Nancy Hanna
Fiddle, vocals

Nancy has played classical violin since she was eight years old. She played for 15 years as a member of Concordia, a quartet performing early baroque music. Her interest has broadened in the last few years to include the traditional American and Irish styles of fiddling. Nancy brought to the group a background of music theory which has enhanced the band’s arrangements and harmonies.

Josie Solseng
Fiddle, vocals

Josie Solseng loves making music with other people, and is having a ton of fun playing and singing with Back Porch Swing. She started playing classical violin in second grade and played with the UW Symphony, Bielefeld (Germany) Kantorei Orchester, Olympia Symphony, and Olympia Chamber Orchestra.  Despite all that experience, she led a rather sheltered life in terms of fiddle music, only hearing “The Orange Blossom Special” once a year during the “Miss America Pageant.”

All of that changed in 1997 when she attended her first “Festival of American Fiddle Tunes” in Port Townsend, WA.  Irish fiddling captured her ear and her heart, and back home in Olympia, Josie was welcomed into the Irish music scene.  She taught fiddle and violin for 8 years, played with the Columbia Street Sessiun, Cricket on the Hearth, Red Crow, Budd Bay Buccaneers, the Olympia All-Volunteer Mega Band, Hank Cramer, and Constellation’s Crew. 

Josie proudly plays her grandfather’s fiddle and has yet to master “The Orange Blossom Special.”

Greg Starling
Guitar, vocals

Greg grew up in parsonages in Montana singing grace in four-part harmony before dinner. He was a rock star in junior high (1 gig) and was the first baritone to sing in a barbershop quartet in Spokane with beads braided into his hair. An early student at Evergreen State College in the America’s Country Music program, he played in several stringbands. Greg started with folk and rock, and was introduced to swing by Dan Hicks and the irreverent Reverend Chumley. Greg’s singing and guitar work flow easily from one musical style to another.

Neal Woodall
Mandolin, guitar, vocals

Neal has been on the northwest music seen since 1977, when he left his Texas roots and started “busking” on the streets of Seattle. Since then Neal has performed in clubs, festivals, churches, schools as well as local radio and television programs across the northwest.

Besides performing solo, Neal is in two musical groups. He and Lisa Marie Kuhlman are Part of Fortune. They play a repertoire of folk, bluegrass and children’s music. These days, Neal is also the mandolin player (and guitar) for Back Porch Swing and enjoys the eclectic mix of swing, Celtic, folk and bluegrass.

Neal has also hosted a radio program, “A Declaration of Independents” where he showcased live local and national touring independent musicians on KAOS at The Evergreen State College. Through his music journey, Neal has devoted much of his career to performing for children. He was the music director of the Four Winds Westward Ho kids’ summer camp on Orcas Island, WA. He has also worked as an artist in residence for the Shanghai Community International School in Shanghai, China where he had the opportunity to teach singing and songwriting with children from the world over.

Riley McLaughlin
Bass, whistles, vocals

Riley brings a background in jazz, rock, arranging and film scoring and played mainly horns and keyboards before joining the band. He showed up at a Back Porch Swing rehearsal with a bass one day and the band adopted him. He also plays with the Irish band The Burren Boys and does the occasional piano gig. His experience in various styles of music adds spice to the Back Porch Swing sound.