who has achieved significant popularity and name-recognition in the West Coast hip hop and underground hip hop scenes and among anarchists and other radicals around the world...

. Their music has evolved considerably over the years. Starting out as a mix of "traditional Irish and Scottish music with rock, folk, and rap elements"., they now describe themselves as "folk-rap" and describe their music primarily as hip hop, albeit with elements borrowed from latin, world, american folk, celtic trad, and funk, and rock.

They have self-released three studio albums and one live album and played more than 300 shows at venues of all sizes all over California as well as parts of the East Coast. Their largest appearance to date was the 2008 KVMR

KVMR

KVMR is a progressive, independent radio station founded in 1978 in Nevada City, California. KVMR's coverage from its transmitter on nearby 3000' Banner Mountain includes the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Northern California, as well as the Central Valley region around...

 Celtic Festival, one of the largest Celtic music festivals on the West Coast with over 10,000 annual attendees.

History

The band was originally formed in San Francisco, California in August 2005 as a collaboration between Emcee Lynx and an experimental Celtic/Folk/Rock Duo called The Wills Wilde. Lynx recruited Laura Noel on Bass and Chris Darbeyshire on drums to make the group a quintet. In January 2006 Lynx, Laura, and Chris decided to go their own way citing irreconcilable differences and keeping the name Beltaine’s Fire. The Wills Wilde broke up shortly afterward.

Beltaine’s Fire continued on as a progressive hip hop trio for the better part of a year until meeting up with John “The Electrician” Dougal in late 2006 and recruiting him, along with Michael Mullen

Michael Mullen

Michael Glenn "Mike" Mullen is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral, who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2011. Mullen previously served as the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations from July 22, 2005 to September 29, 2007...

 of Tempest

Tempest (band)

Tempest is a Celtic rock band from the San Francisco Bay Area, based in Oakland, California. They fuse together the traditional Celtic music with Norwegian and European folk, American folk, and progressive rock....

, to play on their first album, The Weapon of the Future which was released in 2007.

John joined the band full time in January 2007 playing a custom modified electric Banjo. In August of that year Chris left the band and was replaced by Todd “Cozy T” Snyderman, formerly of Groundsick Productions, on drums. Kater “K8R” Murch also joined on Cello and Mandolin. They released their second album, Liberty, in August 2008. Todd & Kater left the band shortly afterwards.

For their third album, Anarchitecture , they added Steven May on Mandolin and Fiddle and Cadence Myles on Drums. Anarchitecture was released on August 31, 2011 through the band's Bandcamp site .

Current members

• Emcee Lynx
  Emcee Lynx
  Lynx, or Emcee Lynx is an anarchist hip hop artist in Vallejo, California who has achieved significant popularity and name-recognition in the West Coast hip hop and underground hip hop scenes and among anarchists and other radicals around the world...
  
  : Rap Vocals
• Laura Noel: Electric Bass
• John Dougal: Electric Banjo
• Steve May: Fiddle & Mandolin
• Cadence Myles: Drums

Former Members

• Chris Darbeyshire: Drums 2005-2007
• Todd "Cozy T." Snyderman: Drums 2007-2010
• Kater "Docta" Murch: Cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  , Mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
  2007-2010

Studio albums

• The Weapon of the Future (2007)
• Liberty (2008)
• Anarchitecture (2011)