The power and emotion of the Great Highland Bagpipe
Tribal drums, fierce and joyous
The mystical rhythms of the Australian didgeridoo
and
The ancient call of the Bronze-Age Irish Horn

Wicked Tinkers are a Celtic Tribal Sound Explosion!

Prepare yourself for a wild ride with Wicked Tinkers! Pioneers of the growing Tribal Celtic movement, the Tinkers have been playing haunting, heart-pounding bagpipes and irresistible, tribal drums as a professional touring band since 1995. With the addition, several years back, of the mesmerizing drone of the Australian didgeridoo and Bronze Age Irish horn, the magic was complete. Sit back and be transported to an earlier time in Scotland and Ireland, when battle cries filled the air and strange, unheard-of creatures roamed the night. Or better yet, get on your feet and let your body move to ancient rhythmsand forgotten sounds.

Don't think this is dry, dusty music for museum shelves -- the boys in the band merge the best of modern, almost rock-and-roll energy with the hypnotic, insistent grooves of their Gaelic ancestors. Rare is the bystander who comes away without feeling a surprising, sometimes bewildering connection to long-forgotten, primal emotions ... half-memories of ages past and experiences nameless yet somehow familiar. Wicked Tinkers create music to set your jaw, put a fire in your belly, a glint in your eye and a dance in your feet.

In 1995, Aaron Shaw – piper and founding member – met bass drum player, Warren Casey at The Celtic Arts Center in Los Angeles, California. Playing together, they discovered the simple beauty and power of the music created by these two instruments.
“The combination seemed to tap the very soul of Gaelic Music” Says Shaw.

It is the music you might have heard hundreds of years ago at a Scottish wedding celebration; or perhaps around the campfire at a Highland raiding party - a raw, exciting sound that touches you on a primal level. Looking for a way to express this feeling of the ancient within the modern world, WICKED TINKERS was born.

Over the years, the band has evolved to include Keith Jones on snare drum and hand percussion, and Jay Atwood on didgeridoo and the Bronze-Age Irish Horn – a sound that was lost for over three thousand years. Now this strange and unlikely combination seems to access our deepest connection to a primal place that is both hauntingly familiar and ancient. It is the music of our Celtic ancestors, recreated for the twenty-first century.

Touring for most of the year, WICKED TINKERS continue to make friends and fans from all over the world. They have performed to sold-out crowds at some of the country’s largest festivals and Highland Games, including:

“…the Tinkers appeared, beating the living hell out of tapan, bodhran, and marching snare drum, while pipes skirled, a didgeridoo wobbled, and a Bronze Age Irish horn bellowed, like the voice of some H.P. Lovecraft aquatic leviathan… Piper and cofounder Aaron Shaw is a master of one of the hardest, weirdest instruments on Earth, and when the powerhouse percussion comes into play, he rides the rhythm like the wild surf.” - Mick Farren, City Beat – Los Angeles, CA

"Music that truly isn't about being pretty, it's about being forceful and filled with rhythms of life." - Chuck Thurman, The Coast Weekly

"A sound powerhouse!" - Antje Depone, Monterey County Herald

"The Celtic bagrock band ... the bagpipe-and-drums answer to The Clash! ... They play like their sporrans have been set ablaze!" - Dean Bonzani, Flagstaff Live

WICKED TINKERS is the distillation a people, their passion, and their music. Like a fine, smoky Scotch whisky, it's a little rough around the edges, but unmistakably the real thing.

Warren Patrick Casey, Tapan/Bass Drum & bodhran

Warren Casey literally walks to the beat of a different drummer. As a young man, the music of the world, more than the popular music of his generation, is what turned him on. He found a purity of feeling and a universal language. He has been playing world music for 32 plus years. At 16-years-old, he built his first instrument, a Tapan, which is a skin-headed bass drum of the Balkan nations and is what he still plays today.

He has a degree in Fine Art from Art Center of Design in Pasadena, CA. He is the WT's visual creative director. He also has a drum company in which he builds most of the drums he plays.

On stage, Warren is known for his gyrating energy and thundering, pulverizing drum playing. He is also quite nimble at the Irish rim drum called the Bodhran.

Keith Jones, Snares & Percussion

Keith Jones is not just your everyday drummer. Keith brings over three decades of experience and a incredibly diverse drumming language with him when he joined the band. Keith graduated from Hollywood's Percussion Institute of Technology, leads drum clinics and seminars, and he won a CMAA Rising Star Award in 1996.

He has played every style imaginable from Rock & Roll, Jazz, Marching Band, to Country. He has performed with such greats as Joe Houston, John Mayall, Dwight Yocum, The Marshall Tucker Band and the Neville Brothers. He also makes some of the drums he plays.

When Keith joined the band, he immediately embraced his Scottish heritage with fervor and enthusiasm. In fact, his enthusiasm spills over into every one of his performances. His high energy is infectious and his drumming intoxicating. Keith says, "I've found my place," and that is obvious. We know the fans think so too.